[ SECRET POST #3700 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3700 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #529.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. http://i.imgur.com/1oPcEF3.png

[otakugal15]

And I honestly don't care. Is the story good? Is it in character? Then I'm good.

[(Anonymous)]

No, there aren't. In part because there are far, far more American fic writers.

In part because... oh why bother, the anti-British sentiment on F!S is bad enough already.

Also, some of those "American" words are used over here. JSYK.

[(Anonymous)]

It happens both ways, but I agree, British writers never get as much flack for it as American writers. Of course, they love to characterize Americans as geographically-ignorant baffoons so it's very chic to laugh at their American-centric writing. But the British make the exact same mistakes.

It's almost like people everywhere tend to default into their own culture and not always realize some things are different in other places. Shocking.

[atalantapendrag]

(Parentheses) and [brackets] are different things.

[tabaqui]

Well, I use 'fridge all the time, and toilet, too.... But I think there's a faction in both sets of writers that either genuinely doesn't think about it, or doesn't give a fuck.

Either way, 99% of the time i'll 'nope' out of that fic. But it's nothing to get too exercised about.

I did giggle at 'newsstans'. Heh.

[morieris]

I know it's probably a typo but 'newsstans' just makes me imagine people who are super pumped about newspapers.

"The New York Post is problematic, 12 point Times New Roman is trash!"

[vethica]

I'm just confused by this list. American use "fridge", "painkillers" and "photo" all the time, don't they?

[(Anonymous)]

I've lived in both the US and the UK, and a lot of these are really regional or depend on the person. But a lot of them are accurate or fair generalizations, sure.

That being said, for me, I have two thoughts on this.

For one, generally it seems like the characters should be speaking accurately to their own dialect, but I don't mind if the narration (if it's third-person) uses one way or the other (it's only jarring if it directly clashes with what the characters say). The other is, "cinema" may be less common than "movie theater" in the US, but it's not totally out of use, especially since a lot of movie theaters will have "cinema" in their name, so that's not particularly off-putting. Same with a lot of the others, one may be a lot more common but if you heard the other in your country, you probably wouldn't bristle or think twice.

Not that I'm trying to discourage people from writing proper dialects, but unless you're trying to publish or writing professionally, I don't think it's the end of the world if you use a wrong word in your fanfic. It's not that big of a deal. There are things you'd naturally go out of your way to research when writing about a foreign country, but some things you don't even consider might be different, especially in terms of lesser-known linguistic differences, so I can't muster too much outrage at the writer who doesn't meticulously fact-check every other word of their fanfiction.

[(Anonymous)]

Popping my head in to toss in my standard FIFTY SHADES OF GREY HAS THIS SO BAD AND WHY DOES NO ONE NOTICE BUT ME?

I read it back when it was fic and the author would even thank her "Ameri-pickers", but I guess they were all too slavishly devoted to tell her that there is almost no chance at all that an Washington state girl would EVER say "I've not had sex" instead of "I'm a virgin" or, hey, "I've never had sex".

I've skimmed through the published volumes and they haven't fixed it. Her American editors should be out on the street.

[(Anonymous)]

That's only because all of them have a god-given certainty that butter wouldn't melt in their fucking mouths

[(Anonymous)]

I think people get waaaaaaaaay too caught up in this kind of shit.

[sparklywalls]

Pal is amusing to me in this context because in certain parts of (mostly west I think) Scotland you're more likely to hear someone call their friend a pal than a mate. This is why I find myself using both these days (I'm English living in Scotland.)

I get the frustration because it does feel like Americans writing in British fandoms get a lot more stick for it. When I used to write Batman fic I tried to use American terms as much as possible, especially when characters were talking but also in my prose, to immerse myself in the canon world but I'm sure I slipped up sometimes. Sometimes it's just a genuine mistake (both ways) rather than ignorance. If it's an otherwise well-written engaging story I'll forgive the occasional bathroom or parking lot etc in a British-set work. I guess I'm perhaps a bit more laid back about it than some.

[(Anonymous)]

This ESL anon is just baffled by the whole debate. Why do people even care?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm stuck on purse vs handbag

[diet_poison]

This...is an absolutely terrible list. For at least half of those the one on the right is more common in the US, sometimes way more. (Who says "pain relievers" instead of "painkillers"? Who doesn't say "fridge" on a regular basis? Really

[nightscale]

Honestly I think only the pants/trousers thing pulls me out, everything else is so interchangeable that it bypasses me completely. And even then if I'm enjoying the fic I can ignore that too.

[(Anonymous)]

As usual, this is kind of a "what fandom are you in" thing. If you're reading Doctor Who fanfic you're probably gonna run into and be bothered by Americanisms, if you're reading Supernatural fanfic you will be bothered by Britishisms. So like, which one happens more is going to be all perspective based on what you're reading.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed.

[slashgirl]

For the most part I can overlook it--though it is sometimes jarring to see, in an American fic, the word lift instead of elevator or flat instead of apartment. It's slightly less jarring for me the other way 'round.

I write in a couple Brit fandoms and I'm lucky to have a really good friend in the UK who will Brit pick my work for me, even though she's not in the fandom--and I'll Ameri-pick her stuff in American fandoms (even if I'm Cdn).

I try my best to use the right words/phrases but sometimes I mess up and realise others do to. Most of the time, if I'm enjoying the story, I can overlook it. (Though I usually will kinda mentally go, yeah, an American or Brit wouldn't say it that way....)

What really amused me--and I haven't seen this argument in ages--is that if it's an American fic, you should spell words the American way, if it's Brit, then the British way. *rolls eyes* I'm Canadian, which means I spell some words the Brit way and some the American way...and I'm not about to change my spelling as it doesn't change the meaning of what I'm saying.

[mrs_don_draper]

Either way, it's kind of distracting.

[randomdrops]

I've found the same thing! It might be a case of Britishisms pop out more to me as an American, and I might not notice the reverse. But also, I've not been in too many British fandoms. I think I've read a few Harry Potter fic, but that's about it.

[(Anonymous)]

Americans say "pain reliever"? what the fuck. that's fucking stupid.

[digitalghosts]

If it is nothing OOC, then I give no damns. Immature me us happy to read American 'pants' as underwear and it makes stories way more fun :D.

[(Anonymous)]

What in tarnation is a "newsstan"? Also, as an American, "last name" and "surname" are interchangeable, as is "family name".