[ SECRET POST #1666 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1666 ⌋


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


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Notes:

Posting these up without comment threads so you can see them at least, if LJ stops breaking. Working on getting the threads up



Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 150 secrets from Secret Submission Post #238.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 2 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom.livejournal.com]

01. http://i52.tinypic.com/118zz2v.jpg

[laerwen.livejournal.com]

That's why you ask for a Brit-picker to go in with a fine tooth comb and fix that. Problem solved! Loads of people do it.

[laughinggas13.livejournal.com]

This. There's even a specific comm for Who-fic Brit-picking, dw_britglish.

And I tend to subscribe to the view that if you've got the character's voices down, it doesn't matter so much if you slip up occasionally in narration.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I had no idea there was such a thing! This makes my day.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

yeah it's when a character says something that doesn't fit that it all falls apart. Even a single word used in a way a character wouldn't used it can shatter a story. Narration doesn't matter too much though, tbh we're all used to the new cultural american imperialism. Although I daresay after august 3rd we'll all have to get used to Chinese Cultural Imperialism or Brazilian, or who ever takes over after america's bank explodes.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

BRAZILIAN?!

LOL FOREVER!

If only people knew what a piece of shit country Brazil is/will always be...

Oh, the first 19 years of my life.

Re: OP

[laughinggas13.livejournal.com]

It makes my day too, knowing that people care enough about what they're writing to ask. :) And also I'm a total dialect geek, so I love seeing the differences in a theoretically common tongue.

I feel your pain - back when I wrote a lot of Star Trek fic I used to agonise for ages about whether to do my best to use American grammar ('gotten' and all that), or just use British and hope it sounded OK. Fortunately, things like torches/flashlights don't come up too much in The Future, so I was able to wing that without too much trouble. (I hope. No one called me on it, at least.) As far as I can tell, there isn't an Ameri-picking comm in existence, which is a shame.

Re: OP

[foxtoast.livejournal.com]

There is one, but it's quiet (drop_the_u). I think most non-US fandom folks just go straight to US betas because they're typically easy to find in any North American series fandom. I never alter my grammar in narration or my standard American spelling when writing for UK series, and wouldn't expect a Brit to work "gotten" into the narration of a Star Trek story or use US spelling. I leave all of that alone when I beta US-based fics for Brits and Australians and just edit the dialogue/cultural references. (Though I do stick with regional nouns when I write or beta so there isn't a different word used in the dialogue and the prose narration for the same object.)

[kallanda-lee.livejournal.com]

I see non-English people write DW fic quite frequently.


Also, you do not have to set it in England, you know. They travel all over the universe.

[fairhearing.livejournal.com]

I remember all the surprises of my first britpick, when here I thought I KNEW IT ALL. They don't have things called "Main Street" in their towns/cities/villages, for one. Also they don't have chipmunks. I was like "WHAT NO CHIPMUNKS, how do you live???? They're so adorable"

I was horrified but changed it to, I think, a rabbit.

So... it's educational.

[(Anonymous)]

we have main streets. okay usually they are called something like Brownfarthing's Wander, but it is still the main street. And sometimes we have a street called "main street", it's usually a back alley last used in 18-canteen though.

[fairhearing.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but this was all about the main street being CALLED "Main Street."

It was seriously disappointing because I didn't want to come up with a name, because it was a fantasy story in a fantasy world that was just supposed to SOUND English.

I think I just ended up calling it "the main avenue" and :[-facing whenever I reread it.

[(Anonymous)]

Wait actually have a main street called "Main Street"? That is just crazy talk. Although, and if it helps, the village where I grew up did have a main street that was called "North Main Street". There was, of course, no "South Main Street", it just petered out onto some old fields and a path called Newbridge Walk. There was no bridge. Or anything that needed a bridge. I think the local council were just messing us about for fun when they named the streets.

[fairhearing.livejournal.com]

Wait actually have a main street called "Main Street"?

It's true. My own town once had one, as did the next town over. Complete with candystriped vendors in straw hats selling things and kids running around in overalls, barefoot.

And cowboys.



And gangsters.

I think the local council were just messing us about

hehe, "WERE" just "messing you about," were they? :3333

[herongale]

SERIOUSLY? THEY DON'T HAVE CHIPMUNKS?!

[(Anonymous)]

we have Dormice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Dormouse) they are quite cute. And otters. And some places still have red squirrels, and pine martens. There are plenty of cute animals we haven't killed off yet.

[herongale]

OKAY THAT DORMOUSE PICTURE APPEASED ME SOMEWHAT

But still, I wish you had chipmunks too! They have the most amazingly cute tails!

[darlas-mom.livejournal.com]

They don't have groundhogs, either. :-(

[writerserenyty.livejournal.com]

I think the one thing to focus on most, if you're worried, is the dialogue and the obvious bits. For example with obvious bits, if you wrote something like "Rose and the Doctor went to the french fry store" people would be confused as hell.

But something that works for me (and I think for others) with dialogue is if you imagine the characters saying your dialogue. For example I wrote a fic that was essentially a scene with Amy and Rory, and with the dialogue I'd try to imagine the actors saying my dialogue, and if it sounded off I'd fix it.

But yeah, like others have said, I think that consistency in dialogue is the most important thing, and if you're worried beyond that then the Brit-picker sounds like a good thing (I had no idea this existed =O).

[masterfedora.livejournal.com]

Okay I can understand needing to have your slang match up, but people really care about the spellings? If I write color instead of colour who really cares? It's the same word. Do British people writing for American shows make sure then spell in the American way for the fic? If so...why?

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

I'm a British person who writes fic in American fandoms (well, a Japanese fandom set in a weird idealised version of America, but yeah).

My rule is that I won't use American spellings for the same reason that if I was writing a fic in French, I wouldn't use American spellings - I write fics in British English, that's what I do. The exception is if I am trying to write something an American character is literally writing, like a letter to another character. Dialogue does not count as writing.

So while spellings are pointless, American terminology and phrasing should be used, especially if you're doing third-person limited. This is the part I find hard. I RPed an American character for a year, and then dropped him, before anyone told me he wouldn't use a 'torch'. I got criticised for having an American say the (to me) perfectly natural phrase "I shouldn't have done" when an American would have said "I shouldn't have" or "I shouldn't have done it".

[masterfedora.livejournal.com]

Okay, so you agree with me. I honestly didn't think this was a problem. I certainly didn't expect entire communities about it.

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

I think it's worth having communities! There's little turns of phrase that are completely invisible to British natives like me. A good reverse-Britpicker is amazing.

late to the party but

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think it matters either. I mix up British and American spellings all the time. All of the so-called Britishisms and Americanisms up there... aside from "torch" I pretty much use all of them. Then again, I'm Canadian, and I think we're all generally confused.

[(Anonymous)]

I was skimming through today's secrets, but this one made me pause because the background text made me do a double-take.

"Did I just see the words 'ass fillet'? Why yes, yes I did."