Brit-picking: vital or a waste of time?

[emmagrant01]

jedirita and I discussed this topic over lunch yesterday, and it pops up on LJ constantly. I've never given it much thought, honestly, because everyone who's ever called me for an Americanism has been extraordinarily nice about it. The culture in the HP fandom seems to be that writers should use British English whenever possible, and I'll admit that I've bought into that 100%. I always looked at it as a respect-for-canon issue.

Rita feels differently, though, as do a lot of other people. So I started thinking about it, and now I'm questioning my sudden zeal to make sure my HP fic is as Americanism-free as possible. Can I really accomplish that? And is it really a worthwhile goal, considering there are so many other more important things to work on as a writer?

I'll keep this brief because so many people have already said something about this at some point. I'm still forming my thoughts, and I won't bore you with anything half-assed, for once! ;-)

For now, I'll just point to this post by lykaios, and say. "Yeah. What she said."

Comments

Re: canon

[(Anonymous)]

exactly becuase you can normally tell when a nonbrit writer is trying to write brit in which case i appreciate it fully and then there are these other writers that just about move hogwarts to their own backgarden. I have one writer that i beta for and i constantly fix things for (even spelling) to make it more british. But she says that's why she likes me to beta.

I got here cuz i found left my heart on a rec list somewhere (that long ago can't remember) and i keep checking back once in a while to see if you've written more cuz ure good! And i like ure post hogwarts rec list too so i watch for updates on that too! I was on LJ but i never used it and my fics are on ff.net because well, i only have one series really so i just have a yahoo group. If i wrote constantly then i probably would have stuck to LJ.

hugs

kirsty
xxx

pink_princess_potter@yahoo.com

Re: canon

[(Anonymous)]

sorry to still go on about this! But i've just thought of something else. Its quite hard for british people to get it right too. If you think about it Britain is made of up 4 different countries. Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.

You have no idea the things i had to take out when i started writing. I had Snape saying things like 'aye' instead of yes and i would automatically write that because its what my head was telling me. Also saying things like 'how' instead of 'why' was pointed out to me too, and 'oose' this is a word from just my area of scotland and i had wracked my brain for the english word for 'oose' for about an hour till it came to me (its lint by the way, if i remember correctly it was a fluffy add in between speech where Draco picked the oose off harry's jumper).

So i can sympathise with non-english writers.

We all have problems but as long at the character doesnt sound totally ridiculous i don't think its that much of a problem.

sorry for butting in again
kirsty
xxx