The Brit-picking debate, yet again!

[emmagrant01]

devon_may has posted a little rant about Americanisms in fic. I've posted my thoughts on this issue before, but I generally try very hard to have my British characters sound as British as possible. It's not because I worry that people won't read my fic or will flame me if I don't; it's about making my fic as good as it can be. If my characters are supposed to be British, I'd like that to be believable. Devon has recently Brit-picked something for me, and she did a fabulous job. I have great respect for her as a person and as a writer.

I know there are people out there who disagree that Brit-picking is necessary, though. *looks meaningfully at flist* I think Devon is open to debate, but I'm going to suggest people who disagree with the whole Brit-picking thing post your honest feelings about the issue here. Rant at me! You know you want to! ;-) Do it anonymously, if you want.

ETA: Finally! Someone disagrees, and in an extremely intelligent way.

Comments

Re: Yo, poor Yorick.

[laeb.livejournal.com]

I can see how little things kill it for real live Brits, though, because I cringe whenever I see anything in French. Even if it's technically right, it rarely sounds like an actual sentence. I would avoid that if I were writing, which I don't. Does anyone know Latin? Do all of the made-up spell bits bother you (even JKR's)?

*nods* French, as used in most stories, is horrible. Takes a French, a Belgian, Switzerlander(?) or a Quebecer to know French. Or extensive classes. I did dare write in French in my stories cos, well I'm one of those who were born to speak French in the first place.

I used to know latin, from my old days at secondary school; however I don't mind the spells as they usually are not about making a sentence (order of words doesn't matter in Latin anyway, it's the terminaison of the word that gives it its meaning in a sentence - Rosa Rosam Rosae Rose Rosar Rosare declination or something very close to that - all those words have a different use in the sentence). The words are latin or latin-rooted and thus they have a translation that usually gives away the meaning of the spell. Plus, it gives one the chance to be creative! ;-)