Feedback for British stories

Some people obviously have less extensive vocabularies than others.
It's a shame if your stories were rejected due to their limitations.

That's all it is. The ones with the most problems with it are the "'MERICA, FUCK, YEAH!" xenophobes. You know, they type who say over the internet to people in other countries: "I'm sorry, I can't hear you over all this FREEDOM!" and don't feel they should have to use Google for anything they don't understand.

Meanwhile over half the country does an embarrassed face-palm.

Can't really explain it except maybe in-breeding and blinders fused to their temples.

Only thing I might like is the realism that if the characters are from the States and it is set in the States, use the American spellings because it'll sell the fantasy better. That's all. Kind of like not having Brazilian football players refer to their friend's mom as a "soccer mom."
 
I don't think it's that deterministic. The United States is a large, insular country. Most readers who question British (or partially British--I can't figure out where Canada and Australia fit on style myself. I do understand Indian style) word usage/spelling here just don't know there's a greater world out there. Most of them don't actively reject that outside world, though, as Observe 7 charges. They just are settled in (and insulated by) their own world (which hasn't gotten much of a challenge in more than a half century), don't know any better, and haven't been pressured to know any better.

The bottom line is that readers here are going to respond as they do. You won't change them by whining about it on the forum (although you might wake one or two up). And this is a U.S.-based site that itself uses American style. So the British style is ipso facto going to get falsely dinged from time to time. If you can't accept that, I'm sure there are some British-based story sites around.
 
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The bottom line is that readers here are going to respond as they do. You won't change them by whining about it on the forum (although you might wake one or two up). And this is a U.S.-based site that itself uses American style. So the British style is ipso facto going to get falsely dinged from time to time. If you can't accept that, I'm sure there are some British-based story sites around.

I have had negative feedback about being a Brit but it doesn't bother me.

While there are British-based story sites, none comes anywhere near 10% of Literotica's impact. It is worth accepting a few critical remarks about writing in British English to have to the exposure and attention that comes with posting stories on Literotica.
 
If any unpublished UK writers are lurking, here's a competition for you:

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I love them but one story I want to edit is a British man and as an American you do not want to get to stereotypical. It is the same otherwise. It is too glaring when it is wrong.
 
I was going to post something relevant but some of the posts have put me off. As a new 'virgin' here, I'm amazed at the abuse that seems to fly around in innocent threads like this. It doesn't give a good first impression. At least I've found the ignore list in the user CP!

We Brits must be realistic, accepting we are in a minority on this site. Banging on about 'proper' English is futile, petty and arrogant. I'm surprised to hear that stories were downrated for their British English, but I wonder if it's more than that, as we tend to use a lot of idioms and cultural references that might have American users reaching for Google Translate.

My first story should be posted here soon. It's written in British English, and it mentions a car boot! Please be gentle with me.
 
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I was going to post something relevant but some of the posts have put me off. As a new 'virgin' here, I'm amazed at the abuse that seems to fly around in innocent threads like this. It doesn't give a good first impression. At least I've found the ignore list in the user CP!

We Brits must be realistic, accepting we are in a minority on this site. Banging on about 'proper' English is futile, petty and arrogant. I'm surprised to hear that stories were downrated for their British English, but I wonder if it's more than that, as we tend to use a lot of idioms and cultural references that might have American users reaching for Google Translate.

My first story should be posted here soon. It's written in British English, and it mentions a car boot! Please be gentle with me.

Don't let any of what you read in this thread put you off. I write in UK English and although I do occasionally receive anti British comments it's rarely about the language. (I write a lot for LW where you find a lot of "I wish I was a hard man" types). Now and again you will be attacked by a self appointed grammar and spelling pedant, who doesn't realise that English is not the same the world over, but on the whole it's fine.

Go ahead and post your stories, the readers will quickly adjust.
 
I don't think anyone on the thread is suggesting that British authors not post here in British style--just that they need to realize/realise (and tolerate) that there will be a few comments on "misspellings" and such by American readers who don't know better--because posting of this thread alone attests to that being something that's going to happen. Complaining on the forum isn't going to stop it from happening.
 
I actually find many British authors charming and even had a short online relationship of sorts with one that petered out before I could meet her in person. That was a shame, but such is life. Still, I don't get what some folks have against British or other foreign authors. They have same right to post as we Americans do. I don't let nationality affect my position on an author.

As to what Ogg said, there is a certain stereotype, mostly stated and restated on LW, that claims that Englishmen are wimps. Which would be funny if it wasn't so sad. I don't think that the Brits who served alongside our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are wimps, for example.

Anyway, "real man" seems to be very narrowly defined for those people. I suppose that a D/s switch like me would be put down as a "wimp" for not being pure Dom. :rolleyes: I might lean more Dom, but I have my sub moments and that doesn't make me any less of a man, whether I am American or British. I just happen to be American and happen to be a switch.

Their idea of a "real man" seems to be an abusive prick who literally burns the bitch. Even if I were in a monogamous relationship (I'm in an open marriage), I wouldn't do half the things to a cheating wife that they think mandatory for manhood. Excuse me for not being such a cruel, vicious person. I think that I would instead confront her and then lay out a serious of options for us to consider, one of which would be divorce and none of which would be a double standard of either kind. I would also make it clear that I intended to make her wait until she's been tested before she had a chance at physical intimacy again. I would strongly consider the divorce option, since she had proven a liar, but that wouldn't be certain and would depend on her attitude and actions after the fact. The choice of divorce or reconciliation would not be entirely up to her, of course. Yet I doubt that this would be seen as anything other than "wimpy" by the asshats who inhabit the Troll Town.
 
What's to get? The United States is just such an insular, dominant country that many Americans just don't understand that there's any variation in English from the American. Again, it's pissing in the wind to expect this to change by complaining about it on the forum. Maybe one or two such insular Americans will absorb that by reading the forum--but not enough to make the comments on stories stop.
 
My first story should be posted here soon. It's written in British English, and it mentions a car boot! Please be gentle with me.

I just finished reading a 300 page crime drama/mystery about two professional hit men trying to kill each other. It was set primarily in America but obviously authored from across the pond.

Since the main characters spent so much time stalking each other in their autos, I've read plenty about "petrol" and "windscreens" and "tyres" the past week, so bring your "boots" story on! I'm ready! :D
 
Boots is an American term-if you are speaking of the device used to render a car immobile.

As for the topic it doesn't phase me at all. Who cares if its color or colour? I know what the word is and what it means.

Now if there is a lot of unfamiliar slang and I have to guess then it might be an issue, but as for some different spellings, who cares?

Obviously the mentally lazy. There's a lot of that here on lit.
 
Nah, a car boot is a trunk.

Hence 'car boot sale' for a Sunday morning bargain grab.

I went to one yesterday. Couldn't buy the car boot I was looking for, but had an excellent bacon roll.

JKendallDane - Surely the American characters didn't speak British words? That would be very odd. We've all watched enough movies to be au fait with most car parts and items of clothing.

One time last year I was paying a visit to a rest room with an American friend who visits ever summer, who proclaimed: I've lost so much weight recently that today I'm wearing my wife's pants. There was a distinct snorting sound heard from one of the cubicles. He was of course referring to the very normal jeans he was wearing.
 
One time last year I was paying a visit to a rest room with an American friend who visits ever summer, who proclaimed: I've lost so much weight recently that today I'm wearing my wife's pants. There was a distinct snorting sound heard from one of the cubicles. He was of course referring to the very normal jeans he was wearing.

My partner once confused a US friend with "it's warm, I'm taking my jumper off".
 
You've got me there. What's does Jumper mean in American?

In the United States, a jumper is a one-piece girl's dress without arms and usually a scooped neck with a blouse worn under it. It's often used as a school uniform.
 
In the United States, a jumper is a one-piece girl's dress without arms and usually a scooped neck with a blouse worn under it. It's often used as a school uniform.

The UK equivalent of the US jumper is a pinafore dress.

grey-jersey-pinafore-dress-.jpg


The original school uniform-type dress like a US jumper was a gym-slip.

4889861137_d26a1f57af_z.jpg
 
Brit American Romance

I'm an American who has spent a lot of time in England. I plan to submit a cross continental romance story shortly!
 
In the United States, a jumper is a one-piece girl's dress without arms and usually a scooped neck with a blouse worn under it. It's often used as a school uniform.

Thanks. I never knew that. We learn something every day. Calling it a jumper is kind of cute.
 
I'm curious as to whether or not stories by British authors (e.g, me) get marked down simply because we're not American - because we don't use American spellings and terms.
Fair goes if they're marked down because the stories aren't up to scratch but not if people mark them down out of some kind of prejudice.

I say that because when I first started posting stories here I was 'warned' by a NY lady who writes extensively in Literotica to beware of the general US condemnation of non-US writings - I wonder how true her words are?
So what would happen if I set my stories in America with US spellings and vocabulary?

I'm actually an American married to a British author and I enjoy both styles of writing. The only thing that really irks me, as I'm sure it would you, is when a British person writes a story set in America and uses terms that an American wouldn't use. He often has me scan his American based stories for inaccuracies and I'm willing to help :)

The most common errors I have found are that Americans don't sign letters 'xxx' and take vacations instead of holidays!
 
If you write to your audience, up arrows and down arrows won't mean a lot. Unless you're thin-skinned like I am.

So, if you want points on literotica, you might consider writing primarily American English because I think the majority of folks who read, vote, and comment, are typical Americans. (Like, there's such a thing as a 'typical' American, eh, what?)

I think the drift is there - all you have to do is catch it.

Good luck!
 
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