A question for non-Americans.

[RodenAddison]

......

 

[Harry Leg]

As a Canadian, I've received comments that I frequently misspell the same words, such as colour, flavour, etc. I'm not offended, or embarrassed, but it got me thinking. Is it such a huge thing to give up the spellings favoured in my country for a lack of distraction for American readers.

For the British, certainly it is a different situation. The language variations and diction between the UK and the US is far more extreme.

My question is this. Given the long reach of American media in the world, how many authors are changing their spellings and writing styles to more closely appeal, or go unnoticed, to the American market. Do people do this? I would suggest that dropping 'colour' for 'color' would go unnoticed and is of minor concern to me. On the other hand, I would keep such words a tuque, pickerel, serviette and runners. Since they are not mere spelling variations, to me they colour the language and are valuable because of this.

Thoughts?

Americans are welcome to comment as well (how could I stop you).

If you are a Canadian, why would you spell like an American?
When it comes to Lit stories, your audience is from all over the world. Why would you cater to just one segment?

Do you think an American would consider changing the way they have been taught to spell to please British or Canadian readers?

 

[Recidiva]

I'm American. Write what you know, and that's what you know. It might be an interesting study in character to learn American usage, but other than that, just write what you write and if people are distracted...I don't think that's really a valid criticism in the sense that you should change your spelling. I read Terry Pratchett and Discworld is fantasy but they still spell things as if they were British, even if they live in Ankh Morpork, which is theoretically New York. I wouldn't ask him to change it.

If your characters are American, have them speak in American idiom and spelling. Don't make them American if you can't. Then it's distracting. For instance, In "Chess" - "One Night In Bangkok" - there's a British songwriter (Tim Rice) and a British singer (Murray Head) and there's this one line that's supposedly sung by an American: "I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine."

...nobody in America calls anybody else sunshine. So it's just bad characterization then. So to avoid that if you're not really up on American idiom and aren't writing about America, just provide a setting, Canada, and have Canadian characters.

Fuck 'em if they can't take a colour.

 

[Harry Leg]

Fuck 'em if they can't take a colour.

This is one reason why I've always loved you

 

[PennLady]

If they are going to be upset about that, screw 'em. Figuratively, at least. Write as you would. This site has world-wide readership, so I bet a lot of readers appreciate that kind of thing.

I wrote a story set in Canada (Montreal) and used Canadian spellings when it came up. Although oddly, it rarely did. I think I only needed to write "centre."

 

[Recidiva]

This is one reason why I've always loved you

I feel this sudden urge to flutter my eyelashes...yes...I'm going to go with it.

 

[Recidiva]

If they are going to be upset about that, screw 'em. Figuratively, at least. Write as you would. This site has world-wide readership, so I bet a lot of readers appreciate that kind of thing.

I wrote a story set in Canada (Montreal) and used Canadian spellings when it came up. Although oddly, it rarely did. I think I only needed to write "centre."

I think I've only really been offended in the reverse. Harry Potter's "Philosopher's Stone" was changed to "Sorceror's Stone" because someone (who is stupid) decided that the Americans would be confused by it and wouldn't know what it was...

Seems like a pointed and unnecessary insult.

 

[stickygirl]

I think I've only really been offended in the reverse. Harry Potter's "Philosopher's Stone" was changed to "Sorceror's Stone" because someone (who is stupid) decided that the Americans would be confused by it and wouldn't know what it was...

Seems like a pointed and unnecessary insult.

Oh I SO agree with the dumbing down for the US audience - that's just patronising crap from the studios. What they did to Bladerunner was awful...

 

[Recidiva]

Oh I SO agree with the dumbing down for the US audience - that's just patronising crap from the studios. What they did to Bladerunner was awful...

It says more about dumb movie studio execs and publishers than it does the American audience.

Yes, some Americans are dumb, but not all of us.

So write as well as you can and don't try to chew it up and feed it to Americans like they're baby birds. Yes...some of us are...but...are those the ones you really want to reach anyway?

 

[oggbashan]

I write in British English and don't try to set my stories in places I don't know.

My only concession to US English is that I try to avoid words that have very different meanings in the two versions e.g. fanny, gas (for petrol).

 

[stickygirl]

Quite. Sex is the international language anyway ( hence Biblical references to talking in tongues )
and I can only write what I feel, which imposes far more difficult challenges than spelling....so I must away and sharpen my quill henceforth or be forever chasted like a naughty knave with a saucy caper

 

[stickygirl]

I write in British English and don't try to set my stories in places I don't know.

My only concession to US English is that I try to avoid words that have very different meanings in the two versions e.g. fanny, gas (for petrol).

...and pants

 

[Recidiva]

...and pants

...fag, pissed...

Slang that leads to embarrassing conversations when we think we are speaking the same language.

 

[damppanties]

So write as well as you can and don't try to chew it up and feed it to Americans like they're baby birds. Yes...some of us are...but...are those the ones you really want to reach anyway?

Unfortunately, most readers on Literotica do not accept alternate spelling / colloquial usage of English. I'm assuming the OP wants to talk about this problem in terms of this website, so I'd say a little note at the beginning of the story might help. It hurts to get downgraded for something that's not wrong but your audience thinks is.

 

[stickygirl]

...fag, pissed...

Slang that leads to embarrassing conversations when we think we are speaking the same language.

Oh... here's a classic... a UK bloke was staying with a married US couple and they were discussing when to wake up the next day... so the UK guy says to the wife .."Well I'll come and knock you up around 8 o'clock"
( apologies for going a bit off topic here )

 

[Recidiva]

Unfortunately, most readers on Literotica do not accept alternate spelling / colloquial usage of English. I'm assuming the OP wants to talk about this problem in terms of this website, so I'd say a little note at the beginning of the story might help. It hurts to get downgraded for something that's not wrong but your audience thinks is.

Well, I write in American English and that doesn't spare me from irrational feedback. If someone wants to troll, they will. When I wrote in fantasy I got the impression I just wasn't doing enough hot robot on robot action. I didn't have a single robot, in fact. I get downgraded a lot and that doesn't mean it's rational or that you should pander. It just means you put it out there and it goes through the meatgrinder and some people like it and some people don't.

I did get some good feedback that helped me realize I needed to have a little more exposition or spend more time on the visual aspects of a scene, as I tend to focus on emotional content. That was helpful and improved my writing. But I didn't start putting in robots.

I would classify this as an unrealistic expectation of the audience and a potential trap for the author.

 

[damppanties]

Well, I write in American English and that doesn't spare me from irrational feedback. If someone wants to troll, they will. When I wrote in fantasy I got the impression I just wasn't doing enough hot robot on robot action. I didn't have a single robot, in fact. I get downgraded a lot and that doesn't mean it's rational or that you should pander. It just means you put it out there and it goes through the meatgrinder and some people like it and some people don't.

I did get some good feedback that helped me realize I needed to have a little more exposition or spend more time on the visual aspects of a scene, as I tend to focus on emotional content. That was helpful and improved my writing. But I didn't start putting in robots.

I would classify this as an unrealistic expectation of the audience and a potential trap for the author.

You have a point. I'm not big on pandering to the reader either. Not advocating change of style or spelling, just that I should explain to people who would like to leave me feedback like "learn to spell, idiot" that I do know how to spell, thank you very much but I use British English. When about half your PCs get stuck on the language, it gets old.

 

[Harry Leg]

Well, I write in American English and that doesn't spare me from irrational feedback. If someone wants to troll, they will. When I wrote in fantasy I got the impression I just wasn't doing enough hot robot on robot action. I didn't have a single robot, in fact. I get downgraded a lot and that doesn't mean it's rational or that you should pander. It just means you put it out there and it goes through the meatgrinder and some people like it and some people don't.

I did get some good feedback that helped me realize I needed to have a little more exposition or spend more time on the visual aspects of a scene, as I tend to focus on emotional content. That was helpful and improved my writing. But I didn't start putting in robots.

I would classify this as an unrealistic expectation of the audience and a potential trap for the author.

Its not easy to write robots with emotional content

 

[Recidiva]

You have a point. I'm not big on pandering to the reader either. Not advocating change of style or spelling, just that I should explain to people who would like to leave me feedback like "learn to spell, idiot" that I do know how to spell, thank you very much but I use British English. When about half your PCs get stuck on the language, it gets old.

Well, just know that the trolling gets spread around and although it might have a particular flavor for you, everybody's gonna get it.

I don't think it's news that some feedback is trolling or just people who feel they have some power and want to make someone else's day more difficult for whatever reason. When you get genuine criticism and feedback that help refine your craft, that's what it's there for, at least in my opinion. The reasonable people help me, and that is what value it has for me. The unreasonable people...I can't do anything about that. Well, I can laugh sometimes.

I don't even think that any sort of disclaimer would help because these aren't reasonable people doing the feedback. If you have a bolded sentence at the top saying "WARNING: BRITISH PERSON WRITING. YOU MAY ENCOUNTER WORD SPELLINGS YOU DON'T LIKE" you're just going to get the feedback that if you know better, you should just write better.

If someone is giving you crap for you posting on an international board in your own language, there's so much wrong with them in terms of reason that it's not really worth attempting to correct them. If you give in and use American English usage, it's just going to give you a headache, possibly point out your lack of experience with American usage, and you'll still get nailed for something, whether it's lack of hot robots or even worse, genuine criticism about how you fail at American idiom.

 

[Recidiva]

Its not easy to write robots with emotional content

Even if I tried, I just know their boobs won't be big enough and I wouldn't have provided cup size for reference.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

Just another American coming by to say I'm always happy to see the alternate (proper?) spelling in pieces from Canadians, Brits, Aussies and the rest.

Americans are rapidly losing their respect for spelling, anyway, sadly.

 

[damppanties]

Well, just know that the trolling gets spread around and although it might have a particular flavor for you, everybody's gonna get it.

I don't think it's news that some feedback is trolling or just people who feel they have some power and want to make someone else's day more difficult for whatever reason. When you get genuine criticism and feedback that help refine your craft, that's what it's there for, at least in my opinion. The reasonable people help me, and that is what value it has for me. The unreasonable people...I can't do anything about that. Well, I can laugh sometimes.

I don't even think that any sort of disclaimer would help because these aren't reasonable people doing the feedback. If you have a bolded sentence at the top saying "WARNING: BRITISH PERSON WRITING. YOU MAY ENCOUNTER WORD SPELLINGS YOU DON'T LIKE" you're just going to get the feedback that if you know better, you should just write better.

If someone is giving you crap for you posting on an international board in your own language, there's so much wrong with them in terms of reason that it's not really worth attempting to correct them. If you give in and use American English usage, it's just going to give you a headache, possibly point out your lack of experience with American usage, and you'll still get nailed for something, whether it's lack of hot robots or even worse, genuine criticism about how you fail at American idiom.

I don't think that kind of a comment is trolling exactly. The one on some of my stories about my spelling, that is. I believe it's honest feedback based on that one person's opinion, feeling, knowledge. I personally would rather have a comment on my story rather than any perceived error in my English. And I personally don't care at all for such comments and will stop people doing it if I can.

I've had results with inserting a polite note at the top of the story that tells readers that this story uses British spelling and might contain what some American readers contain spelling errors (<-- loosely paraphrased here). I still don't think it's pandering. It's telling the majority (I think) of my readers that they will encounter difference in terms of the usage of English.

 

[Recidiva]

I don't think that kind of a comment is trolling exactly. The one on some of my stories about my spelling, that is. I believe it's honest feedback based on that one person's opinion, feeling, knowledge. I personally would rather have a comment on my story rather than any perceived error in my English. And I personally don't care at all for such comments and will stop people doing it if I can.

I've had results with inserting a polite note at the top of the story that tells readers that this story uses British spelling and might contain what some American readers contain spelling errors (<-- loosely paraphrased here). I still don't think it's pandering. It's telling the majority (I think) of my readers that they will encounter difference in terms of the usage of English.

You're very kind and I can't argue with results. If that works for you, then excellent.

For myself I'm less kind and I'd rather that you didn't allow others to make you feel self conscious about your usage. In fact, I'm okay being mean on this subject.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm American. Write what you know, and that's what you know. It might be an interesting study in character to learn American usage, but other than that, just write what you write and if people are distracted...I don't think that's really a valid criticism in the sense that you should change your spelling. I read Terry Pratchett and Discworld is fantasy but they still spell things as if they were British, even if they live in Ankh Morpork, which is theoretically New York. I wouldn't ask him to change it.

If your characters are American, have them speak in American idiom and spelling. Don't make them American if you can't. Then it's distracting. For instance, In "Chess" - "One Night In Bangkok" - there's a British songwriter (Tim Rice) and a British singer (Murray Head) and there's this one line that's supposedly sung by an American: "I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine."

...nobody in America calls anybody else sunshine. So it's just bad characterization then. So to avoid that if you're not really up on American idiom and aren't writing about America, just provide a setting, Canada, and have Canadian characters.

Fuck 'em if they can't take a colour.

'sunshine' is American idiom. There are regional peculiarities, and 'sunshine' is one of them.

 

[damppanties]

You're very kind and I can't argue with results. If that works for you, then excellent.

For myself I'm less kind and I'd rather that you didn't allow others to make you feel self conscious about your usage. In fact, I'm okay being mean on this subject.

Hehe. Me too. But it's a weird thing about being in the minority. You just can be without being at least a little conscious about it, I suppose. When it's brought to your consciousness again and again by people around you, you can't really just forget about it.

And I swear it's not such a big deal with me. It's just that you manage what you can, that's all. Most of the time I deal with my accent / writing with a very belligerent 'you deal with it' kind of attitude. I'm not that kind after all.