I'm a one woman anglicising campaign

[oxoniensis]

As there are a lot of non-Brits writing in the Merlin fandom, I thought it would be handy to write a little primer on writing British English. Not specifically Merlin era (whenever that's meant to be), so it'll apply to Torchwood (though there the Welsh needs to be taken into account) or Doctor Who or Harry Potter or any other British fandom.

The

Comments

[hils]

Oh, thank god! The American Merlin fics are driving me INSANE!

[oxoniensis]

Um, me too! But I thought it would be nicer to write a little tutorial than rant about it. And hopefully other britpickers will come forward, and between us we can make things a bit better!

It's sad, really, as I keep finding stories that would be brilliant otherwise, but the Americanisms are so pervasive, I can't keep reading.

[hils]

Yeah, there's been a few I've had to give up on too

*volunteers as a Britpicker*

[oxoniensis]

I've added a little comment to the post, saying there are volunteers in the comments - hope that's okay!

[shadowvalkyrie]

Wow, that's a sweet post! I'm German and therefore tend to happily mix British and American English (often within the same sentence) so this is really helpful when in doubt! *bookmarks*

[oxoniensis]

Actually, I think it's probably a problem for most non-Brit Europeans - most of my Swiss, French and Danish friends speak quite American English because they're exposed to far more American TV than English TV. Anyway, glad it'll be of help!

[isagel]

You are wonderful.

I think I'm a horrible mess, English-wise, after all these years in fandom. I'm not a native speaker, the English I grew up learning was decidedly British, but on lj I quickly learnt that if I want to write in American fandoms, I need to make my English American. Now I doubt I know what's what. I still use British spelling when writing as myself, so to speak - I want that 'u' in 'honour' - but switch to American for fic. It's confusing.

[oxoniensis]

Believe it or not, it can get weird even for Brits. I spend a lot of time writing in American fandoms, and when I'm writing Supernatural fic one day and Merlin the next, and as me in posts, I have to school myself to get into the right mode. And I'm sure writing so much Merlin fic is going to make it harder for me to get Americanisms right.

It would be so much easier if we all spoke the same language!

[elzed]

Oh heavens, I hear you. I get that sometimes when writing emails at work, and oscillating between US and UK spellings. Most annoying. And the rare times i write British fic, I have to watch myself.

[thisissirius]

thank you so much for this! god.

sorry i didn't get back to your e-mail. i've been crazy busy with exams D:

but yes. also, i would gladly britpick a story.

[oxoniensis]

No worries about the email - I just thought I'd mention it in advance in case you had anything you particularly thought should be mentioned.

I was going to email you about attheroundtable, but I'll wait until your exams are over. Though if there's anything you'd like me to do in the meantime, just drop me a note - I'm on a nice shift this week, which is giving me a bit more time than usual.

[thisissirius]

awesome.

i haven't forgotten about it. i feel a bit bad because it seems like i created it and then let it go but my last exam is tomorrow morning, so i can delve back into fandom after that. well, if you want to post recs or something, feel free. at least then there's some activity going on over there. whatever you want to do :)

[oxoniensis]

What with exams and being unwell, I'm not surprised you haven't managed anything more on it! I was amazed at how quickly you set it up and got it all pretty.

As for a recs post, yes, I can do that, no problem. Any preference as to whether I post a set of recs, or do a roundtable theme post (like these) for others to rec to? (If you're too busy to answer, don't worry - I'll just get an ordinary recs post up some time tomorrow).

[slodwick]

You are adorable. And wickedly helpful. ♥

[oxoniensis]

Yay, glad it's helpful! I know it's incredibly hard writing convincing American for American fandoms, and English is just as bad - for a small country, we have a lot of different dialects!

[slodwick]

You know, Signe, I should think my feelings for the British are fairly obvious at this point, so I'll probably wind up just incorporating some of this to my daily life. (I can't get the hang of the extra "u", though.)