Gosh, so many interesting things going on in here.
First of all, the BE versus AE discussion. I'm 100% all for the character's nationality driving their dialogue. If it is Clark or Lois or Perry speaking, I expect to hear American English, and words or phrases that they would not use do sound tend to jar me. If it were Nigel St. John, I'd expect British English, but oddly, I would not notice as much if he used something very un-British. I mean, maybe if he said "Lex, dude, you gotta chill out!" I'd call foul <g>.
As for narrative and introspection, I think I'm undecided
. I would imagine that the person who's POV the segment uses would drive the English used, however, in a million years I'd never be able to write pages and pages of well-written non-American English that conveyed thought and narrative. This is a hats off to all of the non-American English writers who pull that off so well in LnC fic.
But I do give it a try - for example, in my latest story, when I have to write from one of the Australian character's POV, I try very hard to have them "think" things they would naturally say. Or at least I try to have them use their words for things when they differ from my words.
For example, in this paragraph, I have the Australian acting and introspecting:
He jumped down into her unit, wincing as he crushed glass beneath his shoes. He’d made a bloody mess.If it were Clark in this scene, I'd write it this way:
He jumped down into her apartment, wincing as he crushed glass beneath his shoes. He’d made a big mess.BTW - Yvonne, I would classify your sample paragraphs as follows, but my answers are no where near definitive because I'm sure each has his/her own interpretation:
1 - narrative
2 - narrative but second paragraph seems introspective
3 - introspective
4 - introspective
5 - introspective
I guess the reason that I'm not hard-sold on the idea of "It's an American show so therefore the writer must use all American English" is because I don't think writers work that way. Part of the flavor of a story is the words chosen, and being a BE speaker or a AE speaker has a great affect on that choice. Besides, in the end, it doesn't really change my enjoyment of a story if the writing is BE over AE, and that's what I look for. I certainly would never stop reading a story I was otherwise enjoying simply because a certain word - correctly used or not - jarred me out of a story. If I were that sensitive, I'd never be able to read anything. As far as I'm aware
all writers are human and therefore
will make mistakes at some point or another.
On the nitpicking issue, I don't mind if someone points out an error when it does change the story or is really wrong - like using a wrong word (
affect instead of
effect) or using the wrong pronoun (
Clark adjusted her jockstrap. Huh?). Or if I've spelled something horribly or have a major type-O. But when it comes to issues where it could simply be a BE versus an AE thing, I'd rather hope that the reader could let it go.
The one thing sure to get my writing panties in a big knot is when a reader never offers feedback then swoops down out of the blue to say "you spelled that wrong" or doesn't post any feedback within a post other than to point out errors. I'm not talking about expecting all glowing praise and then an error notification. I just mean that if the reader has nothing at all to say about the story except that they happened to catch a type-O, I'd much rather have that information sent to me via e-mail.
As for my own level of nitpickyness, I tend to be very lenient. I might notice an error but would rarely think to point it out unless, again, I think it actually changes the meaning of the story. I figure my job is to write feedback as it pertains to the story, characterizations, plot issues and general feelings and impressions. I leave the spell-check and grammar corrections to the GEs because, frankly, I don't think it's much fun to have to keep my eyes peeled for that kind of stuff.
Perhaps the most diplomatic way for readers and writers is a little behind-the-scenes pre-story communication. If a particular reader noticed several errors in one of my stories and felt compelled to suggest changes, I would feel much more receptive if they asked "Do you mind if I bring your attention to these nipticks?" While my beta readers are worth their weight in pure, solid gold for the help they give to me in regards to story, characterizations and getting me out of all kinds of jams, I don't rely on them to catch every type-O. I'd much rather have them get into the groove of reading, so swept away by the story that they don't have the inclination to stop and say "that should be an 'e' not an 'a'". So it is nice to have a "nitpicker" eye to give it that final polish.
Lynn
