Caroline wrote:
As an American writing in the HP fandom, I quickly realized that many of the British writers were very offended by Americanisms and thought that if we couldn't make our characters sound Properly British, we ought not to be allowed to bother with them.
That's a terrible attitude: horribly snobbish and very unfair.
I write in the Doctor Who fandom now, and again it's a British fandom with British (or British-sounding) characters, and so you're quite right that there are many American phrases, events, customs and so on which really don't work in the context. You mention Thanksgiving, which is one; I've seen reference to 'blocks' as a measurement of distance, someone making smores or a grilled cheese sandwich, high school prom or graduation or having to pay at a hospital.
Yes, these are fairly glaring to a British eye. Not difficult, though, to get a Britpick BR, or even hang out at some of the LJ communities where you can get Britpick questions answered (dw_britglish comes to mind for the DW fandom). But the little things - US spelling, the occasional word-use or syntax which is different and so on - never bother me, especially if the writer's good. Oh, I'd prefer not to see Rose, who is from London, talk about needing new pants.
Dialogue should sound as in-character as possible, and that's something I tried to do while I was writing L&C - I didn't always succeed, but I know it's important.
I BR for three US DW authors, and I do help them with British English - these authors also want to use UK English spelling, which I don't see as necessary but they want it so I'm not going to argue
Plenty of other US writers in the fandom use US spelling and some US vocabulary, but do try to avoid the obvious cultural differences - and I know I appreciate the effort they make. There's a difference between accommodation and assimilation, and I'd never want to suggest that the latter's necessary to write in a fandom based in a different country.
Wendy
