question and meme

[frith_in_thorns]

(I had a dream last night that I asked one of my old English teachers this question, and she shouted at me and told me that I was wrong.  You guys'll tell me whether to listen to her, won't you? *g*)

This is about my sky pirate AU, which is now quite a way through the planning stages, and which I shall start writing next week during a terrible period of having no internet connection.  (I'll also be skiing, but it's the lack of internet I'm currently dwelling on...)

Basically, since it's an AU, the characters won't be American/Canadian.  So would I be able to use British English instead of American?  This is because steam/clock-punk is heavily based on Victorian England anyway, and there are probably a hundred little words about sailing ships that are different in the two dialects, and they're wearing trousers and waistcoats and braces, and also I still can't take the word 'pants' very seriously.  So unless anyone tells me I'm not allowed to, I probably will use BrEn in this.  Opinions, plz?

And now a writing meme, which I stole from teh_elb :

Tell me about a story I never wrote, (eg, "The one where Aziraphale is a 1930s Chicago mobster") and I'll write you a snippet from it.

Fandoms: SGA, Sanctuary, Criminal Minds, Edge Chronicles, Discworld (City Watch), CSI (any), NCIS (either)

Comments

[leesa_perrie]

Have you read The Pirate's Prisoner by Eildon Rhymer (she also has a sequel if you're interested!)? Although it's an historical AU and so not the same as your fic, it might be helpful. She is a British writer and both Rodney and John are English in the fics, so seeing how she handled that could be good.

My personal view is that you can use BritEng for this, but it might be an idea to warn readers you've used it (as it's an American show - I wouldn't warn for BritEng for a British show!!). I'm sure they can still sound enough like their characters without using Canadian/American terms.

There's also a steampunk story I remember reading but can't find - I'm going to go ask on sgastoryfinders and see what happens. Again, might help to see how that person dealt with the language.

And they're quick over on that comm!! It's Atlantis: Quest for the Lost City (Chapter 5) by Rheanna.

[frith_in_thorns]

Thanks for the link! I think I might sit on it for a while, though... I'm very paranoid about accidently copying the style of anyone who's previously done this sort of AU. I'll read it when my first draft's done.

And that's a good idea about putting in a warning for using BritEng - at least then I probably wouldn't get as many comments going "you spelled this wrong!"

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

If it were me, I'd use Brit terms and American spellings. But I also think I'm probably crazy.

[frith_in_thorns]

Well, I don't use American spellings anyway, as that would be a really bad habit for me to get into, me being an English writer. I appreciate the vote for the Brit terms, though! :)

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

:)

[x-varda-x.livejournal.com]

Brit terms are probably fine. I don't think I've ever written pants instead of trousers, because to me pants=underwear ;)

No one's ever called me on using Brit spellings (oh, apart from RIG vs 'tranquilliser' :P)

Can't think of anything for your meme... sorry :(

[leesa_perrie]

Meme! I forgot about the meme!!! Hmm, let me think...

The one where Rodney was suspected of being the murderer in a NCIS case in Washington DC and General O'Neill had to pull some strings with the President to send John in to help with the investigation. Jethro was not pleased!

Of course, Rodney was innocent and Jethro discovered the Stargate Program...!

[frith_in_thorns]

ohshit, I totally forgot about that one...

I may possibly only have the internet for another hour until next Monday, so you'll probably have to wait a little while... the internet at home's b0rked, which is annoying cos I counted on having it tomorrow evening, I'll see how it goes! *is so going to write at least a snippet of this, though*

[leesa_perrie]

Am happy to wait!! Hope the internet feels better soon *sends virtual internet medicine!*

Um, I may be feeling a little silly today - I almost asked for that Rodney turned into a hamster fic!! *vbg*

[frith_in_thorns]

I can't cope without internet - I'll have withdrawel!!

I'm feeling silly too - hit me :P

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

If you have the characters explicitly British in origin, use British terminology; I personally wouldn't even need a warning. If the world is British-inspired but the characters are not explicitly "British", go ahead and use the system you're most comfortable with, and add a note about the language choice. But sure, so long as you have a good reason, you can alter the vocabulary set.

We Americans do understand the word "trousers", though. :> It just seems a little more formal (and a little less likely of these characters in canon settings) to use the term. If you can avoid the most blatant swaps without the text becoming strained (sweater/jumper, sneakers/trainers, cookie/biscuit, trunk/boot, truck-or-van/lorry, wrench/spanner, chips/crisps, fries/chips, flashlight/torch, cell/mobile ... that's probably the top 10, give or take), it'll be less obvious. I'm a fan of writing around confusion myself. :>

[frith_in_thorns]

Well, I think of that list, only 'spanner' is going to be relevent :P But, as I said, while not explicitly set anywhere in particular, it's British-inspired... especially inspired by The Edge Chronicles, which is a British book series. And to me using the American words sort of breaks the atmosphere up a different way to how it would have been otherwise...

Also, the sky ships are basically sailing ships given lift by a really bad pun aka an 'Ascension Device' *g* (I got Gibbs-slapped by my RL fandom friend for coming up with that one...)

[baby-werewolf.livejournal.com]

You get Gibbs-slapped for everything, though. You're silly and I'm violent :D

[oboetheres.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd give you my two bits about the dialect change, as an 'American'. I like the idea of putting the dialect change in either the warnings or summary. I think I might feel like the story was misrepresented and be disappointed in the change if it wasn't made clear that it was going to be part of the story up front, but if I did know about it going in, I would probably just think that its a really neat idea.

So basically, imho, you should just make sure that your readers know that a dialect change is part of your AU universe.

[frith_in_thorns]

Thanks for the input :D Yeah, I'll warn readers going into it - it really does fit better this way with the world I'm building up in my head (and will soon start to get down on paper...)

Now I must stop procrastinating over these sorts of points and Start.Writing.Now!