Silversun

It's exactly analogous to writing for Buffy and making everyone human and un-supernatural, isn't it?

Catalinay

Exactly! Same as writing all-human Roswell. Funny how bad research and bad AU end up so similar...

kaykayelle

Hmm...never thought of that. Interesting. You're completely right.

Ashleigh

I totally have a similar fear. When I wrote in the Roswellverse, I had each and every thing I wrote beta read. Three years later (and after getting over a serious case of writer's block) I almost have a paranoia of beta readers now. I had my first three or four pieces o'swimslash beta-read and now I just fly solo.

Silversun

I know I need to get my fics checked out for Britishisms. (Seeing the show is called Young Americans, I'm really not sure that it's the best fandom for me to be writing in.) But I've been so long without a beta-reader now it would feel weird to get one. I mean, it's not a very convincing reason at all, but I don't want one. Plus, I've had some problems relying on people (not necessarily beta-readers) in the past, and it's quite hard to find some responsible person who's in the same mindset.

Ashleigh

Yep, I need to do that as well - except Americanisms. Hee! Two out of my three Favorite Characters to Write For are non-American, so the most I ever do is email my non-American friends and say things like, 'Hey! You're Australian! What do you guys call a phone booth?'

Crossbow

I'm writing a Harry Potter one, and I THINK I'm successfully avoiding anything that's distinctly British or distinctly American, but being American, I can't be entirely sure. My beta-reader is American, and I haven't had a Brit-picker go over it yet.

As a beta-reader, I usually change all the Britishisms in any fics I get where I know the fandom is American, and delete all the obvious Americanisms for fandoms I know are British, but I know almost nothing about what to watch out for in other English-speaking countries. Fortunately, no one's asked me to do an Oz one yet, but there's anothe Australian one I've had to do... but I can't think of the name now... anyway, I hope I didn't mess it up too badly.

Night Nymph

Crossbow, If you get a Britpicker, whatever you do don't use the word "Cor". Hee.

When I was new to writing in Buffyverse, I'd used some classic fanfic to help me get some bearing. From reading these, it appeared this word was acceptable to use once in a while, and sadly, in my ignorance, I kinda thought it sounded cool myself at the time. The character did seem to swear quite a bit (after learning what some of the British curses he uses mean, they would be bleeped for sure on American TV) so I though I was just expanding his curse vocabulary a little.

That was until I received a paragraph long lashing from my British beta on the evils of the word. Not knowing what it meant exactly (thinking it was somewhat of a substitute for God in the "wow" sense), I thought I'd used the most awful curse-word imagineable and apologized profusely. (Hee - as I said earlier, I am a bit of a masochist with my betas.)

I learned my lesson on that one, but I'm sure there are some other such words to avoid so as not to insult your British beta. I was just lucky not to come across any others.

Thank goodness my beta caught it though, or it would have been an embarassing gaff on my part in my fanfic that I have since learned annoys people terribly.

Crossbow

I don't know what "cor" means - in old movies, it seems to mean something like you said - but I'd heard that no one ever says it. I don't know if the offsense is that it's old-fashioned, or that we don't use it right, or that no one ever did say it, or if it means something really nasty. I just know that Brit-pickers smack you down if you use it.

People should never, EVER use words they don't know. I don't understand why they do. When I was a kid, my teachers always told my parents what a great vocabulary I had - not because I knew so many more words than other kids, but because I always used words correctly. No one ever had to tell ME not to use words I don't understand - why does everyone else need to be beaten over the head with it?

Night Nymph

Crossbow, from what my beta explained to me after my apology (to assure me it wasn't a really bad word) "Cor" is the equivalent of an American "golly gee" or "gee whiz".

And definitely my bad for not knowing exactly what it meant, though in my defense, generally curse words aren't included in the dictionary, so I wasn't surprised when I didn't find it in there. And having seen it used in other fics, I thought I'd had a pretty good idea of what it meant. Still not entirely a valid excuse, but that's what I'd had my beta for, to get the character's speech patterns and vocabulary more refined.

Silversun

This has gotten me completely confused. So is "cor" a swearword? Or is it just a really annoying thing that no real English person would say?

Night Nymph

It's the latter, Silversun. Americans use it incorrectly as a mild curse word - usually one in reference to something good. As one might say "Damn, you look good," where "Cor" would replace "Damn", but in reality it is something no real Englishperson would say.

I hope that cleared up the confusion I caused.

Silversun

Thanks for clearing that up Night Nymph. I was thinking to myself "it never seemed like a swearword..."

Catalinay

Thanks for clearing that up! I was confused too.

Crossbow

And my Brit Picking question: When is something a jumper and when is it a sweater? They seem to use both terms.