US/UK spellings - yup, that hoary old chestnut again...

[panik]

So I'm working through the beta for my fic (praise be to the betagoddess) and I don't know what to do about the (cue organ chord, wolf howl) spelling...

It's a TS story; the characters are, as we know, Americans; that means no un-American word usage and phraseology - fine, I get that - but spelling? Do two Americans have to be spelled American?

I've done this both ways in the past, but mostly used my own Brit spelling because it's easier and I don't honestly believe we spell as we speak.  But then, I get fb that tells me 'the spelling really took me out of the story' -

And I'm thinking; 'why'? Because I read American spelling in say, Doctor Who fic and all that makes me think is - the author's American. So long as British characters aren't keeping bodies in the trunk, it doesn't matter that that spare that's in the way is spelled tire and, in all honesty, my first reaction is to tell the Americans to suck it up because by far the largest chunk of the English-speaking world spells British anyway and we don't care so why should everyone else have to change to make life easier for you? - or that's to say, the few who bother to send fb complaining about it. (o:

But then, I'm getting that fb and sometimes, I cave. I used US spelling for Wind Whispering - even though it looked weird and wrong and took forever to change.

So, I'm asking an honest question of you all - does it matter, really? And if it does, why  (I thought about making this a poll, but I shan't because I need more than yes or no answers; I need explanations, dammit. (o) If it really, truly, honest-to-god makes a real difference, I shall use your blasted spelling (*G* - even though it looks... really strange and will take me all day) but if it does, I'd really love to know, and why.

ETA: And messing with this all afternoon means I've done NO work - none at all - on the actual story (which was the whole point, wasn't it?) *g*

Comments

[starwatcher]

.
Many-Shades-of-Grey/Gray

That's it! I use 'grey' in preference to 'gray' (forget which is American and which is Brit, actually), and I couldn't figure out why. Partly it looks 'greyer' to me, but why? It just hit me... Have you ever read the 'Fafherd and the Grey Mouser' books? (Not sure of the spelling for Fafherd, and I forget the author -- SciFi/fantasy). Anyway, I read three or four of them, back when I was young; I guess that spelling just seeped into my subconscious.
.

[t-verano.livejournal.com]

"A" is American, "E" British -- but most of the time when I write it I almost feel compelled to use 'e' because of its lovely greyness.

And yes, I loved the Grey Mouser! I read as many of those books as I could get my hands on and still every now and then think of them fondly ::adds them to impossibly long To Read Again list:: I was thoroughly taken by that character and the friendship between the two heroes/anti-heroes. ::beams, wishing she had a stack of the books in front of her right now (like she has time to read them)::

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

Gray/grey -- I didn't have a clue which was which. I don't think anything about words being spelled differntly for different dialects/countries was ever mentioned when I was in school. On the other hand, since I spent a lot of time daydreaming about flying around with Peter Pan or living in the wilderness, I could have entirely missed the lesson.

Laurie

[t-verano.livejournal.com]

Did you ever read My Side of the Mountain, with the boy who goes and lives inside a tree in the wilderness for months, on his own? Man, I loved that book. It was wonderful. I so wanted to do that... Of course, I wouldn't have minded flying, either. Peter Pan was just magic...

Hmm... I don't think they taught us anything about different spellings in my schools, either; I just was a Tolkien junkie and re-read David Copperfield once a year and adored British-English books -- anything I could get my hands on. Britain was absolutely my spiritual home back then and I probably just absorbed some awareness of the spelling by osmosis.

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

'Did you ever read My Side of the Mountain, with the boy who goes and lives inside a tree in the wilderness for months, on his own?'
YES!!! Geoff Guthrie read it to us in second year when I'd've been 8 or 9. Oh God I LOVED that book!

[t-verano.livejournal.com]

::beams and squees with Gilly:: And you know Blandings Castle, too, and being covered in leeches is a very big interest of yours -- the Ideal Renaissance Person. ::beams some more, incandescently::

Funny, though -- most of the time I was prejudiced against American books while I was growing up (not Dr. Seuss, of course! But books for older kids). I wanted to be in England and I wanted to read books that were set in England. American stories were (almost) always matter-of-fact and ordinary and preachy. British books seemed to hold universes of fantasy and beauty and fascinating people, and seemed less about An Uplifting And Moral Story than about a real story. And I am feeling extremely nostalgic... so *many* fabulous books I wanted to live inside...

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

Ah, if only life was like it is in the books... (o:

I loved Mark Twain when I was a kid. I fear I may have a romanticised view of America because of it *g*

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

Did you ever read My Side of the Mountain, with the boy who goes and lives inside a tree in the wilderness for months, on his own? Man, I loved that book. It was wonderful

Read it, re-read it, made sure my brothers and sisters read it, my children read it, re-read it as an adult. It was one of the major influences on my current lifestyle, that and watching How the West Was Won three times,(school trip, Girl Scouts, and with family) on the big screen theatre. There was this lyric sung to the tune of Greensleves that I fell in love with and imprinted on my mind.

Come way, come way, come way with me
Where the hills are high and the grass is green.
Come, come to the wonderous land
and I'll build you a home in the meadow

So, when my I met my husband and he was telling me the same thing...

Well, between those two influences from my childhood, plus the hippie stuff..
I was hooked and that 's why I'm living in Kentucky, in a beautiful holler, surrounded by trees, with a creek in the yard.
Laurie