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]

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I sat in a Harry Potter panel at a con a few years back and listened to a British woman tell us that unless we had a British BETA, we Americans had absolutely no business writing HP fanfic AT ALL. She wasn't really content with us using on-line guides either - had to be a real beta, or she wouldn't read it at all.

And there's that holier-than-thou entitlement thing again, that I mentioned to Gilly above. If someone's nose is so high in the air that an author has to jump through hoops before she'll deign to read the offered fic... Ms. Snooty will miss a lot of good stories.

I had a boyfriend like that once -- was looking at the blurb of one of my SF books, and thought it sounded good, was going to ask to borrow it... until he noticed the author was a woman. (Barbara Hambly, IIRC -- *big* name in SF.) I should have dropped the jerk then, instead of six months later.

And then there's the expectation that 'get a beta' is a foolproof answer. If it's a new relationship, the author has no way to know if the beta is good and/or competent, and might not know until they get enough FB that mentions it. For instance, castalie is French; she uses English well, but not with the automatic language assumptions / habits that make the writing sound 'native'. She has to trust me (her beta) to do a good job of turning her meaning into common vernacular. But if I flub it, it's likely that she wouldn't recognize the difference, and most of her readers would be too polite to call her on it. So it's pretty much a Catch-22.

Basically, anyone who gets their panties in a twist about the little things just needs to lighten UP! Geeeze...
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[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

I'm just feeling my eyes get bigger at the idea of refusing to read an author based on their gender. Don't mind me, carry on...:-)

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

That made me gasp out loud. What a wanker.

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

Yep, stupid move on his part. She writes great stories.
Laurie

[starwatcher]

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I was pretty pissed. That may have been the moment that 'feminism' became more than a word to me, although I didn't realize it at the time. But I was instinctively incensed -- women read books by male authors all the time, but a man can't read one by a female author? There are some words that America needs to borrow from the Brits; as Gilly said, he was a real wanker.
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[starwatcher]

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I meant to put this reply under your comment; don't know why it went under mine.
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