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Random observation
Saturday, 11 April 2015 20:35You know what's weird? I've always tried to write my stories in US English based on the assumption that most people reading them (in fandoms of American stuff, at least) will by American. But I was looking at my fan fiction.net stats just now and I realized that most of my Lost Boys readers seem to be in England. I've noticed quite a few writers are English too, and have been since I entered the fandom, it's always been that way, so that does make sense. But why would that be? Compared to America, England is a tiny place, so it seems statistically improbable that the majority of fans of this American movie are from here.
Doesn't matter though. I've gotten so used to writing in US English that it looks weird when I write in British English, and all my settings on my computer autocorrect it to US anyway, even when I'm writing something like this in Safari, so it'd be a faff to change it. And the choice of language kind of has to be American anyway. I think it might seem jarring for the narration to be in one and the characters speaking in another.
E.g.
He opened the wardrobe. "Your closet is empty," he said.
Edgar turned on the cold tap and jumped back in horror. "Sam, why the fuck is there blood coming out of the faucet?!"
Or something like that. It sounds like some Americans have come to England and are experiencing a language clash. It's best to get into the habit of one and stick to it. I do worry about messing up though, like I'm fairly sure the things I write sound correct and natural, but it;s all from watching TV and picking up on the way people speak and the words they tend to use. One time I spent about an hour trying to work out why cupboard (as in a small cupboard in the kitchen) didn't sound right and what I should use instead. I settled on cabinet eventually.
Anyway, the point of all this is that if I ever do get around to writing something original, it's probably not going to be set in California, and I wonder if I'm going to have trouble switching languages.
Anyhoo, that's my random rambling for the night.
Doesn't matter though. I've gotten so used to writing in US English that it looks weird when I write in British English, and all my settings on my computer autocorrect it to US anyway, even when I'm writing something like this in Safari, so it'd be a faff to change it. And the choice of language kind of has to be American anyway. I think it might seem jarring for the narration to be in one and the characters speaking in another.
E.g.
He opened the wardrobe. "Your closet is empty," he said.
Edgar turned on the cold tap and jumped back in horror. "Sam, why the fuck is there blood coming out of the faucet?!"
Or something like that. It sounds like some Americans have come to England and are experiencing a language clash. It's best to get into the habit of one and stick to it. I do worry about messing up though, like I'm fairly sure the things I write sound correct and natural, but it;s all from watching TV and picking up on the way people speak and the words they tend to use. One time I spent about an hour trying to work out why cupboard (as in a small cupboard in the kitchen) didn't sound right and what I should use instead. I settled on cabinet eventually.
Anyway, the point of all this is that if I ever do get around to writing something original, it's probably not going to be set in California, and I wonder if I'm going to have trouble switching languages.
Anyhoo, that's my random rambling for the night.
I'm thinking more and more about writing something original. My dad thinks I should adapt Talented (a Lost Boys fix I wrote a few years back) into something not Lost Boys related. I don't think I'm going to do that for two reasons. The first is that I really like Talented just the way it is, and changing it in that way would feel like I was destroying something that I loved and piecing it back together with superglue, and there is no way that it would ever be the same. The second reason is that if I do write something I would rather it were something new.
I did write a few stories years ago, before I started writing Lost Boys stuff. They were, in a way, based on Lost Boys though, I'll be honest. That wasn't deliberate, but I suspect it was the case subconsciously. They feature two school-age brothers who fight vampires, but the similarities end there, for the most part. I'm considering revisiting them, rewriting them and making them better (because I'm sure they will suck if I re-read them now)
But I'm going to finish the Enemy before I do any of this. It's kicking my ass at the moment. Every time I think I've come up with a way to bring it to the ending I want, my mind throws out a problem that I need to write around. I'm also considering revisiting the earlier chapters of that man making some minor tweaks. I think I could make it better. I'm just not sure if I should, or if I should leave it now it's done. I really wish I hadn't written that prologue...
I did write a few stories years ago, before I started writing Lost Boys stuff. They were, in a way, based on Lost Boys though, I'll be honest. That wasn't deliberate, but I suspect it was the case subconsciously. They feature two school-age brothers who fight vampires, but the similarities end there, for the most part. I'm considering revisiting them, rewriting them and making them better (because I'm sure they will suck if I re-read them now)
But I'm going to finish the Enemy before I do any of this. It's kicking my ass at the moment. Every time I think I've come up with a way to bring it to the ending I want, my mind throws out a problem that I need to write around. I'm also considering revisiting the earlier chapters of that man making some minor tweaks. I think I could make it better. I'm just not sure if I should, or if I should leave it now it's done. I really wish I hadn't written that prologue...