American vs British?

[Ihe]

In a scale of 1 to 10, just how sacrilegious is it to mix American and British spellings of certain words in a story? Ofc, I don´t mean spelling the same word in two different ways, but to use some words in their americanized form, and others in Brit throughout the narrative. Can that hurt the story and the flow of it in any way?

I´ve had a mixed upbringing, and besides the occasional confusion in cultural variations of punctuation, there are certain words that just come to me in one form or the other. Don´t worry, I know enough to not mix punctuation rules.

How about idioms or words that simply don´t exist in either American or British (usually slang)? Should I simply avoid them?

Do editors frown when they catch this?

Sorry for the barrage.

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Consistency is king. If you're writing AE for a non-American crowd, the AE spellings will be jarring. If you're writing BE for an American crowd, the BE spellings will be jarring. If you're mixing them together, your writing will be jarring for everyone.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

It depends on what kind of story it is and which publishers you're aiming for. And, probably, what the words in question are. There are some words that are crossing over, in both directions, that probably wouldn't cause anyone to blink. Your publisher, if you have one, can decide, when the time comes.

As for slang that is specific to one or the other, it depends on whether the story is one in which the language ought to be specific -- if it's a British setting, the British idioms or words are fine, but you might want to rethink them if it's a futuristic space setting, for instance, unless you have some reason that a character might still be using those words. Jo Zebedee can tell you all about that one.

Overall, you'd probably be better off trying to keep them to one direction or the other, rather than mixing them, but unless the story has a specific reason, it won't matter much which way -- the publisher will decide if they want something changed or not. If you're self-publishing, you'd best just pick one and go with it; that way, you may annoy the sensitive people on the other side, but you won't annoy people on both sides.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm another voter for consistency. Also, even if you were going for regional- style, what you describe is an upbringing that's fairly different from the norm. If you were to capture your language it wouldn't represent a regional dialect, but your own voice.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

If you're mixing them together, your writing will be jarring for everyone.

I think non-Americans will accept Americanisms from an American Author, but not from other Authors.
I think mass market non-American (British, Australian, South African) English books need to treat USA as say France or Germany and have "translation". I think it's a LOT more than running a Search and Replace to change to American spelling, but a proper edit by an American familiar with British English. A basic principle is that all translations are better in the native language of the Translator. Thus no matter how good the English and German is, A German to English needs native English speaker and English to German needs a native German speaker (probably NOT some Austrians or some Swiss, they will be fine with German from English by a German, but a native of Hamburg might not be so happy with a Swiss Translator).

More "literary" or niche non-American books probably need to be available without "translation" to Americans as the Americanisation of a very "British" book can annoy them.

A hybrid is a mess and worst of all worlds.

I think it partly depends on which USA market and genre of British book. American books by perceived American Authors do not need to be "translated" to British English.

 

[Ihe]

My vocabulary, my voice, is naturally mixed, so that´s another small hurdle to trip on every now and then... But anyway, thanks for the input guys! To think all these questions started with something so innocuous as "panelling/paneling" . It´ll be slightly annoying to check myself every time, but I´ll follow the advice.

If I had to decide, I am more inclined to AE. I live in the UK, so, in view of this, and thinking veeeeeeeery far ahead, does anyone know what are British editorials´ attitudes in this issue?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Get an American Editor?
Lots of American Writers have mysteriously migrated to Ireland (Is it low tax for writers, or maybe they like the scenery?). They continued to write and publish in American, not British English (Ireland basically uses British English, but of course simply calls it English, the Irish (Gaelic) for English is Béarla, I think.)

 

[Ihe]

Are American editors accessible here in UK?

 

[TitaniumTi]

Consistency is king. If you're writing AE for a non-American crowd, the AE spellings will be jarring. If you're writing BE for an American crowd, the BE spellings will be jarring. If you're mixing them together, your writing will be jarring for everyone.

...except the Australians.

 

[tinkerdan]

I think that in narrative slang and idioms might jar if you started swapping back and forth across the two. On the other hand there might be some room for dialogue since you could have characters from different lands using the idioms although even with that you might want to go with moderation and default more toward the type of English the narrative takes when you can.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Are American editors accessible here in UK?

You have a phone and Internet / eMail?
On my landline I can phone non-mobile numbers in USA about as cheap as a local Mobile call.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Are American editors accessible here in UK?

I'm pretty accessible to the UK ( = on Chrons all the time), and so are Teresa and Jennifer. I'm not sure which editors you had in mind....

 

[Overread]

I would say most don't mind so long as, as has been said, you remain consistent. I would say the only time you should mix is if you have dialogue or similar parts where you are using changes in spelling to further carry an accent of a character; though it's a rather subtle case its still valid.

That and I would honestly say that many younger generations today wouldn't be able to tell American from English. We've grown up in such an Americanized atmosphere with such a huge mingling of literature that many casual readers wouldn't notice; and heck some might even consider something like colour spelt wrongly and gaol a mysterious word you made up.

 

[Ihe]

I'm pretty accessible to the UK ( = on Chrons all the time), and so are Teresa and Jennifer. I'm not sure which editors you had in mind....

No one in particular. The reason behind my asking is that I´m just curious if the writer-editor relationship benefits at all from presential vis-a-vis, or if it can be solely carried on long-distance electrons and beeping signals.

 

[Ursa major]

One would have to ask how many US-based writers live near their editors (or their offices). And perhaps even ask how many editors work at their publisher's -- or, rather, their imprint's -- offices.

If one is being edited by an editor employed by a big New York-based imprint, even one who works and lives in that city, does it matter if one is based in, say, Lincoln (NY), Lincoln (England), Lincoln (Neb.) or Lincoln (Ca.)?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

presential vis-a-vis

It's fine not having to watch people pick nose or whatever. Even if using Skype etc, I like to mislay the camera. Sometimes the visual aspect helps. But I've collaborated on Software and Tech Writing and Tenders etc, and the site visits tended to only make it easy for people to make a fool of themselves (customs, drink, food, women etc) rather than progress the projects!

Actually often I use real time text at same time as voice, or sometimes only the real time text chat. Easy to copy & paste bits of documents rather than read them out. Also the text chat history is a record of what both parties said, shared and agreed.

Yes there is a place for Face to Face meetings. I went from Ireland once to ex Soviet Eastern Europe to meet a guy programming for me and also to meet two Taiwanese business men we had been dealing with. The Taiwanese were staggered after the product demo when they discovered we'd never even spoken before my trip (only email and real time text) and yet produced the working product faster than they thought they could. It was a sort of proof of concept 4G phone/pda/MP3 player/email/browser with touch screen, shortly before iPhone 1 was released. The meeting was interesting, but nothing came of it. A lot of expense for a few days travel. I was unexpectedly asked to speak at a local University's conference on that trip. It was boring as no other presentation was in English! I don't think mine was up to much for them, even though most could follow my English.

 

[Ihe]

I see all your points. I am most definitely romanticizing the editor-writer relationship then . And what Ursa said makes sense. Looks like meets in person will be rare, no matter the relative proximity... Oh well, another of my many writing myths debunked.

 

[Christopher Lee]

I think the gap is still a little too wide to be mixing the two.

 

[Harpo]

 

[Yozh]

Oh, use of "Mammy" is more of a shock to Americans than writing "recognize" with an "s" though!