Calling all Brits! (Or those who may be able to help!)

First of all, don't, don't, don't, stick American slang in there just to be understandable to Americans. It'll make the book seem untrue.

Secondly, registration is what I believe you would call roll call. When the register is taken in the morning and straight after lunch, and absences are noted.

Chantal89 said:

Her parents don't use British slang b/c of course they're parents.

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I'm 44 and I use slang constantly, and so do all of my friends who have teenaged kids.

The book is set in Surrey/London and no mention of America is ever made. Lastly, what is registration in British schooling? Is it like when the teacher takes attendance or is like a big school meeting with students and staff? I don't want to sound too American, like I'm an American who's trying to write a 'British book'.

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Here Miss! *sticks up hand*

If it's set in Surrey and you never mention America - why would you have americanisms? Use British er isms.

And yes I use slang all the time. Different slang than my kids maybe. But slang all the same.

Chantal89:
I guess, what I'm trying to ask is should i write with more Bristish English or stick to American? The book is set in Surrey/London and no mention of America is ever made.

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I don't disagree with what the other people have said, but if you want something that sounds authentic for a 13 year old raised in Britain, then it seems to me that you can get away with having some Americanisms in there. For example, the teens where I live say things like "whatever" or "totally over it" etc as well as Brit colloquialisms.

The trick is knowing how to mix it so that it sounds credible and that's something that's going to be difficult to do if you've never been to Britain. The best suggestion I can make is to try and watch UK scripted tv programmes or films for the age group (which will themselves have an artificiality but will give you a flavour for it) or to try and find Youtube/Myspace videos from Brits in the right age group - I know that sounds a little dodgy, but there are plenty of them about and at least you'll be getting the words from the horse's mouth.

Chantal89:
I don't want to sound too American, like I'm an American who's trying to write a 'British book'.

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Can I ask why it needs to be set in Britain?

MM

Because Britain's more betterer than Americaland.

scarletpeaches said:

Because Britain's more betterer than Americaland.

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Pfft. Clearly you've taken a scadgie if you think anyone's pure daft enough to buy such havers.

Someone's been paying attention on MSN...

scarletpeaches said:

Someone's been paying attention on MSN...

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Sod off.

Pfft,

Bloody foreigners

Chantal89 said:

I don't want to sound too American, like I'm an American who's trying to write a 'British book'.

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Isn't that what you're doing?

One can not change one's voice. Can one?

I'm pretty sure one can. Emulating a culture one isn't familiar with on the other hand...

The biggest influence on your MC's speech is going to be her schoolfriends. Where was she educated before going to boarding school?
I went away to boarding school for the first time at age 13 and very quickly lost my regional accent

Willowmound said:

I'm pretty sure one can. Emulating a culture one isn't familiar with on the other hand...

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Back to the OP
I think it would be very difficult to write a whole novel in a very vernacular you are not familiar with.I think some of the words used here are regional differences that are irrelevant to the area you are writing about.

You may find THIS helpful

Chantal,

There are differences between slang and dialect (idiom).
Standard American English and Standard British English are two standard dialects. In my experience, you can often tell where a writer is from, even if they use 'standard english' and don't use any obvious 'slang'. Which isn't to say you can't write about the UK, of course. It might be challenging though!

It sounds like your character would use some American slang (as do I- we have a lot of US TV/films etc so that's normal) but would use mainly English words and syntax. I second the suggestion to watch lots of British films and tv (particularly anything with posh characters since you're setting it in a boarding school), reading books by British novelists and ask us English* folk on AW lots of questions (well, maybe not me..I'm not nearly posh enough!)


good luck!

*(I'm assuming the school is in England and most of the characters are English...)

Chantal89 said:

Hello everyone! I'm Chantal and I'm a 19 yr old college student. I'm currently working on my first novel. (Though sometimes I find myself drifting off to a seond book, I'm writing) Anyways, I can't give all the details, but the basics about my MC are this: she's a 13 yr old girl going to boarding school for the first time (it's nothing like Harry Potter), the most important things are these: Her mother was born and raised in Spain, and does not use British English slang (the book is in English), her father is French but was born in London. Now, b/c she was raised by her parents in Oxford, a lot of her speech is based on her surrounding. ...
what I'm trying to ask is should i write with more Bristish English or stick to American? The book is set in Surrey/London and no mention of America is ever made.

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I bolded that. If she was raised in Oxford, she will speak exactly like an English girl raised in Oxford. It sounds like she IS British, albeit with some slightly exotic parentage. I have known British people with one or more foreign parents; they sound exactly like British people with British parents. So just treat that character as a British girl who, perhaps (because of her parents), speaks some French and Spanish and is familiar with those two countries as well. In other words, her dialogue should sound completely British. Not to say she won't use ANY American slang, but she certainly shouldn't use any that's not commonly used by British people her age (unless there is some other detail you didn't post, e.g. she lived in America for a couple of years).

Same goes for her sister. Their dialogue should just sound British.

As for the narrative voice, there's nothing American in this book, so I think it would sound weird if the narrative voice were American.

One caveat: if you're going to do this, you had better be EXTREMELY familiar with England and British English. If you're not extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY familiar with England and British English, it simply isn't going to work. It would be like trying to write a novel in French: having several semesters of French under your belt and being able to communicate when you take trips to France in no way qualifies you to write a novel in French. You actually need to be fluent in the language yourself. So here, the only way you could make it work without being super-familiar with England/British English is by having a writing partner who's from England. Otherwise you're going to screw up a lot of the language and a lot of the everyday cultural details without even realizing it.

Therefore, if you're not extremely extremely familiar with England etc., you will need to change this story. You'll need to put in something American--a major American character who narrates it, or an American character who is the focus (i.e. 3d-person limited point of view focusing on the American), in order to account for the narrator not sounding authentically British. You'll also want to get the dialogue of all British characters (including your MC and her sister) checked by a native speaker of British English.

Hi! My name is Chantal, I'm a 23 y-o college student, I'm French and...I live in Oxford Seriously! Check my blog

I love coincidences, I live for them

This is what I can tell you, kids here in Oxford use a slang a lot (or at least I've heard them use it a lot. I couldn't even begin to give you tips on it because between the accent and the slang and English being my third language...well... you see what I mean

Here's another suggestion, why not set it somewhere not England and not US. Make it vague enough that a British person will assume it's Britain and an American will think it's somewhere in that very vast land, then keep your English fairly standard or make up your own slang/use "standard" internet slang and you're all set!

Chantal,

whilst looking up things for the 'British English, American English' thread that pete linked to, I found a few sites which might prove useful (you might have seen some of them, but they might help someone else..):

Wikipedia: American and British English differences

Wikipedia: Words with different meanings in UK and US

Wikipedia: List of British words not used in US

Harvard: British vs American

Effingpot

Translating US to UK and UK to US

British/American dictionaries

Hope this helps!

Well, when you're done with the manuscript and have done a couple of rewrites, PM me and I'll be happy to have a look at it. As an Oxford resident (erm, I live and study in Headington, btw, yay for more coincidences!) I'll tell you if your references to this city are more or less right.

Also, I'm studying publishing so by the time you're done, I'll probably be an actual editor Teehee.