#britpicking

[berlynn-wohl]

way back when i was writing bbc sherlock fic i used to britpick everything. now i write good omens and i britpick for some vocabulary but not spelling because i'm lazy. what are your thoughts on this issue?

[thecottageinthedark]

Writing pet peeve because i saw this for the nth time today;

Americans, please do not talk about locations in British cities/towns in terms of 'x number of blocks away'. We do not have city blocks.

Here's a street map of part of London so you can see what I mean.

Do you see what I mean? It's not divided up into even little rectangular chunks. You can't navigate in London by saying a certain place is a certain amount of blocks away. And that holds true for ALL cities in Britain.

I have an inkling that most cities in the world are like this in point of fact, especially the old ones. (People from other parts of the non-American world please feel free to confirm/deny). This kind of messiness is the sort of street plan you get when a city grows organically, without anyone trying to make the whole thing Orderly all at once.

Also because of this British people don't think in terms of blocks, or use them to describe distance and direction, any more than we would calculate the value of some item in US dollars. We'll say stuff like 'half a mile down the road' or 'the first turning on your left' or whatever instead.

[scoatneyhall]

Okay, Ted Lasso pals. I really just need to put this one out into the universe. This is in the Britpick primer @belmottetower made already, but I certainly don't assume everyone reads that. I need people to know that "flat" is not British slang for someone's "home" or "place." It is SPECIFICALLY slang for "apartment," as in, a "block of flats."

I am saying this because I seen a lot - like a LOT - of use of the word "flat" recently in fic. At first I wondered whether it was people just for some reason imagining that the characters, generally Roy and Jamie, are actually living in flats, as in, misinterpreting what kind of homes they would be living in as very wealthy footballers, despite having seen Jamie's house several times on the show and knowing what Roy's must be like due to his wealth and neighbourhood. But then sometimes when describing the layout of the home or the action, of stairs being involved, of people coming and going from the door or whatever, it really still seemed to be a house, and it made me wonder if in fact some non-British writers are just getting the slang wrong? That they think "flat" is slang for someone's home, like "pad" or the very British term "gaff," as opposed to a specific type of building?

So this is a judgement-free PSA to let you know that this is not the case. Flat means apartment and ONLY apartment, and characters like Roy and Jamie are not living in apartments in the canon of the show.

(Footballers sometimes do live in apartments. A few of the Man City players are buying huge penthouse flats in some of the inner city high security Manchester high rises, and it's possible that Jamie owns a fancy flat like that in Manchester. But Richmond is not an area of London filled with luxury high rises.)

In the show, Nate lives in a flat within a block of flats. Ted lives in a flat above a shop. Jamie and Keeley live in houses. We have seen their exteriors (Jamie's season 3 house is the same one he had in season 1.) Colin lives in a house. Phoebe and Roy's sister live in a house. Rebecca lives in a large terrace house opposite Richmond Green. Given that we see Roy's street in the Christmas episode, we can be very sure that his place is also a large terrace house of a similar style to the ones they knock on doors of. Roy grew up in a block of council flats - he points to it in 2.05 - whereas Jamie grew up in a council terrace house.

This post is not aimed at you if you've intentionally written something like Jamie moving into a security building for safety reasons or something. I have this situation coming up in a fic myself. This is not about splitting hairs of whether it would or wouldn't be possible or in character for them to live in a flat. It is solely and literally only for the purpose of flagging the fact that "flat" is not generic slang for "home," for the people that may have thought it was and used the word flat when they were picturing and intending the characters to be in a house. This is probably a very annoying post but if this helps even one person it's worth it.

[paper-beats-writers-block]

okay brits help a bestie out.

not to be an american on main but do y'all have porch swings? I want to add it to a fic that they have a porch swing on their house because it would be so cute and google did not give me a good answer. halp.

[benicebefunny]

Looking for Beta

I am in need of a beta for my @wipbigbang fic.

About the fic

The fandom is Ted Lasso.

It centers Nathan Shelley and his relationship with Bex.

It's a dark comedy with elements of satire and silliness.

The current draft is over 90k words.

I'm looking for a beta who can read through and flag moments where

The plot is difficult to follow.

The British characters sound American.

If you're interested or have questions, please message me.

Signal boosts are appreciated.

[destinationtoast]

britpicking? (Ted Lasso)

So, I seem to be continuing to write lots of Ted Lasso Roy/Jamie/Keeley fic. :D Is anyone interested in britpicking? I'd be especially interested in someone who can help with the essentials of a Northern/Mancunian dialect (e.g., when it's appropriate to say something like, "she were sending a text" vs. "she was sending a text") and also with "innit" (which I know is linguistically more complex than just replacing "isn't it" and has been evolving). I'm happy to beta/ameripick in return, if desired.

I currently have a couple WIPs that are a few thousand words each.

[sarahg221b]

Having recently read a fanfic in which Sherlock and John catch trains to various parts of southern England exclusively from London’s Waterloo station, even when this is not the usual/logical route, I’d like to share this for writers who might not be familiar with the whole business of trains in/to/from London.

Let’s start with the history of how and when rail services came to London. This article explains how and why we have so many terminal stations (short version: because when they were built, the railway companies were privately owned and all needed their own terminus in London).

The main terminal stations are Waterloo (south), Paddington (west), Euston (north-west), King’s Cross (north-east), St Pancras (East Midlands and Eurostar), Liverpool Street (east), Fenchurch Street (south-east) and Victoria (south). There are others (see the article linked above and my husband’s comment below).

As we know, within London and the suburbs, these termini are linked by the London Underground (aka The Tube) network. There is also the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) - a driverless system - and other overground rail services. Here is a map of it all from Transport of London (TfL). Baker Street is served by five tube lines: Bakerloo (brown), Metropolitan (maroon), Jubilee (silver), Circle (yellow), and Hammersmith & City (pink). It’s also only a five-minute walk from Marylebone (the nearest terminal) which itself is just behind the Landmark hotel, which we know as the exterior for The Restaurant Scene.

Aside: I think Sherlock is unlikely to catch a bus unless directly related to a case - they’re just too slow for him. But you can find bus maps and all kinds of other TfL mappy delights here.

If you have characters using public transport in the UK, your best bets for accurate research are:

Google Maps (in public transport mode)

National Rail (see the page footer for all the useful stuff)

Transport for London

All these also have apps available.

I’m happy to do Sherlockian Britpicking (my day job is copy-editing) if that’s helpful for you. (Email to [my username]@gmail.com is the best way to reach me.)

If you want to go the full Howard Shilcott, I still very much enjoy reading the rail enthusiasts’ forums posts about the myriad tube-related continuity errors in TEH. I’ll let you Google those for yourself. 😉

———

Ran this past my husband (who is totally the full Howard Shilcott) and he made a few corrections (and a lot of faces!) before I posted: he wishes it to be known that he ‘remains unhappy about [my summary of] Fenchurch Street’ and thinks I should add Charing Cross to the list so people know how to get to Kent. So that’s all clear then. 😂

[noyzinerd]

The Reason Why Americans Spell "Colour" As "Color" (And Other Weird Spellings)

For American and British fanfic writers/readers alike (or any curious souls from anywhere else) who are wondering why Americans spell certain words without an extra "U", unlike everyone else, you can thank the printing press and the classic, American tradition of "cutting corners" for that.

The printing press was the first machine to mass produce documents, entire books, and newspapers, when the only other alternative was writing everything out by hand, and was crucial in developing a nation that was just starting out. However, buying/transporting the machines and metal letters could be pricey and would take far too long to get to America (since all supplies had to be shipped overseas from Europe). News outlets of the time didn't want to potentially miss out on printing vital, current events during this wait and newspapers also only had so much room to get their point across on the front page. So, it became common practice to get rid of letters that didn't affect words phonetically to save on space, money, and time, drastically changing how Americans spell certain words to this day.

Words like "favourite", "flavour", "colour", "armour", and "honour" became "favorite", "flavor", "color", "armor", and "honor". We also have:

Mould➡️Mold

Encyclopaedia➡️Encyclopedia

Speciality➡️Specialty

Jewellery➡️Jewelry

Cheque➡️Check

Plough➡️Plow

Draught➡️Draft

Programme➡️Program

Spelling things phonetically also advanced the country's education, as most of the illiterate lower-class could now pick up reading a lot faster, thus, essentially, creating a middle class, where there hadn't been one before, as the written word became more accessible. This history of choosing spellings based on phonetics eventually made America into a culture that spells many words by how they sound when spoken, instead of by their root-word origins (such as Latin, Roman, Greek, etc.) even if the letter count is the same or longer.

Examples include "realise" becoming "realize", "cosy" becoming "cozy", and "offence" and "defence" becoming "offense" and "defense".

And thus concludes the deep and rich history behind why Americans spell certain things the way that they do.

So, just a tip for you British fanfic writers out there planning to write in an American fandom:

Make sure to check your spelling.

(Oh, quick side note: some Google results will say that Americans use "dialog", "monolog", and "practise" instead of "dialogue", "monologue", and "practice", but I have never once come across anyone in my life who has ever used those spellings, nor have I used an American computer/phone that will let me do that without autocorrecting me. Maybe there are some places in the US that use those, but if there are, I haven't seen them.)

[ohdeargodwhy]

Dear (non-Brit) Ted Lasso fic writers please put down the word 'gaffer', you've taken it into a lot of new situations and now its overstimulated and needs a lie-down

[fallenangelontheceiling]

Hey One Direction/Harry Potter/British Series fandoms -

Where is your masterpost on writing fics set in UK schools? Like what the grade system is, grading, college prep, finances, public vs private, etc.

I know there are some cheat sheets!

[thestalwartheart]

SO

The time has come to tell me your Britpick bugbears.

I'm finally gonna do it, I'm finally gonna make the Britpicker spreadsheet/list of my dreams.* And before anyone starts, I'm not doing it to be petty or nipicky. I'm doing it so people who are intimidated by either britpicking or reaching out for betas have a resource to check. The intent is to make this easily sharable and also searchable. Text posts on tumblr are great, but a) tumblr's search is garbage and b) sometimes you just wanna look something up quickly but you can't parse a text post like that. Also, I'd like to leave space for London-specific content vs other areas in the UK.

Anyway, I am not The One Expert on this, so if you see this post and a particular word/phrase popped into your head that you want me to add to the list, feel free to add it to the replies and reblogs!

And if you want to work with me on it, just shoot me a message.

*might even fuck around and make a web app.

[ban-aard]

@ british english speakers 👉🏻👈🏻 according to the internet, ‘poster child’ (or boy/girl) is mainly used in the US.

is there a british equivalent? or is it just whatever & brits use it too?

[stuckinanotherfandomohno]

not to add to the stereotype of being an annoying british person but if anyone has ever, for some ungodly reason, decided they want their WIP britpicked I would be delighted to be as annoying as possible

[notachaconne]

This is the kind of robin that lives in England. Not at all like the species of the same name that lives in the US. They are not shy. I am alone under a canopy in a park under light rain, and this Robin Redbreast want to know if I have anything for it to eat. They will also come if they see you digging.

[thatqueercookie]

Do I have any British mutuals? I want to know if pancakes are a US/Canada thing bc I mentioned them in the Doctor Who fic I'm writing and wondering if I should take it out.