Fanfic Pet Peeves

[mathpiglet]

I think, for the most part, it's a matter of knowing where is your show set. If you're writing for an American show, write in American English. For a British show, British English. It does go back to knowing your audience. American shows are going to (generally) have a larger contingent of American viewers, reverse that for British shows.

This struck me as amusing, since I mostly write Highlander fanfiction. Highlander was an American/German/Canadian/French production filmed in Vancouver and Paris. Fans are from all over the world!

I'm Canadian, but I write in American English for my stories!

[SF_and_Coffee]

Heh. I'm an American who was born and raised very close to the border, and in my experience Canadian and American English aren't terribly different, save for a few instances of 'u' here and there in spelling. British English gets trickier, what with the 'z' vs 's' bit and of course the 'u'. Not to mention differences of idiom. I've reached the point where I can navigate all of them fairly well, and at least get by in Australian English too.

Interesting how some of the differences between various types of English can run. For example, in American English it's most common to hear or read of a decision being made, whereas in British English I notice decisions are more often "taken" than "made". Some speakers of American English use that form too, as in the case of my thoroughly American ex-husband.

Anyone have any other idiomatic differences between the various forms of English that they've noticed and would like to share?

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Okay, these are so bad that they made me laugh:

A hyenas crime
An indigent scientist

Seaboe

[Whytewytch]

Okay, these are so bad that they made me laugh:

A hyenas crime
An indigent scientist

Seaboe

I almost just fell off the bed!

American/British differences--I actually use some British grammar, as it makes more sense to me. I place my end punctuation after the quotation marks, unless someone is speaking. (Ex: He wanted to go to the survival training "for the experience".) Not the best example, but we've been driving all day.

[SF_and_Coffee]

American/British differences--I actually use some British grammar, as it makes more sense to me. I place my end punctuation after the quotation marks, unless someone is speaking. (Ex: He wanted to go to the survival training "for the experience".) Not the best example, but we've been driving all day.

That isn't British; that's just correct. The period/question mark/whatever only belongs inside the quotations marks when that particular piece of punctuation is part of what someone said.

[Whytewytch]

That isn't British; that's just correct. The period/question mark/whatever only belongs inside the quotations marks when that particular piece of punctuation is part of what someone said.

I knew I'd get it wrong and that you'd catch me. Anyway, there's some punctuation thing I do that is not done in American grammar but is done in British. Too danged tired right now to figure it out.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

SF--quotation marks or parentheses? Whyte was using parentheses but you said quotes. There is a different in usage with quotation marks.

Seaboe

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

I almost just fell off the bed!

I can make it funnier: the indigent scientist was McKay.

Seaboe

[SF_and_Coffee]

SF--quotation marks or parentheses? Whyte was using parentheses but you said quotes. There is a different in usage with quotation marks.

I direct your attention back to what she posted:

American/British differences--I actually use some British grammar, as it makes more sense to me. I place my end punctuation after the quotation marks, unless someone is speaking. (Ex: He wanted to go to the survival training "for the experience".) Not the best example, but we've been driving all day.

Now do you see why I was talking about quotation marks? That's what she was talking about.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

I guess I can't read today, unless someone is playing Mrs. Malaprop.

Seaboe

[Skydiver]

We Americans would never say 'the mission went pear shaped'...unless that person spent a lot of time in the uk.

[SF_and_Coffee]

I guess I can't read today, unless someone is playing Mrs. Malaprop.

Seaboe

Heh. Believe me, I have those days sometimes.

We Americans would never say 'the mission went pear shaped'...unless that person spent a lot of time in the uk.

Exactly!

[Skydiver]

Military would say

It went FUBAR
It went south
It went to hell

[SF_and_Coffee]

Or even a few other things I'll reserve for my fic rather than posting here, although one involves replacing "hell" with a certain term for excrement, and for the other... well, I'll just let Frank Cromwell say it the same way he did over dinner with General Hammond while they were both snowbound at O'Hare:

"Let's just say my team's last mission in Iraq was a real Charlie Foxtrot. Sir."

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

This isn't exactly a peeve, but it's peeve-like. Why do so many fanfic authors put Jack in a Jeep? I'll do them the courtesy of assuming the stories were written before it was canon that Jack drove a truck. I grant you, MacGyver drove a jeep, and so did Adam (in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). I can't think of anything about Jack that leads to the intuitive leap that he would also drive a Jeep. Jeeps ceased to be exclusively military vehicles before Jack was even out of the Academy.

Seaboe

[Princess Awinita]

This isn't exactly a peeve, but it's peeve-like. Why do so many fanfic authors put Jack in a Jeep? I'll do them the courtesy of assuming the stories were written before it was canon that Jack drove a truck. I grant you, MacGyver drove a jeep, and so did Adam (in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). I can't think of anything about Jack that leads to the intuitive leap that he would also drive a Jeep. Jeeps ceased to be exclusively military vehicles before Jack was even out of the Academy.

Seaboe

Nowadays they have Hummer H1s or F250 military grade trucks, I know for a fact that Jack drives a F250 superduty, no idea on the year though, I merely assume a 1999 or late 2000 model, four door though, no missing that.

[hedwig]

This isn't exactly a peeve, but it's peeve-like. Why do so many fanfic authors put Jack in a Jeep? I'll do them the courtesy of assuming the stories were written before it was canon that Jack drove a truck. I grant you, MacGyver drove a jeep, and so did Adam (in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). I can't think of anything about Jack that leads to the intuitive leap that he would also drive a Jeep. Jeeps ceased to be exclusively military vehicles before Jack was even out of the Academy.

Seaboe

Or a Porsche? Or a Thunderbird?

[SF_and_Coffee]

This isn't exactly a peeve, but it's peeve-like. Why do so many fanfic authors put Jack in a Jeep? I'll do them the courtesy of assuming the stories were written before it was canon that Jack drove a truck. I grant you, MacGyver drove a jeep, and so did Adam (in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). I can't think of anything about Jack that leads to the intuitive leap that he would also drive a Jeep. Jeeps ceased to be exclusively military vehicles before Jack was even out of the Academy.

Seaboe

I'm guessing it doesn't have anything to do with the Jeep as a military vehicle. More likely it's an author who wrote prior to the introduction of Jack's truck, and figured him for the kind of guy who would drive, say, a Jeep Grand Cherokee or something. Hey, it's a nice outdoorsy SUV, exactly the kind of thing you might expect for someone like Jack. Good in almost any kind of weather, etc. I've got one parked in my driveway right now, in fact.

Spoiler:

For that matter, Frank Cromwell will purchase one upon his return to Earth.

[wurlitzer153]

We Americans would never say 'the mission went pear shaped'...unless that person spent a lot of time in the uk.

Every time this conversation comes up, I feel that we should bump up the old "Speaking American" thread...

[Skydiver]

i think jack in a jeep is for the same reason Sam lived in an apartment....people made leaps before they had canon, and living in an apartment makes far more sense than a house for someone in the military...jack in a jeep, a leap from Macgyver I think.

You get one author doing something and those that read her work tend to follow and fanon is born.