In which I help you with cover tips, writing tips, rant about Sirius Black (Better known as my husband) and make Banana Pancakes to help everyone get through 2018.
Okay, inspiration's being a bitch (or rather lack of inspiration) so ranting is always a good alternative. Also this will probably make no cohesive sense but whatever, my brain is a little bit tired at this point, okay?
Okay, so I've seen in a lot of help books things like don't use American English and whilst I think there are some that are really helpful and give side by side comparisons for those who want to alter their dialect, a lot of them seem to just leave it there but I feel like you can use it to an extent
Whilst I kind of get it with words like rubbish vs garbage and sidewalk vs pavement, England isn't in a bubble and by the 90s the dialects had converged tremendously. Whilst Hermione, Harry and Ron all spoke with very kind of typically British, quite posh dialect with lots of 'bloody hells!', I just don't think everyone at Hogwarts would be like that, some would probably use American dialect and that's fine.
In the 1970s, there was still quite a divide (I think?) but by the 1990s, a lot of families had TVs, American films and music were very common in England so I find it impossible to believe that the Wizards wouldn't at least have been a bit influenced about it. Sure they might spend their time around RP purebloods all the time but they'd still have had 10/11 years exposed to American slang along with holidays and, like England isn't in a bubble and I sometimes feel like people can be way too harsh when they see something that isn't typically British
For instance, one of my characters uses the words 'Oh my God' a lot and a few people have complained a little, claiming it's too American. But she's an excitable, wealthy Muggleborn who grew up on American Chick Flicks and films, why would she suddenly exclusively use 'Merlin's Beards' and stuff when that's not what she grew up with? Sure, she'd be influenced by her pureblood friend's dialects but she'd likely still say a lot of phrases that were considered American, along with many other Muggleborns and Half-bloods
Dialects can show a lot about the characters and that could be a great way to show that they're a muggleborn or their parents were from America or that they love the culture there, it's not as Black and White as I sometimes see it, like they can mingle a bit.
Even in my area, some people speak with typically British slang like 'twat', 'bollocks' and even 'dooby ferkin' (if anyone knows whatever the hell this means, tell me because I have no fucking clue). Meanwhile one of my friends learnt English as a second language so was taught it with an American accent and dialect, another of my friends watches so much Ru Paul that she speaks like that with a similar accent.
And sometimes people can be very critical and I know they're trying to help but they sometimes seem to forget that a lot of Authors are American and it can be hard to alter your dialect at all times. Like when I try and write 70s and inspirations flowing, it can be hard to remember to completely omit modern dialects so I imagine it's the same
I guess it just annoys me that some people can be very critical of it when really they're a lot closer than some people seem to make it out as. If you want to do it that's fabulous but I just feel like it's not the end of the world if people find it hard to adapt dialect and what not and it kind of annoys me sometimes when I see people being really critical of it
I don't know what the point of this one rant was particularly but I ranted.
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Also has anyone else noticed they can track which chapters have kiss/sex scenes in because the views will randomly be like 20% higher than all the rest? I noticed it the other day and it amused me - E x
