(no subject)

[pensnest]

So, MTYG—almost reveal time! If you can get in quick and identify what I wrote, I'll produce a ficlet for you. :-D

Comments

[nopseud]

{waves}

I know! I know!

[pensnest]

*And* you've already told me what to write!

[morgana]

I'm guessing that you wrote the very funny "Nothing Risqué, Nothing Gained."

(I couldn't figure out how to create spoiler-text, sorry.)

[brandywine28.livejournal.com]

Aw, screw it! I'm generally pretty lousy at this, but - dammit! - I'm coming off of a hellish week and I could really use a good ficlet!

I'm guessing you wrote the truly outrageous cigarettes & sunrise.

[pensnest]

A flattering guess, indeed, but no. :-)

[brandywine28.livejournal.com]

Man, even my back-up guess was wrong! Awful, just awful. :)

I'll get it right one of these years - mark my words!

[pensnest]

It's amazing how difficult it is. I always think I have certain tics in my writing that make it really clear which stories were mine, but as often as not people are cunning about identifying things like punctuation and section divider styles!

Of course, we're a lot more familiar with our own work than with other people's, so... eh. It's difficult.

[brandywine28.livejournal.com]

It is! My only really successful bit of sleuthing was when I figured out that whoever wrote Frozen Dreams was, at the very least, British (because 'parlour'! And also 'flavour'! Hee); I was so proud I did everything but give myself a literal pat on the back. It's sad, really.

[pensnest]

I suspect one could do a word count and deduce which is nopseud's story because the one she writes for her original recipient will be the longest of the lot! She does tend to produce *epic* fic for MTYG.

[brandywine28.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't want to assume *too* much. :)

But, yeah. Superfluous "U"s. My big deduction of 2013, everybody! (Sherlock Holmes I ain't.)

[pensnest]

Now, I like to use American spelling in the SeSa challenge, as a Disguise (although I tend to try for American spellings in my popslash anyway, unless I'm not writing it in a specifically US setting). But I remember one year getting feedback from someone that said "Well, I know you're a Brit" but not saying why, so I don't to this day know what it was that gave me away! Gah!

[brandywine28.livejournal.com]

Gah! That sucks!

...maybe it wasn't you? Maybe your feedbacker had some freaky psychic abilities!/optimism

[pensnest]

Yeah. :-( The story in question was 'Collaboration', which I wrote for trumpeterofdoom, who probably wouldn't notice any Briticisms as she's more a British English speaker than an American English speaker, anyway.

It's funny what phrases catch us out, though. I remember vividly doing a little piece and getting it checked for language by a couple of Americans, who both flagged "felt as though he'd been paddling in the shallows and stepped off the Continental Shelf". For me, 'paddling' primarily means 'walking in below-the-knees water' and for them—and you, presumably!—it means propelling a canoe. The replacement phrase just wasn't as good, woe!

And I remember someone telling me that "Oh, you *star*!" from 'Merchandising' was something no American would ever say (or think, in context). I had no idea that little phrase would be so British.

The really sad thing? When I wrote 'It Pays To Advertise', a London-based AU, I kept putting in Americanisms. Gah.

[brandywine28.livejournal.com]

Hm. Actually - and I don't know why! - the very first thing I think of when someone says 'paddling' is 'spanking' (in the 'corporal punishment' context, not the awesome, kinky, sex dungeon-y one). But, yeah, canoeing/kayaking/whatever-ing definitely clocks in at a close second. :)

What would you even use as a substitute, anyway? 'Wading'? (*Is* there another option? All my synonyms are deserting me! *hangs head in shame*)

I can honestly say I've never said (or thought) the phrase "Oh, you star!" in *any* context! I can only assume it's a reference to something I've never even heard of, probably because I'm so boorish and uncultured. :)

[pensnest]

Wading, to me, is walking through water that's knee-high or more, so I think I went with 'splashing' instead.

I don't think "Oh, you star!" is a reference to anything, but it's obviously a much more quintessentially British thing to say/think than I ever realised!

There is always another detail to learn of the differences between our two languages, isn't there!