#truly something indeed-

[darabeatha]

I love putting t.ezca in situations

[normalbrothers]

s04ep04

[seriousbrat]

What are your favourite telltale signs that a fanfic was written by an american?

Some that always sticks out to me:

- Characters drinking lots of coffee

- Tea with cream instead of milk (it’s not unheard of, but it’s not your standard cup of tea)

- People mentioning hospital bills

- Being unable to write smokers casually

- Sirius is salivating for a Harley Davidson and not a Triumph

Okay honestly the tea thing in general is a BIG one. I think people don't always understand the way tea is consumed in the UK, how ingrained it is in daily life. Ive basically got a rotating cup of tea all day. Growing up in my house, even when we lived in america, someone would offer to make tea basically hourly lol. There's different situations when tea is offered in slightly different ways, different ways of making tea like builder's tea, different things that are served with tea, tea meaning 'dinner' in some regions, and these customs are hard to understand unless you've lived them.

Often Remus is portrayed as a tea fanatic because he offers tea when Harry visits him, which is always funny to me because that's just the normal thing to do when someone's visiting.

Another tea-related one I encountered once (this made me laugh a LOT and I felt a bit bad for the author) was that Lily 'woke up to the smell of tea.' This is an instance I think using coffee would have been alright lol, they obviously just replaced 'coffee' with 'tea', not realising tea doesn't really smell much when you make it and definitely doesn't waft about the house like coffee does. James would have to be holding the cup under her nose or brewing several large vats of the stuff in the same room lol

I agree with the ones you've said. In what was once the most popular jily fic in the fandom, there's a whole thing with Lily somewhat righteously trying to get James to quit smoking when, in the 70s, everyone and your nan smoked, even indoors, and Lily herself probably would have too. In a lot of Europe young people from all walks of life will casually smoke. rah where's my baccy etc

Similar to the Harley thing, there's often a lot of American music/TV/food/pop culture used. Or anachronistic stereotypically British things like everyone being into the Beatles.

THE NAMES. Characters having surnames that are very much from America's immigrant heritage, polish or german etc, like 'Schneider' and 'Kowalski' and things. First names too, this is a bit less dire but a lot of names common in the US wouldn't have been given to a child in the 60s. Specifically aristocratic characters would have a particular set of names, although pureblood conventions are obv a bit different than irl.

Another one is general drinking culture. Like I mentioned the idea of, honestly, anyone who isn't an obvious child being asked for ID in a pub is very silly haha, unless maybe in a student area. Whereas in America they'll ask everyone for ID before they let them sit down. (even my 60yr old dad has been asked lol)

in my experience Americans have a strange relationship with alcohol in general, which is both slightly puritan and enthusiastic. My theory is that this is because of prohibition (I find this very historically interesting) and they aren't as prone to casual daily drinking as Europeans, rather they tend to go all out on specific occasions. I love an American house party haha, but I don't think Americans would go for work drinks at the pub as often.

Exaggerated distances between places. Working class families having multiple cars and big houses and driving everywhere even within London. Aristocratic characters doing things they'd never do and having things they'd never have. The Blacks are often portrayed as too fantabulously wealthy imo in a very Rockerfeller New England-y way. Also they wouldn't speak French to each other lol

In general class distinctions, which are very important in the UK, are difficult to understand from an outside perspective I think.

However, I think the main tell for me is usually dialogue, SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG:

This issue, tbf, is very understandable. It's very difficult to achieve natural-sounding dialogue for dialects that you're not personally familiar with. Tbh I think it's not always easy to achieve natural-sounding dialogue in general for anyone. I've lived in America too and now have lived in a non-english speaking country for many years, mostly speaking catalan/spanish on a daily basis, so I get confused too and I use american phrases picked up either during my time there or from the internet. Anyway point is I think about/notice dialogue a lot, so here are my thoughts.

There's often overuse/misuse of slang or certain terms that can end up being amusing, like that fan film using 'a row' constantly to describe a bitter fight to the death between sworn enemies haha. Over/misuse of things like 'bloody,' 'wanker,' 'twat' lol. Understanding what types of characters would say what, and in what situations, can be tricky. 'Pants' is a common mistake because in BrE it means underpants, not trousers. 'Restroom' is also very American. 'College' meaning 'university' ditto. 'Pissed' for angry rather than 'drunk,' 'mad' also to a lesser extent-- I'd normally understand 'are you mad' as 'are you crazy.'

I saw a tumblr post once, one I thought would be a bit mean to reply to directly, in which a character jokes to Sirius about 'doing fags' because he smokes cigarettes and is in a relationship with Remus. lmao. That's a good example of someone trying to use a slang term without understanding the way it's really used. Also a good example of someone gratuitously using a slur (which is more common in America anyway) for no reason lol oh well

In general, I think since Americans are used to hollywood portrayals of British characters who mostly use something akin to RP, even authors who are diligent about BrE can end up sounding a bit stilted and a bit pride and prejudice-y with their teen characters (except with 'bloody wanker!' sprinkled in occasionally.) And this is fine, I don't think it's fair to expect perfectly natural/accurate dialogue from fanfic authors all the time, wherever they're from. But a line like "Yes, it must have been nice" might sound more natural as "Yeah, must've been nice," though it depends on the character obv.

Personally I think I overuse contractions because I find them fun (I love a cheeky 'oughtn't' or a 'mightn't.' or 'shouldn't've' lol. tbh im always saying 'ought' and 'ought not' irl but that's just me being weird.) But contractions and dropping certain words is common in informal BrE, what's tricky is that if this is misused it also sounds odd. So it's a difficult balance to get right. For instance: 'it would be nice if they had' can become 'be nice if they had' but not 'be nice if they.' or 'be nice if they'd.' This was a professionally made video game rip but there's a character in Mass Effect who talks like that, it drove me mad.

I love to think about accents and dialects and dialogue in general (which is why this got so long sorry) and imo the key is just familiarising yourself with a dialect as much as possible and making sure you hear the accent in your head as you write. Using slang terms in ways you've heard them used before, and carefully. For younger characters you'll want to watch something like the inbetweeners rather than bridgerton haha. Or something like Would I Lie To You or Taskmaster where there's a variety of panelists and therefore of accents, both series are free on youtube and are excellent!

[freebooter4ever]

clips of bread and geno from sat! make sure to catch the cute hopping celly and also this:

i have no idea what that says but damn it he looks gorgeous and ageless. its probably the decade old happy penguin hat. the penguin hat is the fountain of youth.

[angelsdean]

don't know how people multi-fandom. dipped my toe into another one and immediately backed out bc everyone there was insufferable.

[moeblob]

I vote for Argenti! I hope you feel better soon!

Thank you ! I do feel much better (though I admit I hurt a little for very much my fault reasons but it's mostly manageable through light pain meds).

Take an Argenti o7 I got lazy and didn't draw the roses I was gonna draw to the left so there is now a wide open blank spot.

[totheblood]

i like highly encourage you to log off and message a friend or a therapist if ur in my anon writing a novel length hate message because you have to scroll past an smau with ur hands down ur pants when ur reading ellie williams smut … get serious help

[satorena]

fun fact: i’m actually a sucker for rom-com movies! while i grew up, my mom learned english through sitcoms and movies and therefore i’d always be by her side romanticizing life through the lens of a shitty and unrealistic love story :3

[cheriafreya]

a dragon called Castora and a beautiful assault specialist called Acheron, the Zenless team loves HSR for sure

[pietroleopoldo]

Takashi Kokubo has done so much for me it's unreal

[haresvoid]

While it would be nice to say Ome doesn't change after becoming illithilich, thats not nearly as fun.

Especially in regards to modern au, theres a lot of different conditions. Being a lich, it has a phylactery. Which needs to be fed souls. Ome still has its moral code and only gathers souls of a certain evil caliber, and while it has to get these much less often than it needed to feed on brains, this is a lot more "corrupt" process than feeding as it is taking a soul and using it, not just a piece of flesh and killing.

But when added to the modern au, which I'm playing off the idea the illithid race as basically extinct (using the "from the far future" mind flayer theory here where they went back to stop their species extinction, but failed anyways), Ome is much more cautious and self preserving now because it believe it is the last of its kind. With it would a true end come, as would any potential knowledge and continuance. It is a tad more manipulative than it was in the past, and aware sometimes bad actions are necessary for greater good (thus the truthfully criminal actions it partakes in to get materials to help others).

Additionally, its old. It's been alive for centuries upon centuries, seen and experienced more than most of its kind ever did, minus a few others. It has wants and desires and things its come to enjoy, things it misses and would do selfish things to obtain-- - within reason. It still has its core beliefs; value of life despite its undeath, freedom, a desire to see the world prosper and grow and heal others. But on the other hand its lying- its playing pretend and living a small fantasy tricking others to think its something it isn't. It raises corpses to do tasks for it much like it did thousands of years ago when much younger with the Lich it worked with. And its mind does wander to concepts questionable at best- if the illithid race was to be reborn without elder brains or the grand design even being a concept anymore, how would the species grow? How would it change? It's an experiment it hasn't acted upon, but is it simply because of inability due to it being undead, or truly morals hindering it?

[daydreamerdrew]

Iron Man (1968) #47

[042-240]

😭😭😭

[bewarethewolfarmy]

Great Gatsby (which I hate for the record as a book but that's my personal preference) reminded me of my sophomore English class in high school. So like 10th grade, 15-16 year olds. We had to sit around talking about that book and discussing reading comprehension stuff, you know the schtick.

Well wouldn't you know it but the conversation turned to how my fellow classmates (again only 15-16 years old) felt about the characters and today's topic was Daisy. In which as I remember it did not go well; see my classmates were kids of the millennia and grew up in the time of feminism and women's rights (and wrongs) and found it greatly insulting (both male and female, I need to make sure you understand that this was not only one gender annoyed but a good majority of the class) that Daisy was, well, Daisy. That she talked the way she did, she acted the way she did, that she wanted her daughter to grow up pretty and brainless, yada yada yada.

Now not to toot my own horn but I'd been testing high on reading skills since i was like 6, reading was my thing, reading was my jam, and ever since I was itty bitty i always liked characters more than anything else (which goes into my disliking of Great Gatsby but that's not important right now). So here I am, about 16 years old, listening to a bunch of other teenagers complain and degrade Daisy who I objectively loathe anyway for being a main character of a book I loathe. But I found myself unwilling to stand for that, because there was a clear fundamental issue that I needed to make sure they understood and thus spoke up about (despite being social anxious most of my life).

That issue was that these teenagers of the 21st century were trying to apply their values to a woman of the 1920's. Daisy wasn't made in the 2000's, she wasn't a woman who grew up with the right to vote and choose her own path, treated as at least marginally equal to men; she was a girl who grew up in a certain time in a certain place and complaining about who she is based on 21st century morality and concepts was never going to be fair or right. And it undermined the importance of WHAT Daisy was really saying and feeling, that her wishes for her daughter was ultimately about hoping for a better life for her, in the only ways she felt she had access to. That Daisy was doing what she could with what she had and just because she's not a liberated woman who don't need no man doesn't make her a bad person.

Point is, the discussion reminded me of this little footnote in my life but it's a footnote that definitely supports the idea that people just don't think sometimes, and they don't really read and haven't for a long time. Or maybe the concept of being an edgelord is so strong in humans at times that they feel the only way they can feel happy is by "advocating" for the most negative view on things: Huck Finn is just a bad racist book, Daisy from the Great Gatsby is a terrible woman and the book glorifies stalking (which like it so doesn't; part of truly hating a book is knowing the book and it really doesn't do that at all even before Gatsby gets his comeuppance), etc etc etc.)

[brltpop]

Wait... none of the movie lists made by users here added suicide room (2011). That movie was EVERYWHERE back in the day here, people were madly obsessed with it wtf

[horsemage]

I'm gonna brush my teeth and take my contacts out and try to get one more thing done to prep for tomorrow before I try and get a few hours of sleep