Thank you to all of you who have PM'd or commented on my work so far. In a way I've cheated, because I have simply revised and reposted all my stories that exist elsewhere on the web.
A BIG thanks to Sephy for all her hard work in assisting in the posting. If there's one person who keeps things rolling, she's the one.
I have decided to continue Monique, so you may consider what is already posted (up to chapter 26) as Book One. There is a natural break, so I am taking the comments to heart and am going to continue her tale. There may be a little delay in posting the next lot, as I want to get a good bit written before posting, so please be patient with me.
i shall also be completing the sequels to many of the stories that already exist, so if you do not see my name appearing for a while, then now you know!
I have had many offers of proofreaders/editors, so what I may do is send one story to each, but I need to know who is serious about wanting to help. My reservations about using editors is that often they want to change the work completely, or take so long I become frustrated, so only serious applicants with experience, please. As I said, I have had many offers, for which I thank you, but please if you want to help me, give me an example of your work so that I can take a wee peek. I will be honest, there were more offers than I have stories, so please, please do not get upset if I select others. Perhaps I can use you the next time.
Tanya
Comments
Added Note
BigCloset TopShelf
And an added Note: If She gives you the story to proof, please maintain the confidentiality of the story she handed you and not pass it around to anyone else until she posts? please?
Just curious but
let's say you have an American talking to a British person. In the dialogue, both persons mention the word 'Color'. Would one spell it Color when the American says it and then switch to Colour when the Brit says it ?
In general I have a very good understanding of the differences in spelling but this is a fine point that has me scratching my head.
One more pet peeve I have is that American speakers almost never say he is "at University" or "in hospital" and some Brit writers have a bad habit of having an American do that. Above and beyond spelling difference, American cadence and phrasing and speech is a lot different from Brit and vice versa ( lots of American Public television of various BBC stuff has helped. )
I have privately edited my own versions of stories to my satisfaction but obviously they will never see the light of day. I have stopped doing it on my own as I don't have the time to do it anymore though it is a good intellectual exercise.
But sometimes seeing a really nice story that is scratched up, so to speak, by poor grammar and spelling gives me that itch though.
Kim
Spelling and syntax
Spelling would be according to the author, not the speaker, IMHO. If a British or Canadian wrote the story, the spelling would be "colour". If an American, it would be "color". This varies from the print publishing world I believe, where the place a particular book is printed seems to determine these fine details. I have read the same books printed for the American market and the British market, by both British and American authors, and the usage seem determined by the market.
Syntax and grammar usage, on the other hand, should reflect the speaker's usage, not the author's. As Kim points out, we do say things differently. To have an American speak like somebody from the U.K. rings wrong to me, as does a British speaker using American terms.
I've had the pleasure of proofing a few pieces for a British and a Canadian author and this has come up a few times. On Canadian and UK usage, I defer to the native; on American usage I can say with some authority "you're wrong".
Of such are many late night emails spawned. ;-)
KJT
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
I ahce fun working with Both British and US authors when
The characters are from both or more than two countries.
I worked on one with first person narration by a recent immigrant to the US from Britain, where other characters came from other parts of the US & Canada.
We finally decided to stick with the narrator's spelling, but for the most part, use the character's phrasing, but once in a while, we let the narrator rephrase things a bit, as a person witnessing thing may report the gist, but not the absolute verbatim words.
I'd want to see it more verbatim if it were 3rd person narration.
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
I agree here, too
One difference between many Canadian authors, particularly those further south, and west, is that they phrase most things as US citizens do, and
'at university', and 'in hospital' are some of them. I'd tend to leave it alone IF the speaker were from North America and the narration is by someone from England, but change it if the narrator were from North America. The same thing works in reverse.
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Color vs Colour
When words like color, colour, favor, favour, enterprize, enterprise, and surprize, surprise sound the same... it should be the target audience that determines which one you should use.
Even in movies... Commonwealth country subtitles use Commonwealth English, while American subtitles are in American English.
When the speaker is russian and is speaking english... which to use? The target audience. Its as if you translating to the audience.
Dayna.
didja know that y'all or ya'all is the plural of you?
Doesn't solve the question here
We have a very large number of readers who spell in the British fashion, they are part of any target audience. The only reasonable thing to do is leave it up to the authors.
This is going to happen more and more as delivery of text is done more and more on the internet. Right now, I'm just about as likely to read one of the British newspapers online as I am any particular one of the American ones. Just last night, I was reading news from one of the papers in the Australian Capital Territory. Source, not audience, will control the spelling in the new media for some time.
This isn't true in print because print is geographically focussed instead of being focussed by interest.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Americanization
I promise, I do not share any story I've archived for future reading. Any 'Americanization' of such stories are for my reading ease alone. That and I'm a compulsive editor, even if I don't always know what I am doing. As for British spelling and grammar, I've come to accept that some don't comprehend that in the United States it is the custom to close our sentences with something other than just a quotation mark; that there's a difference between 'of' and 'off', between its and it's, and most dramatically between 'to', 'too' and 'two'. Oh, the list does go on and no one cares.
Given the bastardization of the American language (lol) by other English speaking people, I nevertheless find reading their stories to be a delight. Praise and good fortune to all.
I am a grain of sand on a near beach; a nova in the sky, distant and long.
In my footprints wash the sea; from my hands flow our universe.
Fact and fiction sing a legendary song.
Trickster/Creator are its divine verse.
--Old Man CoyotePuma
I am a grain of sand on a near beach; a nova in the sky, distant and long.
In my footprints wash the sea; from my hands flow our universe.
Fact and fiction sing a legendary song.
Trickster/Creator are its divine verse.
--Old Man CoyotePuma
I have more or less solved the problem
Angela Rasch has edited most of my stories. She is a brilliant editor and I end up using a good 90% of her ideas. She is very good at leaving British spelling alone and just goes for the story. Not only that, but her turnaround speed has been amazing.
I am, as I say, English and a Tanya fan to boot. I just love your writing style and, if you used a proof reader on your stories so far, they have trapped all but a few typos.
If I can help, please give me a call.
Susie
I am an editor/proof-reader....
though most of the work I have lately undertaken is technical and academic in nature. I automatically proof-read stories as I read them; and would be glad to assist any of the many gifted authors here, should they ask.
As another commentor said, UK and American English differ in cadence and inflexion, as well as spelling and vocabulary; so I am more comfortable with the Queen's English.
One thing puzzles me, though; both English and 'muricans write dialogue as if the quoted speech always ends with a full-point, irrespective of the sense of the rest of the sentence. Is this what is being taught, nowadays?
Sometimes
I just finished reading Monique in ebook format. And I agree you need an editor Normally the publisher provided an Editor especially if it was going to be a book that they published back in the old days when the net was real slow. I have acted as an editor for some fanfictions that I have read. So that is why I feel that I am sometimes an editor. I don't always like to do it and my standard of English is different then yours you using the Queen's standards and me using the Bastardize version of English being an American. Even with out these factors there is some stuff that should have been caught to make the story flow better then it does. I came here though trying to find a sequel to Monique but admitedly I am having troubles with that. I guess in one way that maybe another author created that sequel that Author being Sara UK I wish that some of her works would also make it into ebook formats so that when I have the Money I could buy some of them as well.