The Good, the bad, and the ugly

International fic feedback day went well for me after a disappointing start. I got only one piece on the 7th itself; but on Monday I got a flood, including 2 e-mails that I'm tempted to print out and frame, or post on LJ so that I can gloat publicly.

I have a habit of following referrals back from my site to see where the visitor came from. The biggest single source of referrals this month is the link in the Challenges section of kantayra's site - thanks for the rec! - but there were quite a few from a source unknown to me, the Television Without Pity forum. I had a look at the relevant thread, and saw the entry discussing me; it correctly said that I am UK based (well, the Isle of Man's not really part of the UK, but I can see the UK from my office window on a clear day and I'm not feeling political enough to quibble at the moment) and it said that my grasp of US English occasionally slips.

True, I know; but when it does I'd really appreciate it if someone would point out where I'm going wrong. I'm not paranoid about it; I set my spell-checker to US English for "I Was Made For Loving You Baby" and thought of doing it for all the fics since, but actually it's a pain and slows my typing down so I abandoned that idea. My spelling is English, either deal with it or let us pull our troops out of Iraq. Preferably both. I'm bound to slip on word usage sometimes (but then, so did Joss; his theoretically English characters use "you ponce" as an insult while obviously having no idea what it really means, call petrol "gas", etc., and it gets on my wick a bit but I can live with it). However, I want to do better than him, so please let me know when I get it wrong rather than just moaning behind my back.

I'm really, really, struggling over the current chapter of "Life in Shadow". I've written over 10,000 words so far, the snag is that only 3,500 say the right things. I've been stuck on one small section of conversation between Spike and Willow for a couple of days now; I'd like to just scrap it and move on to a good fight scene or the sudden appearance of a walrus, but unfortunately it is absolutely crucial to the plot. I've just got to keep working away at it until I get it right.

And Newcastle lost in extra time to Chelsea. Bugger.

The Good, the bad, and the ugly

International fic feedback day went well for me after a disappointing start. I got only one piece on the 7th itself; but on Monday I got a flood, including 2 e-mails that I'm tempted to print out and frame, or post on LJ so that I can gloat publicly.

I have a habit of following referrals back from my site to see where the visitor came from. The biggest single source of referrals this month is the link in the Challenges section of kantayra's site - thanks for the rec! - but there were quite a few from a source unknown to me, the Television Without Pity forum. I had a look at the relevant thread, and saw the entry discussing me; it correctly said that I am UK based (well, the Isle of Man's not really part of the UK, but I can see the UK from my office window on a clear day and I'm not feeling political enough to quibble at the moment) and it said that my grasp of US English occasionally slips.

True, I know; but when it does I'd really appreciate it if someone would point out where I'm going wrong. I'm not paranoid about it; I set my spell-checker to US English for "I Was Made For Loving You Baby" and thought of doing it for all the fics since, but actually it's a pain and slows my typing down so I abandoned that idea. My spelling is English, either deal with it or let us pull our troops out of Iraq. Preferably both. I'm bound to slip on word usage sometimes (but then, so did Joss; his theoretically English characters use "you ponce" as an insult while obviously having no idea what it really means, call petrol "gas", etc., and it gets on my wick a bit but I can live with it). However, I want to do better than him, so please let me know when I get it wrong rather than just moaning behind my back.

I'm really, really, struggling over the current chapter of "Life in Shadow". I've written over 10,000 words so far, the snag is that only 3,500 say the right things. I've been stuck on one small section of conversation between Spike and Willow for a couple of days now; I'd like to just scrap it and move on to a good fight scene or the sudden appearance of a walrus, but unfortunately it is absolutely crucial to the plot. I've just got to keep working away at it until I get it right.

And Newcastle lost in extra time to Chelsea. Bugger.