forum how do I make my story British?!? PLEASE HELP!
Started by @Leo-Valdez-Is-The-God-Of-Chaos
tune

people_alt 36 followers

@IShotAnArrowInTheAir

Hahaha "How do I make my story British?!?!" is a really great discussion title. Luckily there are dozens of sites that can help you, I'd start off by checking places like the CIA world fact book to get general ideas of demographics, races, religions etc. Then I'd hop on over to youtube and search something along the line of "Things Americans don't understand about England" or "Difference between the US and UK" and you'll find lots of people talking about culture and vocabulary.
One note I have though is that a lot of Americans tend to think of England as this really posh, sophisticated pride and prejudice type land of that everyone is charming and proper and dress nicely and call everyone Luv. That's really not true, people have called England "the America of Europe" and that's pretty accurate, real life England is in some places pretty classless. But if you want to write a prim and proper England by all means go ahead (- it's probably going to be nicer anyway)
One last note that I feel is important for an America to know in that England is really really small (like the size of the state of Michigan) but Brits think it's way bigger, and while an American wouldn't think twice about driving 45 minutes to the grocery store a Brit would rather die. I just think that's a really a funny difference between us that is often overlooked.
Anyway hope that helps

@Mercury Beta Tester

I live here in the UK, so hopefully this should be helpful! What time period and particular British location are you setting your story in?

  • American and British English are very different not just in spelling, but meaning as well
  • The UK drives on the left of the road and we have roundabouts instead of crossroads. Cars look like this
  • The UK isn't overtly patriotic like the US, you would almost never see flags on the street and virtually no one (except for the newspapers) get mad at you for not singing the national anthem. The country, as well as other parts of Europe, is more liberal on matters than the US (LGBT+ rights, gun control, healthcare etc.) Brits tend to be self deprecating about the country but there is still a widespread social idea that the UK deserves special treatment (a remnant from the British Empire IMO) and national sovereignty. A lot of Brexiteers (people who support leaving the EU) talk about the latter one in relation to the EU, being scared that the UK is going to be absorbed into some German superstate
  • Brits don't have any hard feelings about the American War of Independence. It's not taught in school because it's hardly relevant to British history. American history is never taught in British education or in any country other than the UK actually. Brits don't need to know about the presidents while Americans don't need to know about the Norman Invasion etc.
  • ENGLAND ≠ UNITED KINGDOM - This is the most common misconception I see. The UK is made up of four countries/regions: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK. Each area has its own stereotypes, though the classy British and drinking tea stereotypes are really English. Brits often use the term 'Britain' to refer to the country, but it technically means England + Wales. 'Great Britain' is the main island, England + Wales + Scotland. 'United Kingdom' is all of that, and Northern Ireland
  • Like @IShotAnArrowInTheAir said, distance as well as time is seen differently in the UK. There's a saying: "100 miles is a long way in Europe. 100 years is a long time in America". There's another saying that no Brit is more than 60 miles from the sea (though there is one exception - a particular village 70 miles away)
  • The government is a constitutional monarchy, not an absolute one. The Royal Family are essentially figureheads; the Queen can only approve laws but restrictions dating to the 18th century mean that she's not allowed to veto them anyway
  • Parliament govern the country and they are run by the Prime Minister, who is also the leader of the country. The Prime Minister is whoever is the head of the party in power - i.e. the party with a majority in the House of Commons (The part of Parliament that is elected)
  • London is the centre of the UK, everything revolves around it. There are other large and/or rich cities like Birmingham, Cardiff, Oxford, but they have nowhere near the amount of attention and investment that the capital does. The south of England is wealthier and more developed, while the north is economically deprived and has been mostly ignored by politicians
  • Sarcasm and mocking the establishment and the government are essential parts of British humour
  • The British currency is the Pound, not the Euro. The UK isn't as integrated into the EU as other EU countries are, though to expand on that would require a separate
  • It doesn't rain that often, though the weather is capable of changing quickly in a day. It also very rarely snows and even then it's only a few inches (like 2cm)

@The-Magician group

so, for a British person who knows British politics, would Plymouth be a place likely to be attacked by an enemy country?

I'd have said Portsmouth since that is where our naval base is