Why I decided not to swap the S for a Z
Let me take a moment to get this off my chest:
There is nothing more frustrating to a British writer than a word processor insisting the correct spelling of “organisation” is “organization”.
I come from a marketing background; born, raised and based in the UK. For British-based clients trying to reach out and do business on a larger scale with the North-US market, a key question that always gets asked is: “Should we Americanise the brand?”
At the most basic of levels, this means keeping certain kinds of Britishisms and idioms to a minimum, adopting US spelling in customer facing collateral and paperwork, and making sure we remember to say “fries”, “jelly” and “chips” when we really mean “chips”, “jam” and “crisps”.
There’s a bit more to it than that but this, in essence, is what we’re interested in today.
More recently, I’ve been asking myself the same question: Should I adapt my writing style to sound more American in order to build a better rapport with my readers?
Let me give you some background:
I’m currently the Writer in Residence over at plotfactory.com, a company which caters to an international audience, with a majority share of North-Americans. I’m also syndicating and publishing to Medium — another American company. There’s a good bet a lot (if not most) of my readers here are American too. I thought, there’s a good case here for swapping out the S for a Z.
So I allocated some brain RAM and gave it some deep thought.
I realised there are two outstanding reasons why I absolutely shouldn’t adapt my writing style:
Voice / Authenticity
About this time last year I impulsively decided that I didn’t have enough on my plate and enrolled in a Creative Writing Masters (more on that later). I’m now most of the way through the second of three terms, in year one of two.
Without a doubt, the most prominent learning point for me so far has been refining my authorial voice and writing with authenticity. Doesn’t that sound dreadfully stuck-up and academic? Six months ago I would have sniggered at that.
Dreadfully academic and stuck-up or not, I’m starting to see a colour and vividity creeping into my work which simply wasn’t there before. I’m starting to recognise and understand the personal and unique flavour I can bring to a piece of writing and how to turn that into an advantage.
For the first time, I’m starting to understand how important that is.
Personal Brand
As a writer, your writing and your voice is your brand. Now, I’m British. I love cups of tea, complaining about the weather, cream teas and I enjoy a cheeky round of dominoes in the pub. I’m ardently in love with the Yorkshire countryside and a good number of my fiction pieces are set against the backdrop of my home county.
When it comes to blogging, I find the best pieces really allow the voice and personality of the writer to shine through. Being British is part of my personal brand; it doesn’t singularly define me but it is an important part of who I am.
To Americanise might make for a smoother reading experience for my US readers but ultimately it wouldn’t be me. When it comes to blogging, that’s an outright disservice.
And so…
Recently I interviewed the inimitable Sam Reese (something of a short story wizard — watch out for that one hitting the blog soon…), who was born in New Zealand, completed a PhD in Aus, travelled extensively and finally settled down in the North of England.
We discussed how living in different parts of the world and immersing himself in different dialects and accents had influenced his voice and writing style, as a large part of his writing process consists of reading his work aloud. He was quick to point out that the authorial voice in his new book, which is due out next year and was written entirely in the North of England, is noticeably more ‘coherent’ than in his first fiction collection Come The Tide, which was penned when he was globe trotting.
I asked Sam a little later in the interview what he thought was the most important skill or ability all professional readers needed. This was the only question in the entire hour which received a short answer; simply: “Their own voice.”
The point I’m trying to make is, your environment contributes to who you are. Who you are in person becomes your voice on the page. Embrace it. Let your voice shine through, remain authentic and stay true to your identity.
This is the best way to build trust and rapport with your readers.
Toodle pip!
