Tips on… writing about or as an American protagonist.

If you, like me, are English you’ll often find yourself stuck in the confusion that is American literature. The majority of the young adult novels I read are American and since American culture surrounds us so much (movies, media, TV, books, etc) we don’t pay much attention to it. So the hero is American, so what? That’s just the norm. In fact, I’m more surprised if I pick up a book and half way through I realised it’s actually set in England. I’m so used to America as the basic template for a story.

Of course, it’s not the same vice versa. I feel that if I were to write these stories set here in the UK an American audience would be confused. People would get confused on the fact that my characters are English as if that’s a really important part of their personality. It’s not. It’s just where they live and the words they say; it has no reflection on the character themselves. Yet in the media and in movies a British character or stereotype is on its own an archetype.

You’ve got your British villain

Oh Jeremy...I bet you don't recognise him without the scar...and the fur.

Your British snob 

Your British ‘rock ‘n’ rolla!’

Your country clubbers

And finally, you’ve got your ‘classy’ tea drinkers.

So what do I do? I make my characters American. I make them ‘normal’.

Sammy...what are you wearing?

Judging by the fact people are surprised that I’m from England and have never been to America in my life I’m guessing that I’m pretty good at taking on American culture, language, location, etc. But I’m not going to lie to you - it’s hard. If you find a British English to American English dictionary somewhere on the internet you’ll find that the list is extremely long. There are obvious words like ‘mom’ and ‘mum’ or ‘bin’ and ‘trashcan’ and ‘pathway’ and ‘sidewalk’ (the list is endless) but then there are harder ones that I don’t even know yet.

I think we all assume that because both countries (including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other colonial islands) speak ‘English’ it’s all as simple as that. It’s not. Our words are very different. And don’t even get me started on grammar.

How do I do it then? How do I make the transition from British to American writer? Easy. I use my brain. I use the resources around me. I watch movies. I read books. I used the internet. You don’t even need to have American friends to learn about America but I have them too. Movies and books are absolutely perfect. Say you want to write a story set in an American high school but don’t really know how the education system in the states works: easy, watch a movie set in high school. Mean Girls for example. Although it’s not 100% accurate (there are actually school policies against certain skirt lengths and heel inches as well as the fact not everyone has a flashy sports car) it’s a good start. Any other holes you need filling can be fixed with the internet. Google it, honey.

How about setting? America is a very big country and you must be very careful not to fall for the stereotypes that we over here in the UK have set up for them. I’d post pictures for those too…but we’d be here forever. For Hunter I set it all over the country (they travel a lot) but they three main states they hover in are Massachusetts, Colorado and New Mexico. I had to, and still have to, do a lot of research into not only the people of these states but also things like laws and landscapes. Knowing the landscape not only makes your story more realistic (you can actually use a REAL town name, who woulda thunk it?) but it’ll give you a visual aid of the setting. I already had an idea of what I wanted the setting to look like in my head and so now having the actually location in the back of my mind I feel like my description is supported and fueled. Laws help too. Hunter has half a dozen guns and he goes around shooting people. I need a state where guns aren’t exactly a regular thing, but it’s not like people will try and arrest him for possession. Not that a prison cell could hold him.

I need a break now because I have to go to class, so maybe I’ll pick up on this later.