Spelling Issues

I give my proof reader fits. It’s a result of growing up reading a lot of British and New Zealand authors. I mean a lot, not just a few on occasion. The majority of my favourite authors are British. These authors heavily influenced my formative years as an author. I don’t recall my high school English teacher having a problem with my mixed bag spelling, but my college creative writing professor used to dock me 10 points for using British spelling. I took the deduction rather than change my spelling habits. After all, it was a creative writing class, not an English literature class. (The professor also had a problem with me referring to a widow as “Miss Hattie.” Then I moved to Texas and every woman—married or not—is “Miss.”)

Perhaps if I was totally UK spelling, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m not. There are British words that don’t look right (centre and tyre), while others are enchanting, and I look them up to make sure I’ve spelled them correctly (manoeuvre). As a lover of words, “faery” and “faery tale” stick in my head more, even though I’ve recently learned (like while checking the etymology for this blog) I’ve used it incorrectly according to one article to cover all fantasy instead of the darker side. (I don’t think it will make much difference to my writing, as I like the way it’s spelled.)

Still, I’m consistent in the UK version of words I do use: colour, grey, neighbour, saviour, etc. I’ve discovered a lot of the religious terms come from the Scottish background of my faith from UK or Scottish hymn writers, which explained the confusion of various hymns that switched between the two variants. As a kid it confused me, but as an adult, I love the differences.

As a journalist, I constantly had to check my spelling to make sure I used the American version and it was exhausting. At times it’s been an embarrassment as a friend’s last name used the American version and I constantly caught myself using the UK one.

After years of adding UK spellings to my spellchecker in both Word Perfect and Word, I finally was able to download the UK dictionary to Word. Now I just ignore the underlined American versions I use. Fortunately, I was able a few years ago to find a UK proof reader who could make sense of my blended vocabulary and does an excellent job polishing my manuscripts.  I suppose it’s a good thing I self-publish as traditional publishers might insist on using one or the other; however, the blended vocab is deeply ingrained in who I am as a writer. It’s not just a “style” I’ve adopted—it is an integral part of my personality and being. To edit out certain words would be like losing fingers or toes or a hand or foot. I could continue writing, but the story itself would be crippled. It would be like limiting an artist to a single medium or prohibiting them from using certain colours of paints.

As a word smith, the spelling variations add layers of depth and colour to the words themselves. I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere the differences I perceive in “grey” and “gray”. These are two different colours to me, and while I favour the “grey” variety with its darker, weathered component, there are times the softer gray is applicable. My mom used to tell us kids “it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it” especially when we were belligerent or stubborn. I think it applies to the way words are spelled, as well.  I once read a tweet where someone called someone else “pretentious” for using honour instead of honor. Not knowing the author, I can’t tell whether or not the use was intentional, but I suspect the author liked the way the word looked and gave additional flavour, rather than as a deliberate attempt to be highfalutin.

In a day and age where we toss words about carelessly, misspell them to gain advertising advantage or to be thought “unique” (designer names for kids), the ability to incorporate the way words are spelled across cultures is a novel approach. It may not be “literary”, but neither was e. e. cummings when he chose to use all his words lowercase.  It may only be a niche fad or solely for use among science fiction or fantasy writers, but exploring the various ways words can look is a staple for writers wanting to push the boundaries or simply express their innermost being.

We can’t all be best selling authors, but we can all write our stories using our own distinct voice.