British Invasion

BY BRICE HARDELIN (SOURCE)

The other day I was researching a character for one of my WIPs—a right tosser if I’m being completely honest—and came across a few lists of Britishisms,* which are both illuminating and hilarious.

But they’re also helpful if you have, say, a chap from the UK in your story and want him to sound like a proper Brit. You know, one whose vocabulary includes more than “bloody” and “arse.”

I’ve been wanging on long enough. For more great Britishisms (plus a bit of their etymology), have a look at Not One-Off Britishisms. I’m keen on this list from XO Jane as well.

Cheers.**

*Please forgive my piss-poor attempt at adding Britishisms to my post.

**If you happen to be British, what are some other common phrases or slang? Leave ’em in the comments.

RTW: Why the Feds May Be Out to Get Me

Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival, where YA Highway’s contributors and readers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s take on the topic.

This week’s prompt was: What is the strangest/weirdest thing you’ve ever researched?

I’m 98.6 percent sure I’m on the government’s terrorist watch list for googling such things as:

History of chemical weapons

Elements of chemical warfare

Types of chemicals used in nerve gas

Plutonium production

Where to mine for plutonium

And then they’d probably see these and think I was also your average, everyday murderer:

How to kill someone in the hospital without the machines alerting the nurses

How to break out of a locked room with no windows or vents*

How to break out of prison

I add a liberal dose of what I like to call “innocent googling” to balance the scales—for things like “steps to creating world peace” or “I hate murder.” Also, I search for a lot of things like this:

You can never be too careful.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever researched?

*Incidentally, the Internet was useless on this and I had to come up with my own trick.