Love of Language
British Or American That Is The Bloody Debate
And there is no stinking outcome.
I have been living in the USA for 46 years now, and for all practical purposes, I have been Americanized.
I write in American English, as opposed to British English. However, I learned the English language in India and Pakistan, where I grew up, so occasionally, I’ll spell something with a British Spelling. My online dictionary and Grammarly knows that I write in American English, so one or both will point it out. Problem solved.
So imagine my surprise when I received a private note from the unmistakable Julia E Hubbel that simply said, “kerosene, I think.” I had spelled it kerosine in my recent story. I wouldn’t dare to challenge Julia, particularly when I’ve known Grammarly to be wrong on more than one occasion. What is one to do?
Google to the rescue. I searched for kerosine, and this is what Google returned.
Google didn’t ask, did you mean kerosene?
It simply returned the search result.
Google snippet said this:
Dictionary
ker·o·sene
/ˈkerəˌsēn,ˌkerəˈsēn/
noun NORTH AMERICAN
noun: kerosine
- a light fuel oil obtained by distilling petroleum, used especially in jet engines and domestic heaters and lamps and as a cleaning solvent.
Interesting! You learn something new every day.
That’s what I told Julia. She agreed.
The moral of the story
Writer’s block is a myth. You can find things to write about anywhere, anytime. Life provides opportunities to express yourself night and day. Earlier, I shared stories from three excellent writers about how to deal with this myth. They argued and presented their cases in unique ways.
It goes to prove, you don’t need new ideas to write about, you can write about the same things, in a unique way. Give us your perspective on the topic. Let us see things from your point of view. It may just prompt a debate, which could offer an opportunity for someone else to write something.
As always, thank you for reading and responding.
More about me:
Rasheed Hooda is a published author and a regular contributor to ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium where writers support each other.
He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Get the Newsletter)
“You can let others tell you what it means to be successful, or you can decide it for yourself.”
