Saturday, March 22, 2008

Mind Where You Are Standing

I had a very interesting conversation recently with another horse person on SADDLES. It was interesting to me, but probably less to someone who doesn't own a horse, but what might be of interest is the mental conversation I had afterwards on location.

When we write, many times people all over the world read our work, and yet, what seems pertinent and completely understandable to one person, may seem odd halfway around the world. Something like a 'saddle'. Here in America the Western saddle is considered 'manly'. You rarely see a writer putting their hero on a horse in an English saddle, and yet for large portions of the world that's the saddle of choice for any sex rider. I guess it's because in America the Western saddle was the 'cowboy' saddle, or even, if you will, the poor man's saddle, as English saddles were primarily used by the rich who could afford expensive hunters or racers. This isn't exactly the case with Western saddles anymore and a good show saddle can far surpass the cost of a good English show saddle, but it's probably how the bias got started here in this country.

All things horsey aside, there are alot of things that come into play when considering where you are in the world. Sometimes things you might not even think about. I remember on my very first book I had a reader write to me out of the blue, laughing because I had refered to 'soda' as 'pop'. They said they'd never heard of such a thing. They'd used soda, or cola, but never 'pop'. I wrote back and asked where in the world they were from. They responded 'California'. So much for some far away part of the world--or maybe not. LOL I came to find that 'pop' was a fairly midwestern term for soda, and people in other areas of the country might never have heard that reference.

When you write, mind where you're standing.

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