My first thought would be write how you are comfortable. If you don't care/can write both easily, then I would agree with write to country of reader you will primarily sell to first, and stay with that, except as Momma said, to add flavor to the char.
I wouldn't say so in all cases, a pub is a specific type of bar really, we wouldn't call a trendy modern looking bar a "pub" I've experienced the chips/fries confusion though, here in Denmark people are typically more familiar with American English as they hear it more, for example there's more of imported shows from the US than the UK and they don't dub shows here. In the early stages of our relationship I had to explain to my boyfriend that for me fries = chips, candy = sweets, garbage = rubbish, etc. I guess when writing characters who speak different types of English it's the slang that really makes it clear.
I agree with Cog (it happens sometimes) -- you can't hear spelling, so spell dialogue consistently with everything else. Incidentally, "you bloody wanker" doesn't sound particularly credible to this Brit (maybe others will disagree). If the speaker is using such a taboo word as "wanker" then I doubt they would precede it with such a mild word as "bloody" -- they're more likely to use the f-word. If they used "bloody" it would more likely be followed by something else fairly mild such as "you bloody idiot!" Which just shows the problems of writing characters from other cultures. Remind me never to try to write an American character!
Good thing you have yours truly to take care of that last bit. But yeah, 'wanker' is supposed to be a vulgar word in the British language, if I'm not mistaked. So it needs to be connected with other vulgar words.
Oh, goodness no, nowhere near the end of the problem. The spelling/grammar checker might well tell you that your spelling of torch, paddle and holiday is consistent with US spelling, but it will give you no hint as to whether you should really be using flashlight, wade and vacation.
Not necessarily. The bar is a part of a British pub -- the part where you get served. Plenty of pubs serve food. And we are increasingly referring to those deep-fried sticks of reconstituted potato as "fries" to distinguish them from the decent-sized deep-fried sticks of real potato that are "chips". So I might well get some fries from the bar, even in England.
I trust all your future posts will use Old English spelling and grammar. I hope the forum supports the yogh, thorn and eth characters you will be needing. And I suspect that American readers will have more difficulty with English texts than English readers will have with American texts, because I suspect that English readers are exposed to more American texts than US readers are to US texts, so we're more used to the difference. Even down to my children having been raised on countless programs that call "z" "zee" rather than "zed" because US preschool programs are usually not dubbed when they are shown in the UK, whereas it seems that UK preschool TV shows usually are dubbed when they're shown in the US.
In a professional environment at work I might well use "bloody" amongst colleagues, though never with a customer. I'd never use "wanker" with either, although I might with friends and acquaintances in a pub. I would have used any of them with colleagues when I was a technician, before I became a professional. They're fine divisions which it would be hard for somebody from outside the culture to capture, and I assume similar divisions exist in other cultures. Perhaps this links to the "write what you know" thread in General Writing.
