Well, if you don't know anything, you're very intuitive. :) Like knowing how 'whispering' works (making the signs smaller and closer to the body.)
Most people butcher it by *over* explaining and then getting the sign wrong. One I remember off hand had the person signing "better" - but there's two ASL signs for "better" (one for good-better-best usage and one for 'you better get this done or else' usage.) And of course, they used the wrong one. So the sentence came out something like "You improvement get over here." Or forgetting that the signer has something in both hands. Or having a late-deafened/muted adult using flawless ASL (they'd use Signed English more likely than not) and well... not realizing that ASL is NOT English.
Use either one (Neal seems to be using SEE in your story (Signed Exact English) and that's TOTALLY fine... but a lesser author who's trying to be all Look At Me and My Smarts would have called it ASL. You didn't deal with the differnece, you didn't confuse the two and that's AWESOME! It was just a part of the story. Too many people's stories have ended up Look At Me I'm Writing About Sign Language!!!
Your story USED sign language, but it slotted very neatly into the background and was unobtrusive. (Also, I liked that Peter still spoke, even through Neal needed to sign. Other people do weird things like make everyone sign around the person who uses sign. Even in a situation like this where he can still hear just fine.)
Anyway... Good job! If you continue in this 'verse and need specifics/pointers, feel free to holler! :)
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Most people butcher it by *over* explaining and then getting the sign wrong. One I remember off hand had the person signing "better" - but there's two ASL signs for "better" (one for good-better-best usage and one for 'you better get this done or else' usage.) And of course, they used the wrong one. So the sentence came out something like "You improvement get over here." Or forgetting that the signer has something in both hands. Or having a late-deafened/muted adult using flawless ASL (they'd use Signed English more likely than not) and well... not realizing that ASL is NOT English.
Use either one (Neal seems to be using SEE in your story (Signed Exact English) and that's TOTALLY fine... but a lesser author who's trying to be all Look At Me and My Smarts would have called it ASL. You didn't deal with the differnece, you didn't confuse the two and that's AWESOME! It was just a part of the story. Too many people's stories have ended up Look At Me I'm Writing About Sign Language!!!
Your story USED sign language, but it slotted very neatly into the background and was unobtrusive. (Also, I liked that Peter still spoke, even through Neal needed to sign. Other people do weird things like make everyone sign around the person who uses sign. Even in a situation like this where he can still hear just fine.)
Anyway... Good job! If you continue in this 'verse and need specifics/pointers, feel free to holler! :)