Which language do you prefer?

[Daan Doornbos]

Hi guys,


For some time now I've been on the fence whether to write in English or Dutch (my native language). To me there are solid reasons to write in either language. Dutch of course is most intuitive and closest to my heart and a large chunk of my notes are in Dutch. English however caters to a much larger audience, I have enough skill and all of the audio books I consume and have consumed over the years are and were in English. Either way I plan to have the book edited afterwards & self publish.

My question to you: if you are not a native English speaker, which language do you prefer to write in? And what prompted your decision to (not) choose English?

If English is your native language, what is your point of view on this? Should we (authors) stick to what we know best for creative purposes? Or should our decisions be guided more by practical concerns? (aka someone's supposed to read this thing, right? )

 

[Mad Swede]

I write primarily in my own native language: Swedish. With that written, my books are being translated into English.

I started to write in my own language because it was and is easiest. That may seem like a statement of the obvious, but it isn't quite that simple. What I have learnt from seeing my books and short stories translated into English is how closely linked to our languages are to our culture, the way we see things, the kinds of metaphors and expressions we use, and the way we tell stories. Translation is as much about interpreting meaning as it is about putting the story into another language. Some concepts seem self-evident to me as a Swede, but when we come to translate what I've written they suddenly aren't quite so evident. The way I tell my stories is very Swedish, and doesn't quite work when directly translated into English. So the translation becomes an interpretation, and the prose structures become slightly different.

There is also a contractual aspect to the language I write in. My Swedish publisher will not accept manuscripts in English, so having a publishing contract means writing in Swedish.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I've had several linguistic dalliances in my life, but I started with English, badly, and I'll likely end with English. Badly. You guys who can compose in two languages or more - we don't do more than two in America. I think there may be a law - just impress me so much. Plus, your English is usually better than mine.

I love writing in English because it's literal linguistic gymnastics and my mom raised a fancy-pants writer. Aside from the, admittedly true, commercial dominance of English in publishing, is there anything you find attractive about it, artistically?

If English is your native language, what is your point of view on this? Should we (authors) stick to what we know best for creative purposes? Or should our decisions be guided more by practical concerns? (aka someone's supposed to read this thing, right? )

I think it really depends on what a writer needs out of their writing. I, for example, need writing on many levels: I've got hypergraphia, I'm hyperlexic, an entire alphabet of pathologies, I like to do things with language that are probably illegal in places, I'm a terrible show off... plus English is my cradle language, I've studied it from it's Indo-European origins to the shifts occurring in the present day, it's my comfort zone and I am a lazy kitty. I also want money. I am an unabashed commercial writer of trashy genre fiction. So, yeah, English all the way.

 

[Mad Swede]

I love writing in English because it's literal linguistic gymnastics and my mom raised a fancy-pants writer. Aside from the, admittedly true, commercial dominance of English in publishing, is there anything you find attractive about it, artistically?

English is what we Swedes call a word rich language. By that I mean that it offers many more ways of expressing things than Swedish. That in turn means that conveying nuances, shades of meaning and depth of meaning becomes both a challenge and a form of literary artistic satisfaction. In that sense translating my stories has been a lot of fun.

 

[pmmg]

If i could do english, i would. But if cant do it, the hurdle is great. I would not want that.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

If English is your native language, what is your point of view on this? Should we (authors) stick to what we know best for creative purposes? Or should our decisions be guided more by practical concerns? (aka someone's supposed to read this thing, right? )

English is what we Swedes call a word rich language. By that I mean that it offers many more ways of expressing things than Swedish. That in turn means that conveying nuances, shades of meaning and depth of meaning becomes both a challenge and a form of literary artistic satisfaction. In that sense translating my stories has been a lot of fun.

English is word-rich because we drag other languages into dark alleyways and go through their pockets for loose vocabulary. Borrowing loan words is for the weak.

 

[Daan Doornbos]

I write primarily in my own native language: Swedish. With that written, my books are being translated into English.

I started to write in my own language because it was and is easiest. That may seem like a statement of the obvious, but it isn't quite that simple. What I have learnt from seeing my books and short stories translated into English is how closely linked to our languages are to our culture, the way we see things, the kinds of metaphors and expressions we use, and the way we tell stories. Translation is as much about interpreting meaning as it is about putting the story into another language. Some concepts seem self-evident to me as a Swede, but when we come to translate what I've written they suddenly aren't quite so evident. The way I tell my stories is very Swedish, and doesn't quite work when directly translated into English. So the translation becomes an interpretation, and the prose structures become slightly different.

There is also a contractual aspect to the language I write in. My Swedish publisher will not accept manuscripts in English, so having a publishing contract means writing in Swedish.

Those are several understandable reasons to choose your own language over English. The cultural part is something I've thought about as well. Dutch culture isn't English or American culture of course, but our culture is heavily influenced by both (as well as historical ties). So I'm slightly less worried about that part, though I'll definitely need an editor to go over the book near the end. I guess Dutch would feel more natural.

 

[Karlin]

I am almost, but not quite bilingual (English/Hebrew). English is my native tongue, so I write in English. When this topic comes up, I think of Joseph Conrad, one of the great English language writers, though he was Polish. It's unusual to be able to do that.

Some modern Hebrew writers and poets (like Bialik) had Hebrew as a second language, but there are special circumstances around that.

 

[Diana Silver]

I'm writing my manuscript in Dutch, even though half of all my story-thoughts come to me in English. There's days that I'm translating entire sections of notes from the original English to Dutch.

Why? ... There was a I time I considered writing in English, and I think I have the level to write a decent literary-style text. Still, I once had a short story translated professionally from the original Dutch to publish on the English market, and I'm quite certain that my translator did a better job than I could have done myself.
At the very least I would be second-guessing myself now and then on the correctness of phrasing, which is a distraction I could do without.

But a big reason is that I got sick of wondering whether it would be more strategically advantageous to write in English. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. God knows. I'm certainly more likely to meet a publisher at a Dutch language event than an English one. Or run into Paul Sebes at a random bus stop one day.

So I'm just going to stick to my mother tongue and write the best story I can. If it turns out later I need to turn to the English market for publishing opportunities, I'll figure something out. There's professional translation, automatic translation that I can have edited professionally, or automatic translation that I edit myself... With translation tools advancing the way they are, I feel less and less that it's something I need to be overly concerned about.

On another note, I think it would be awesome to have more Nederfantasy van eigen bodem ^.^ There's honestly too little of it around. Wouldn't it be great if we showed the world?

Cause most importantly: writing Dutch is tons of fun.

 

[Daan Doornbos]

I've had several linguistic dalliances in my life, but I started with English, badly, and I'll likely end with English. Badly. You guys who can compose in two languages or more - we don't do more than two in America. I think there may be a law - just impress me so much. Plus, your English is usually better than mine.

In the Dutch education system we learn some French and German as well, but only up to a1 or a2 level. That means you can order a sandwich at a restaurant, do small talk and read and understand simple texts. Nothing fancy, though of course it gives you a start.

English, however, is sort of what my generation grew up with, being exposed through television series, movies, games etc. Computers. Lots of things were in English. This is where I got a lot of practice done. Playing games such as Baldur's Gate 2 over and over.

And maybe that's where things went wrong as well, anyway..

And then there was an odd year-and-a-haf at the university reading literature and studying Anglo-American history. But that doesn't make me a native speaker. Not even close. And it's been a while.

I love writing in English because it's literal linguistic gymnastics and my mom raised a fancy-pants writer. Aside from the, admittedly true, commercial dominance of English in publishing, is there anything you find attractive about it, artistically?

Yes, I can ascribe to that. It always appealed to me more, but I find it hard to describe why. Certainly the way it sounds. It lost some of the rough guttural sounds Dutch and German have. Perhaps because of the French influx?

I think it really depends on what a writer needs out of their writing. I, for example, need writing on many levels: I've got hypergraphia, I'm hyperlexic, an entire alphabet of pathologies, I like to do things with language that are probably illegal in places, I'm a terrible show off... plus English is my cradle language, I've studied it from it's Indo-European origins to the shifts occurring in the present day, it's my comfort zone and I am a lazy kitty. I also want money. I am an unabashed commercial writer of trashy genre fiction. So, yeah, English all the way.

I am leaning towards English as well. But more skilled in Dutch.

I think this is called a dilemma.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I'm Dutch and I write in English (and have published 5 novels so far).

The reason I write in English is two-fold. The first is that there are indeed a lot more English readers than Dutch ones out there. I'd go as far as to say that even a large portion of the Dutch speaking Fantasy readers read in English. Which all means that I have a lot more potential readers out there.

The second is that I do almost all of my Fantasy reading in English. I prefer reading stuff in the original language if I speak it. And there is a lot more Fantasy out there in English than in Dutch.

There is a big caveat here though. The reason I get away with writing in English is that I attended an international school as a kid, which got my English up to native speaker level, and I've lived in Australia for a year and a few other places where I mainly spoke English. So I've had a lot of practice before attemting to write in English.

Even with that, I look at English differently than a native speaker would. A clear example is swear words. I don't have the same feeling about them that a native speaker has. I know what they mean, and in which situations you would or wouldn't use them, but they don't impact me personally in the same way that a Dutch swearword would.

All-in-all, I think I would write in the language you are most comfortable writing in. My personal opinion is though that just high school English in the Netherlands isn't good enough to write novels. You'll get it done, but you'll miss much of the nuance that a native English speaker would be able to get.

 

[Ban]

To join the Dutch delegation, I predominantly write in English, though I do also write in Dutch and Limburgish. I find myself more able to express certain nuances in English than in Dutch, simply due to the enormous amount of synonyms it possesses and my extensive practice with it. When I started writing regularly about a decade ago, I did so in English to replicate the fiction I enjoyed, causing me to be more practiced in the language than in my native Dutch. That is to say, as it pertains to fiction writing. Nevertheless I have made a concerted effort to write in Limburgish as well, as I consider the cultural and personal value of doing so significant. By writing in Limburgish I connect more closely to what I consider to be my homeland (within my overarching Dutch homeland), so even though the potential audience is comparatively minuscule, I find it important to foster that literary bond.