The Language Barrier

ElleTheodore 

"Please excuse my bad English. It's my second language."

As a 21 year old German who discovered the Internet as publishing grounds at the age of 11, I have apologized for my English more times than I am willing to admit. If you know anything about the German school system, you'll know that we dive into the great pool of the English language at the crisp age of... you've guessed: 11 years old. So once I decided my English was good enough to form comprehendible sentences, I sat down at my mother's PC, opened WordPad and started writing. I was in love with it the minute I started. Young adult fiction was my first true love in a sense. It was easier than falling in love with actual, flesh and blood type people. It gave me the option of dealing with my own personal issues by letting fictional characters deal with them. I got to take a single thought and rip it to shreds, analyse it and put it back together once I made sense of it without having to leave the comfort of my mother's office chair.

Over the years I have discovered that I am far from the only writer whose first language is not English. Now, if you're trying to succeed on Wattpad and appeal to the masses on this beautiful page, writing in English is a must. No matter how much I wish it to be otherwise, we're just not there quite yet. Maybe one day we will expand internationally. I surely hope so.

Until that happens, we will have to adjust a little. Even if you think you're fluent, there are traps along the way that you're bound to step into if you're not careful. So let's go through a few pointers that will make your life a whole lot easier. I have split this article into three different aspects. Prepare, Recognize and Accept.

1. Prepare

I wish I had known about this before I started writing my story "Loving the fat girl". Seriously, there are so many mistakes I could have easily avoided if I had just prepared. Hindsight 20/20 certainly applies. I don't even want to think about what I could be doing with the time I spend editing mistakes. Needless to say, I am a big fan of "cheat sheets" now. On this "cheat sheet" I write down everything I need to remember throughout the writing process. This starts with the characters, their personal traits, physical attributes and of course the location they're staying in. Once I've created a portfolio of sorts, I jot down bullet notes about the story line. Now is the time for me to do research and fill possible plot holes. On the cheat sheet I also note the tense used in the story just so I can go back and make sure what tense I've used all the way through. (I tend to go back between and forth between past and present if I stop actively thinking about it *cringe*.) You can also create a vocabulary table if you like.

Let's put a bigger focus on the location. Before you start writing your story, be very aware of where you want your story to take place. Do you want to stay in your comfort zone and set the story in the country you're from and just let them speak English or do you want your story to take place in an English speaking country? Think about this long and hard. If you're going for an English speaking country, remember that they're not all the same. The differences between the United States, Great Britain and Australia alone are incredibly large. You'll have to take into consideration that not only slang or common speech varies but the school systems are different, spelling can vary greatly, geography suddenly isn't just a school subject that you've been trying to ignore and of course the culture (even within those countries) is extensive. All of these things are important and shouldn't be ignored... Unless, of course, you create a fictional world where cultures mix together and geography literally does not matter at all. That's the beauty of writing after all. You get to decide.

Another more technical pointer would be to take time difference into consideration. Most of my readers are from North America so I tend to cater to them. Over the years I have created my own personal uploading schedule. For me, if I post something very late at night, I usually get more reads/votes/comments in the first twenty-four hours compared to if I were to post something in the middle of the day. Also generally speaking, if I post on the weekends, my chapters usually end up getting more attention. That's just something you'll have to figure out for yourself but can also be quite beneficial.

2. Recognize

Needless to say, editing is a core task for any self-respecting writer *cough,cough*. No, seriously, e d i t. It is incredibly important. I know, you want to get your work out there as fast as possible but it is incredibly beneficial to at least skim through your piece before publishing it. Not only will you be able to take care of the common typo or simple spelling mishap, you'll also recognize certain patterns in your writing. I, for example, tend to use the word "seem" way too much. "My heart seemed to skip a beat... His eyes seemed to flicker with anger... They seemingly couldn't move along." It gets worse! At first I had no idea I was doing this but as I got into editing more, I finally realized - this has to stop! I was using the word in every second sentence.

On top of that, I always have a translation site and the thesaurus open when writing. You probably already know this but just in case you don't, the word "say" has so many synonyms, I couldn't count them on two hands. Use those synonyms. Simply replacing such simple words with synonyms can transform your writing immensely. Remember, you're painting a picture. Your characters see, hear, smell, feel. Let your readers know exactly what your character is going through. Detail definitely is key.

Recognize that YA literature does not exclude any specific genre. It is sort of an all-encompassing genre. You don't have to write romance and John Green doesn't have to be your role model. Whilst writing a cliché suits some people, you might not want to go down that route. Don't be scared to pave your own way even if it might seem extra scary. What I see in a lot of us (us being people who aren't from English speaking countries) is that we tend to go down very cliché routes because it is "easy" to write. Especially in the beginning of our writing journey. (Here a little side note: My very first story was literally a Jonas Brothers "bad boy" meets good girl fan fiction with every bit of misogyny and cliché you can get. I have no room to judge.) There's nothing against that, just know that you can write whatever you want. Nothing's stopping you. If you want to write a story about a purple robot coming of age in a dystopian under-water world, please do!

3. Accept

Accept the fact that there's going to be struggle and that you're not going to start off perfect. Struggle is inevitable, there will be speed bumps and you will get through it. Don't get discouraged because you feel like you're not good enough. Stop apologizing for the fact that your English is not good enough. You will learn as you go along. The more you write, the better you will get! Try not to put too much pressure on yourself and make sure to stop and breathe if everything gets too much. There are so many of us here, come talk to us if you feel stuck. Remember that this is supposed to be fun.

Accept help from others. 99 % of the time, they are actually trying to help you by pointing out spelling or grammar errors. I can assure you that mean intent usually isn't the reason for them correcting you. So, don't get offended, accept the help and learn from your mistakes. The only way is up.

Accept that people might not appreciate your writing. You put a lot of time and effort into it. You work extra hard to make sure you get everything just right. You don't want people to notice that English is not your first language so you spend extra time editing and then one negative comment shatters all your excitement and suddenly all the hard work has been for nothing. Do not let that one comment get to you. Like the great Taylor Swift has taught us, hater's gonna hate, hate, hate, hate.

I hope that this is somewhat useful to you and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me whenever and I will try to get back to you as fast as I possibly can. In the spirit of the article, if you find any errors, have additions or further tips and trick please let me know in the comments.

xx Elle

About the Author:

My name is Elle Theodore. I was born in Germany on June 14th in 1994. When I'm not in the office working, you'll most likely find me out with friends, curled up in bed with a book and Sam Smith playing in the background or writing. I've been writing ever since I was a kid (I remember writing stories about zoo animals and thought it was the best thing ever!) but I really got into it at 11 years old. It has truly become a huge part of my life and I don't think I'll ever be able to stop. I wrote through the roughest patches of my life and I truly believe that at times it was better than any therapy could have ever been.If you do know me, you probably know me because of my story "Loving the fat girl". It is a story I started writing in 2011 when I was struggling with being a big teenager in a world that just wasn't ready for big girls quite yet. I was severely bullied from first to tenth grade and was starting to get really, really sick of it. I wanted to write something that I could actually relate to and since I kept making up scenarios about my own life in my head, I thought: Why not write it down? What's the worst that could happen? So I just started writing and am still working on the story now. I couldn't be happier with how things are working out at the moment. I strongly believe in the power of the written word and would like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes about writing by Maya Angelou. It simply sums up how I feel about writing because of the truth it bears."There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." - Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings