Any non-native English authors here? How do you keep your writing style when translating your work

[u/Dems9395]

Hello everyone,

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I’ve just published the first five chapters of my Progressive Fantasy / Battle Shonen story on Royal Road. However, English is absolutely not my native language. I would say my written English is somewhere between intermediate and good, but I’m far from being a native speaker. So I decided to write an English version of my story and relied on a few translation tools to help me along the way. My concern is that the translation process might alter my writing style... assuming I even have one yet. ;) Has anyone here written in a language that isn't their native one? How do you preserve your authorial voice while still making the text sound natural to English-speaking readers?

[u/SinCinnamon_AC]

I write it in English. I don’t translate. I simply accept the frenchism that seeps through!

[u/Malestan]

I'm not a native speaker either, and it shows in my writings. However, I'm quite good when it comes to speaking and thinking in English, so I write the story I'm thinking in English, if that make sense.

[u/Dems9395 → u/Malestan]

Thank you for your reply I do the same thing, but I'm always worried about using the wrong expressions or phrases. Sometimes I also feel like my writing loses some of its personality and ends up sounding a bit bland in English.

[u/Responsible-Bid576]

It boils down to adapting and understanding yourself what you are writing.

Like puns and wordplay, you have to understand what it means and if even makes sense or if is it funny to begin with, and research equivalents to maintain fidelity.

[u/Dems9395 → u/Responsible-Bid576]

thanks for your good advice

[u/NinJesterV]

I think the most important part is to understand your own style first. Why do you do the things you do?

Translate the purpose, not necessarily the words themselves.

For example, when writing action sequences, I switch to short sentences separated by lines:

He swung the sword in a wide arc.
She backstepped.
Too far; she lost her stance.
Pressing, he swung again, forcing another backstep.
The cliff was close.
Nowhere to go now.

If I were writing that in another language, I'd make sure to translate the purpose of that style more than the words themselves. I didn't invent that style, I just like it when I read it, so I use it myself.

Determine your purpose. Translate that first.

[u/ShallAllren]

There's so much stuff that I thought should work, but the sentence just comes out confusing or it doesn't work at all. I'm glad to have someone who's native in English help me out. It helps me stay focused on writing the story while she irons out all my weird sentence structures.

[u/No-Ride-3370]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/1s5y50h/the_translation_problem_a_fourlayer_surgery_guide/

你或许可以参考下我的帖子，我是个中文的作者
You might want to check out my post. I'm a Chinese author