Should a non-native speaker write in english?

[Giuliano]

Hello guys,

I'm new here, and while I've seen that the forum has a "Writing" section, it appears to me as being dedicated to sharing excerpts of stories written by members, which is not the case of my post; not knowing better, I decided to post this here. If I am wrong about this, then please feel free to move it where it's best to.


Long story short( as this is going to be a long post) I've wanted to put a particular story on paper for a long time now, however due to several different factors, I always ended up postponing this resolution time and time again, thus overall so far I've accomplished relatively little in terms of actual writing, an issue which I've recently began tending to.

However, what started bothering me is this : I am a native italian speaker living in Italy, which means that, as frustrating as that may be, I have to accept the fact that the chances of my novel(s) "taking off" in my country are considerably slimmer than what would be the case were I to publish them in english, due to the fact that the italian reading public, other than being plainly numerically limited if compared to the statistics of the english-speaking world, is just much less open to "genre" fiction( I use brackets because I find this word choice on part of the literary criticism enterprise rather silly, but whatever), under whose umbrella my story would fall, it being science-fiction/fantasy oriented.
This may seem strange sounding, but it really is the same phenomenon as the issue of the comics/manga "ghetto" we see in western society at large, where format and genre mostly overshadow artistic value; thankfully, time seem to be slowly changing due to the growing prominence of the speculative genres in mainstream literature, but as it is, it still proves to be a significant problem in a small and frankly, under certain aspects, backwards niche such as the italian one.

So, since I have already, to the best of my knowledge, reached a reasonable fluency in written english( and not just "literary" english at that, even though my talking skills could surely use a hand due to being practically never put to use) it doesn't seem too far a stretch to think that I could conceivably work on refining my english writing skills by continuing to write my novel in said language, until I'd reach a point where I could reasonably expect my written english to be just as good, if not better, than my written italian. What are your thoughts about this?

Do you think that I should bet on my ability to reach a level of english writing skill comparable to a native speaking writer, of course by widening the scope of my english readings, or should I just write in my native italian, which at the moment is surely superior, regardless of the fact my chances of being published and read could be considerably lower?
I would personally lean on the former, even though I have mixed feelings about that, but that is probably mostly due to the fact that I've been reading fiction for a long time only in italian, and my experience with reading fiction in english is not very extensive.

In general, I've often preferred reading translated works( and watching translated movies at that), but I recognise that may be due more to habit than anything else. I suppose that by the time I got the hang of it, I would probably be as comfortable perceiving all the nuances in an english text as I do in an italian one( again, I already do that for non-fiction texts wo this is most proably an unfounded fear).
In fact, this ties in with a secondary question of mine to you, specifically to non-native english speaking users( or for that matter to any user who reads books in languages other than his native one) : what do you find more satisfying and pleasing( regardless of translation accuracy issues and other such potential problems), reading works translated into your mother tongue, or reading works in their original language?

I would also be led to believe that the considerable growth rate of the e-book market would make things easier for writers seeking to publish works in languages other than their own( granted, not that I can be sure I'll be staying in Italy forever, for that matter, but that's a wild card really), but I have nothing but a superficial knowledge of the dynamics of book publishing anyway, so that's just an idea which may not amount to much.

In fact, do you think publising abroad could prove to be too much of an hurdle to seriously consider taking this route?

[togre]

I wish I knew more so I could give you a better answer.

Your English seems to be impeccable. I don't think you'd have to worry too much about the finished product being understandable or meeting professional standards. At the same time, I can only imagine the difficulties in writing in a language different than that of your thoughts and dreams. I thought about suggesting writing in Italian and translating it into English. The problem with this is that languages differ. Cadence, alliteration, euphony, etc., are almost impossible to fully capture. The translated work would be less vibrant than the original. I suppose since its your own work, you wouldn't have to be as strict in translating and that could spruce it up. But that would almost mean writing the story twice.

Ugg...I don't have a solution. But I'd encourage you to write it. In English. Or Italian. Or both. Get it on the page and then you'll at least have something concrete to look at as you decide on publishing options.

[PeterL]

Do it.

Whether your English is adequate for the task will be determined by readers. It is also possible that no one except you will like the story for reasons other than the writing or use of language.

There have been some noted authors in English for whom English wasn't their first language. Joseph was one, and I can't stand his writing, but others think he was great. Nabokov wrote earlier in Russian; although I think English or French was his first language; he was a great writer. Umberto Eco wrote mostly in Italian, but he wrote a few things in English first; he is a great writer, and he probably should have done his own translating.

[Giuliano]

Thanks for your replies. I would have waited longer to gather some more, but at any rate this is not the only place in I've posted such a question.

I've decided that this will definitely be the way to go for me. My english can only improve by now since I'll start a 5 year university course entailing among other things english language and literature and, in any case, I've only started reading proper english literature some months ago, so there's still much room for improvement.
Of course this is all well and good as far as using the language itself goes, because it remains to be seen how my writing skills develop through the years, in general. Which would be the same were I to write in Italian, truth to be told.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

[Carmilla]

Thanks for your replies. I would have waited longer to gather some more, but at any rate this is not the only place in I've posted such a question.

I've decided that this will definitely be the way to go for me. My english can only improve by now since I'll start a 5 year university course entailing among other things english language and literature and, in any case, I've only started reading proper english literature some months ago, so there's still much room for improvement.
Of course this is all well and good as far as using the language itself goes, because it remains to be seen how my writing skills develop through the years, in general. Which would be the same were I to write in Italian, truth to be told.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Hello,

I just write to tell you that Rafael Sabatini was Italian. ;-) He wrote all his books about pirats (and others) in English. So, you won't be the first. :-) He said that he wrote them in English because the best stories were all written in English. I agree with him :-)

Good luck!

[ennison]

Most people who write do so rather better in a language they feel comfortable with. But that need not be your mother tongue. Long exposure by immersion might make you feel very comfortable in another language. Beckett wrote in French, Conrad in English, Nabokov switched to English but perhaps drawing attention to linguistic giants is not very useful for us average Joes. I am sure that there are lots of writers using the language of their education rather than home and hearth. Milton often wrote when young in Latin and Pound criticized his later English style as too Latinesqe.

[Vota]

Your English seems pretty solid to me. You seem to have a tendency towards crafting very long sentences. Long sentences can be good, but not if every sentence drags on. It can be difficult to follow. Try to find a balance in your writing by inserting concise sentences here and there. Many times a longer sentence can be broken in to two or more sentences. Almost every sentence you wrote is longer than all these sentences combined - including this one.

If the way you want to say or describe something requires a long, meandering sentence, then go for it. Otherwise, try to break it up a little.

[hannah_arendt]

I think that it doesn`t matter that you aren`t a native speaker. You should feel comfortable with the language. It`s all. For instance, Joseph Conrad was born in Poland but he had never written in Polish. After some time I gave up writting in Polish as well. Maybe it is easier to write in a language you speak everyday but I think that you should feel that you can express and words you can use reflect your thoughts.