I am thinking of writing a story in French this year. Every year, I write a nano novel and never seem to do anything with it beyond just writing it. I am a French teacher though, so if I wrote something in French, I would get some use out of it in my teaching. It is not my first language though, and I ave to go through certain linguistic contortions when I write on French because I am limited to vocabulary and verb tenses with which my classes are at least reasonably familiar :)
Still, it will be worth it if I get a useable YA novel study out of this whole thing. To make up for the increased difficulty for me of writing in a second language, and to keep the length manageable, I am going to count the worksheets and supplementary materials in the word count. What do you think, am I crazy? Any French people want to buddy with me and help me out if I get stuck?
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3,350 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 03 45
Sorry i'm not french, but i'm writing in dutch. the differnce between you and me that , thas is actually my first language.
----------good luck though.
Music saved my life <3
38,083 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 04 45
I think it's an interesting idea. I wish some of my english teachers had had the same idea, learning would have been far less dull than it was at times.
----------And we'll (meaning all the crazies over on the Europe: France forum) be happy to help, just pop by and ask away :D
I'm going to win this year. Or DIE TRYIN'.
4,629 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 10 41
I'm debating writing mine in French as well. I have to write a play for my senior honor's thesis in the spring, and I decided to get a head-start and write it during Nano. I was going to write in English and then translate it, but that seemed like it would just be more trouble.
Writing in French is going to be a lot slower than writing in English!
------------Malanai
53,093 / 50,000
oct. 5, 2008 - 21 35
Not crazy, brave. I do not feel comfortable enough with a second language to attempt to write even a short story, let alone a 50K Nanovel. The only language I would even attempt to write in would be French, though. =)
I wish you the best in this endeavor.
~Jacquelyn
----------0 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 02 54
I was toying with the idea of writing my novel in English, but I let it go. I can express myself better in German.
50,905 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 20 34
I'm thinking of translating my novel into Mandarin (my first language) after I finish it. But it's just easier for me to flow when I write it in English first. Then I can take my time in translating it afterwards.
----------NaNoWriMo 2008 ~ Guides [Loading...]
55,098 / 50,000
oct. 8, 2008 - 02 13
I like the idea of attempting to write in French but I would then have to find somebody to edit it correctly
Preferably someone who I don't know and would be sure to never see again : )
It would certainly be more difficult to reach the 50000w count as i would be typing much slower. Maybe next year.
Good-luck to you !
Aiyla
----------Aiyla
nano 2007: Best Kept Secret
nano 2008: The Willow Basket
1,029 / 50,000
oct. 10, 2008 - 15 46
I would love to wirte my in english... but I'm no good at it : ( so I'm going to do it in portuguese lool
but if you are confortable to do it in other language go ahed ~^
0 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2008 - 15 08
Joanna, I think it would be very courageous of you to attempt doing this in French and I can attest to the fact that it would bring your knowledge of the language to a whole new level. I am French Canadian and reading and writing in English was the best thing I could ever do to continuously improve. Today I actually feel more comfortable writing in English than in French. If you choose to go ahead with your plan, you must know that it will slow you down since your thinking process probably happens in English. But if you can think in French rather than translating in your head first then you have already skipped a step, which will be helpful.
If you decide to go with it then you have my full support and you can count on me 100% to help you in any way, shape or form. I love translating so if you hit a road block then send me a message. I do this kind of stuff for my colleagues at work all the time so it will certainly be a pleasure for me to help a fellow novelist.
Oh, and I don't think you're crazy. It's a wonderful challenge which will likely have fruitful and positive long-term results.
Good luck!
----------Philippe
Phil
50,115 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2008 - 16 13
Writing in a language other than your own is quite an experience - I did it the last two times around. But this time I'm doing it in my first language because, as much as I love writing in English, I feel it hinders me - I don't have enough vocabulary. But definitely give it a shot because you learn a whole lot.
----------"I'm not afraid to die, I'm afraid to be alive without being aware of it"
26,672 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2008 - 23 30
I considered writing in Spanish this year but I didn't feel comfortable with my limited vocabulary and the fact that there's a tense I still have trouble with but next year I really am going to go for it. I absolutely love Spanish, it's so simple in some regards and very beautiful. I love reading things in Spanish because wonderful things can be said in so few words. I think I will talk to my Spanish teacher next year, she's an amazing woman and I'm sure she would help me out if I needed it.
To those writing in a language that it not their first, good luck! Think how accomplished you'll feel at the end of 50,000 words in a second language. I'd be amazed if you guys only made it to 25k, or even 10k.
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"It's a brand new day and the sun is high, all the birds are singing that you're gonna die." -Dr. Horrible
"The lesson of history is that we don't learn the lessons of history."
23,784 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2008 - 05 49
If it fascinates you, I'm writing in Arabic. In standard, which is slightly different from what the majority of Arabs speak. But I'm slightly lucky on that, my dialect/colloquial form of arabic is fairly close to standard in its general form, but in my form its extremely close. (People think I'm very formal or old-style when I speak arabic.) hehehe
----------نانوريمو
50,489 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2008 - 11 36
I'm writing in English. Dutch is my first language, so I suppose you can say I'm writing in a different language. But well, for me it's easier to write in English than in Dutch.
13,598 / 50,000
nov. 2, 2008 - 02 52
Same goes for me. My mother tongue is German, but I write in English - I always do, sometimes unintentionally - and it is easier for me to express what I mean than it is in German. Funny, eh?
4,066 / 50,000
nov. 2, 2008 - 04 38
Ich will ein bischen auf Deatsch schreiben. but most of what I write will be in english. I might throw in some latin and Celtic/gaelic as they seem to be preffered languages for witches.
Adrian
1,560 / 50,000
nov. 2, 2008 - 16 29
I admire you for attempting a whole novel in something other than your first language! That's going to be an awesome accomplishment to have done. Wow. I still struggle just to read juvenile books in French; I don't know that I'd ever have a good enough grasp on the language to write in it.
I'm writing primarily in English, but the novel is set in Argentina, and a good deal of the dialogue will be in Spanish. That is going to be (already is) an adventure, since my Spanish is a little worse than even my French. I don't want to steal your thread, but then I don't want to start another thread of almost the same title, so: if there's anyone who'd like to help out with some basic Spanish translating, give me a mail. Thanks!
----------55,607 / 50,000
nov. 3, 2008 - 03 27
In one of my other works I did write for a brief period in French. I cobbled together sentences and responses from what little I knew of the language and turned it over to a friend who spoke French for double checking. It turned out quite well, only one sentance out of the bunch needed changing.
----------But later in the same novel I skated around it. I wrote in English but brought it up in the conversation that the characters were speaking a foreign language.
A simple short cut, but it worked.
I simply didn't know enough about the other languages to effectively write in them. I can find certain words online, but that still doesn't give me the grasp of the foreign grammar and syntax.
"I can't stop. I'm possessed by a deadly muse. It steals me of my sleep, robs me of my health, turns every moment of life into a possibility for prose...
And I do believe, it will be the death of me"
3,581 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2008 - 03 33
Although I'm writing my NaNoWriMo novel in English, my main project i.e. "masterpiece" novel (which I didn't use for NaNo because it's in the rules that you can't, dammit) is written entirely in French, for my amusement only. It is a really fun and enlightening project to undertake, and I think if you have the extra time required, you should go for it. I have no problems with French grammar but I don't know specialist vocab, and it'd take a lot longer to write it in French, which is why I'm doing it in English as it's my first year. I speak with experience, though, and it's very satisfying to know that you've expressed yourself creatively in a language that isn't your first. Plus, even if you're good when you start, it really improves your language skills.
Incidentally I recommend http://www.wordreference.com forums for idioms and such - it's what I use and you almost always find what you're looking for over there!
73,819 / 50,000
nov. 7, 2008 - 03 38
I'm writing my novel in French as well. Since French is my first language I thought the thinking process would be faster but I've been teaching and living in English for so long that I find myself looking English words in the dictionary to find their French equivalent... But I think you should try and go ahead with it. I'm planning of writing next year's novel in English and I want to try to write something in Japanese in the near future... Go you! lol
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