Being a non-native English speaker
I love English. I’ve been reading exclusively in English since I was about 15 (over 20 years now), and I daresay I have a better-than-average vocabulary (Gelding, Fortnight, Heliotrope.)
One of the biggest challenges writing in a foreign language is not the grammar, tenses or even the vocabulary – all those can be handled during the editing phase. The real issue is finding specific, elusive words while I write.
The problem is that in order to write well, I have to keep the story pace – get the scene flowing from start to finish. But sometimes, annoying little words makes me stumble.
It’s the small stuff. I know what I want, I know the shape of the word I need, but sometimes the actual word itself eludes me.
For example, I spent 5 whole minutes yesterday trying to remember how to spell the word ‘shirk’. The damn autocorrect kept insist I use ‘shriek’ instead. Or scintillating – that one haunts my dreams (I had to google it even now).
It’s a challenge, but eventually, it only contributes to my understanding of the English language.
One of the biggest challenges writing in a foreign language is not the grammar, tenses or even the vocabulary – all those can be handled during the editing phase. The real issue is finding specific, elusive words while I write.
The problem is that in order to write well, I have to keep the story pace – get the scene flowing from start to finish. But sometimes, annoying little words makes me stumble.
It’s the small stuff. I know what I want, I know the shape of the word I need, but sometimes the actual word itself eludes me.
For example, I spent 5 whole minutes yesterday trying to remember how to spell the word ‘shirk’. The damn autocorrect kept insist I use ‘shriek’ instead. Or scintillating – that one haunts my dreams (I had to google it even now).
It’s a challenge, but eventually, it only contributes to my understanding of the English language.
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by
Sean
(new)
Mar 18, 2019 04:27PM
I'm trying to include people from different cultures in my book, and also create alien names and cultures. Alien names are going to be so hard to create ...
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Love your books, but I didn't know you weren't a native english-speaker. Gives me hope to eventually write something myself. I'm 33, and have been reading literature exclusively in english since I was 15, just like you. :)
Mr. Kuznits, how did you keep from repeating yourself when writing? Example: if I said "the goblin whispered words of encouragement to his friends", it's hard for me to come up with a variety of different words each time he needs to do something like this to keep it more interesting. I don't want to become repetitive over the course of books and series.
It's not that hard: a name, a dominant physical feature, occupation, race, etc.Here a few example from my next book 'Earth Force':
Bulco, the Engineer, the large man
Lana, the Navigator, the tall woman, the captain
Alzigo, the alien, the merchant, their host
You can search online, there's a lot of information on how to write well.
Hope that helps!
Thanks. Sounds really cool. Is it science fiction or science fiction LitRPG? It's really hard to find good sci fi books. My favorites are Earthrise, the Koban series, and The Expeditionary Force. Sometimes sci fi is too boring and unimaginative if there are no aliens or if the tropes are USA vs foreign country.
It's a gameLit sci-fi.The first 3 chapters are avaialble for free on my website:
https://www.shemerk.com/earth-force
More are avialable to patrons on my Patreon page:
www.patreon.com/shemerk
Wonderful! I couldn't stop reading it and I'm sad I can't read more. Can't wait to read the rest when it's published!By the way, I found one or two errors on the website, but nothing too off-putting. Example in chapter one "The poor kid has been through enough. She thought." You can use a comma instead of a period.
Is book 3 the last in the New Era Online series?
The three free chapters are just the first rough draft.Book 3 is not the last in NEO - there will be plenty more.
