Hi Erinye, just want to ask where you’re from, and how you became so fluent in English, if you don’t mind? Your fanfics are so well-written, as an ESL myself and no where near your fluency, I feel so humbled haha.
Hi there! Thank you for asking: I’m Italian and it took me YEARS to feel anywhere near comfortable with English. School and university didn’t really help (too little time dedicated to practising the language, I suppose), and I never studied abroad...in my twenties, I started reading books in English for my own pleasure. I’ve always been a voracious reader: I read 80-90 books per year, and around 95% of them are in English - that’s perfect to build up your vocabulary and make your knowledge of grammar somewhat more...instinctive. Writing and fanwriting was as important: I asked my (fantastic) beta-readers to always give me some explanation for my mistakes, and that made me aware of many things I hadn’t noticed before. Last but not least: my current job requires me to speak and write English frequently enough; together with my free time activities (books, fanfictions, etc.) it keeps the language skills in shape ;) Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the language. That’s a most powerful drive.
