oozey mess
Origami Around
trying on a metaphor
Stranger Things
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
we're not kids anymore.
$LAYYYTER
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
almost home
Cosimo Galluzzi
occasionally subtle
cherry valley forever
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"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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if i look back, i am lost
h
macklin celebrini has autism
Discoholic 🪩
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@untitledavenger
This is the FUNNIEST SHIT I HAVE EVER SEEN
Reblogging for cultural enrichment
bout time I brought back the Laurel and Hardy flex tape-
From The Killers, 1946. A Film Noir Classic
I’m an archivist, behold my growing collection was of old photos mirroring timeless memes I’ve come across at various places I’ve worked.
Old foe, Could you lay down your arms? Old friend, Could you bid me farewell?
INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY 8x02 “Gently and the New Age” First aired 30 October 2017
CHRIS EVANS photographed by Michael Schwartz for People (2022)
Russell Crowe in Heaven’s Burning
Hottie!
Russell Crowe.
Animals appreciating warmth
I deadass thought this was 3 Star Wars movies
its called Color Theory and we been knew. “Art is subjective” but there are certain “rules” you can follow to make things more appealing in a subconscious/subliminal kind of way.
once you see it, you cant unsee it.
I can’t believe there are only 9 movies
There are only 9 genders and they are:
Orange and blue action hero
Red dress damsel
Foggy straight couple
Lone guy with sword
Couple leaning on eachother
Eye
Blurry thriller Cop
Sexy Legs™
Orange and black action hero
My favorite scene from ‘3:10 to Yuma’
Hey! I love this blog, it's really inspiring, and i decided i wanted to write fic. The problem is that i'm not a native English speaker, so i'm not confident in my skills, and too shy to reach out to a beta. Any advice? Also how do you start the fic to get the reader's attention, even if it's just a stupid bakery au? My fandom(s) and ships arent really popular in my native language, so that's one of the reasons i'd like to write in English. Thanks.
Based on this ask, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Your English writing ability seems top notch to me! And even if it weren’t, I’d still encourage you to post.
I’ve had asks before from writers who have English as an additional language, and from what they’ve mentioned it might be helpful adding an author’s note to the start or end of the fic to let people know.
As for starting the fic to get a reader’s attention, I’m a big fan of starting in media res. That’s a Latin term that basically means “in the middle of things.” I love to start a story at the point when things start happening. If it’s a shipping fic, then I might start after whatever point when they first met but before they get together. I can then flashback to their meeting if I want to include it - or even just write a separate fic in a series to cover that part of it. If it’s not necessary to the story I’m telling now, then I leave it out.
I’m also a big fan of starting off with dialogue, but that’s just because my fics in general are dialogue-heavy.
What about the rest of you? Do you have any tips for a non-native English writer to feel more confident with their writing? And what’s a good way to pull you in as a reader?
no-native speaker who writes in English here! I started to read/write in English for the same reason: the fandoms I liked were not active in my language.
The best advice I can give you is: start small. It was what I did. I started by writing short, simple oneshots to get used to writing in another language. I ended up writing lots of those short stories, which helped me to gain enough confidance to try and write bigger, multichapter fics.
Some things that helped me a lot: google translator and Grammarly. Sometimes we think we know a certain word, and end up using her wrong. In that aspect, the translator helped me to make sure I was using the right words. Grammarly free version works well to pick a few things - for example, I’m always confuding in/on/at to this day.
I also found out that trying to write in portuguese and than translating it to English didn’t work well for me: I think it’s better if you get used to plan and think in English.
Once I got more involved with the fandoms, many people helped me with beta/proofreading, and I’m still learning a lot for them. I still read a lot in English too, and when I see some stuff I didn’t know (like words or expressions) I save those for study later.
I didn’t know if I was ready to write in another language, I just took a chance and I’m glad I did, because I’m still writing and improving. You won’t know for sure until you try: it’s the type of thing you only learn by practice. I hope this helps you Anon!
^ this is a good advice as a whole, but as someone who knows a thing or two about translation, i would strongly advise against using google translate for writing. there’s nothing wrong with google translate per se, it’s just not meant to be used as a dictionary (which is the very thing you should be looking for).
so, basically, drop google translate and get an actual dictionary instead. well, two dictionaries, to be more precise:
english-your native language for when you know a word/expression in your native tongue but have absolutely no idea how to render that into english. there are tons of dictionaries with built-in search engines available online for free, as well as different pieces of software you can install on your computer (i have abbyy lingvo installed on mine, but i know that there are also lots of free alternatives)
english-english for when you know the word/expression but you’re not so sure about some nuances of its usage. oxford and collins english dictionaries are my personal go-to (both are available online). note: if you’re using google as your search engine, you can simply type “define X” or “X meaning” into the search box and you’ll get the full definition (with examples and synonyms!) pulled from lexico.com for you.
some other useful resourses for both writers and translators:
Thesaurus.com - a must-have for finding synonyms and antonyms to spice up your writing
Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus - basically the same thing, but visual (it also has some additional functions)
Reverso Context - comes in handy when you know a word or expression but are not quite sure how to use it in a sentence
Urban Dictionary - not exactly something you would often use as a writer, but still pretty useful for researching slang (and making sure that a cool idiom you learnt from the internet the other day doesn’t actually have any potentionally offensive connotations)
I would add to this list:
Collocation dictionary - a dictionary that helps you find out what word combinations to use. Ex.: Don’t remember whether you should say “take” or “make” an appointment? Just type “appointment” here to find out what are the common words used with it and their different uses.
Macmillan’s thesaurus - offers a wide range of topics for which it lists all kinds of words and expressions related to the topic (not just synonyms and antonyms), with definitions. Ex: terms and phrases related to engagements and weddings.
Merriam-Webster - for EN-EN definitions. Also has a thesaurus.
Some English-OtherLanguage online dictionaries/resources:
Wordreference - for some EU languages and a couple others; the forum section is great if you want to ask native speakers about expressions and stuff.
Linguee - type a phrase and find out if and how it’s been translated before. (Note: don’t blindly take the first result - it works best by using critical thinking and comparing the various results.)
Weblio - a great Japanese-English resource.
And yeah, burn google translate. Machine translation doesn’t know context or nuance, which is the last thing you want when you’re trying to write.
Reblogging to save these resources for my own use, but also to add a few things as fic writer with English as a second language.
First of all - there are tons of us, don’t worry. :D
I’ll second NOT using google translate. Try taking a piece in your own language and run it back and forth through translate - it’s a great tool for getting the gist of an article or similar, but wholly unsuited for fiction IMHO.
I’ve never used grammary, but Microsoft Word has great tools for grammar and more - it can even warn you against passive voice. I would warn against Over Using these tools though. You want to find your own ‘voice’ when writing, and not make it sound like a generic piece of work. Again, fiction is not only about getting your point across in a concise manner (which many of these tools are aimed at), fiction is about the ebb and flow of the words. Sometimes you will do things that goes against grammar and clarity tools.
For words I don’t know I use a ‘define’ search rather than translate (aka search ‘define: subpar’ in you favorite search tool - but do set your locale to the locale you want to write as eg American or British (or any other) English).
Lastly, and most importantly:
Read books in English.
Romance, fantasy, urban fantasy and sci-fi are often closest to Fanfic in terms of genre (fanfic is a specific genre with a specific style; fight me), but also read literary fiction. Read classics and modern works. Read books translated into English too - professional high quality translators usually do a fantastic job, and it always help to read diverse voices.
I’ve recently been reading The Hobbit aloud to my kids, and frankly it sparked my joy of the written word again, and my own writing. It’s been a while sine I read any Tolkien, and he does a couple of fun things with language - and many authors do this. Break rules and set rules and I find reading is the ONE thing that helps writing the most. Read, read and read some more.
Russell Crowe in Florence. 🤗😍
Russell Crowe, 1990′s.
-daddy’s baby boy
