Young Writers Society

Hello all,

I've just now casually bumped into this forum while wondering about a question which has been bothering me for some time now and really, I've realized that it can't but become ever more pressing as time goes by; so I figured, I may as well ask people who are personally concerned about these things.

You see, 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?

Non native speakers write and succeed publishing their novels in English all the time.

I myself am a non native speaker. You will find dozens if not hundreds more on YWS. We even have a guide on it to get you started off.

Everybody goes through the learning curves of figuring out how to write in English, even native speakers! Writing dialogue and prose that sounds good is difficult for everyone, and you really shouldn't let your perceived skill (or lack thereof) from stopping you. All writers edit, and all writers have to polish over their writing time and time again.

You'll be doing it anyway. Even if you write in Italian, you'll be rewriting dozens of times and polishing up your skill. It's simply a matter of time you sink into the skill. Honestly, had you not mentioned the fact you're a non native speaker, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell.

Also, regardless, publishing is a game. Writing in English isn't necessarily a guarantee of success, nor is writing in Italian a guarantee your book won't gain popularity. Writing a novel takes years, so by the time you finish a draft the markets could've changed drastically.

Write the story you want to tell, in the way you want to tell it, and worry about where you'll publish it later. Just start, and see where writing takes you.

You're English writing is better than the prose that inhabits my stream of consciousness. Therefore, I think you should go for it.

(Southern or Northern Italy, by the way?)

Oh well, I've definitely made up my mind by now.

I'll just go at it and directly write in english, it's the best option overall for a number of reasons. At any rate, I'll be studying english and german language and literature at university, so my writing will inevitably get better and better just by that.

Of course, I would also agree that exercise is the core of the matter, whatever language we're talking of writing in.


As for your question, McGee, I'm from Sicily, meaning the southernmost part of Italy. Yes, so much for stereotypes.
I won't lie though, as a matter of fact the average level of scholastic education in Italy follows a pretty clear downward curve going from north to south.
If anything, we've got a better climate and a warmer atmosphere.

I do not see any problem here: sometimes, non-native speakers write English much better and more grammatically and stylistically correct than native ones.