As I mentioned recently I am intending to take part in this year’s NaNoWriMo which is something I had been meaning to do for a few years, but always lost interest even before it started. Only time will tell if I will complete it this year or even start, but I’m looking forward to some other people from Twitter and other sites taking part as well; I suppose that provides a little bit more of an incentive for me to do it. But, motivation isn’t all that’s needed..
When I signed up to the site the other week I decided that I would create a separate blog for NaNoWriMo and publish what I write online straight away plus wordpress.com makes it very easy to do. As I set up the blog I also created an ‘About’ page listing things I had written or contributed to in the past:
- Started creative writing with short stories aged 10.
- Won a yearwide competition year 7 out of 130 entries with my short story based on a mystery surrounding an old chapel.
- Carried on writing a novel, completed roughly 20,000 words, but never completed it.
- Was part of the school newspaper for four years.
- Attempted writing another novel aged 17/18. Completed about 150,000 words until losing interest.
- Three years experience as news and feature writer for several gaming websites.
- Two years as the sole writer of two gaming related columns.
- On and off blogger since 2004; as of 2006 on my personal blog carocat.co.uk.
Now that all sounds quite good, doesn’t it?
Well, it may sound good, but it’s not so much. When I was younger and still living in Germany, I wrote a lot and everything from letters to short stories and more. And of course that was all in German. My one year in the UK when I was 16 didn’t stop me either and I carried on just like before when I returned. Ever since coming back to the UK, however, I’ve been unable to do any kind of creative writing. My German is beyond rubbish these days and my English just not good enough.
I have the same imagination, but I can’t put any of it into words in either language and instead of gaining another language to a very high standard I’ve lost what counts in both. Sure, my English is good, my spoken English is excellent and I haven’t got much of an accent, or so I’m told! I can write news, simple blogposts, communicate with people and have a better written English than some English people.
But there’s always something that I don’t know or need to look up; Leo Dict is one of my most visited sites. Words today included verbose, implacable and plicate which some may argue are uncommon words, but nevertheless I would have known them in German many years ago. Or grammar, simple things like punctuation or rather lack thereof compared to the German laws in punctuation!
As for German, I am unable to carry on the simplest conversations these days; typing not only takes me an eternity, but speaking is even worse. After a few weeks in Germany I am able to hold a conversation, but can’t do sarcasm for example.
Two languages, neither of them perfect, neither of them able to put my imagination into words. NaNoWriMo will be fun..
25 Comments
I know what you mean. Although differently from you I definitely belong to one language and culture, the Italian one, since I use English in my blog I know something is often missing in my writing and in the way I express myself.
Most of the time I toil for sentences, I edit and re-edit, correct and re-correct, having no idea about the final result though having often a helluva great fun.
Do not get discouraged. One of the greatest English writers of the last century was Nabokov, a Russian mother-tongue who learned English on books. What I mean, one can do a lot with will and passion.
As farr as I can tell, your English is great.
My regards
MoR
My advice (which is worth about as much what you’re paying for it) would be to just write, in what ever form and style seems to be most comfortable to you. You’re going to go back and revise it anyway, right?
Besides, if you say “talks too much” instead of “verbose,” “not willing to be calmed” instead of “implacable,” and “flolded like a fan” instead of “plicate;” you’ll sound like Hemingway. (At least more than I ever will, at any rate :)
What if you tried writing as a first-person narrator whose English is limited (because he/she is a new immigrant perhaps, or some other device essential to the story). Then you could work some language difficulties into the storyline (“He said he had enough strawberries to kill a horse – why does he want to kill a horse?”), and throw in the odd Geman phrase now and them (“Verschlecten Wetter! And me a silly Dumbkopf without a coat or umbrella – I didn’t even wear socks today!”)
(Of course your writing, and your German, will be much better than my silly examples. :) )
Just get the words (some words, not necessarily the right words) onto the paper (or into the text file). That’s the hardest part.
[BTW, one thing I do is if, for example, I suddenly come smack up againt the ghastly old "lay vs. lie" question, I just put in something like "lay/lie?" (in bold or brackets or whatever). Later, when I'm revising, I can puzzle it out ("the dead carpet-layer was found lying on the freshly-laid carpet"). That way, I don't have to don't let it interrupt my narrative flow.]
You’ve inspired me – I’m planning/thinking/working up the guts to do NaNoWriMo too. (Should we maybe make a pact: I will if you will? :) )
- Evelyn
(PS. I should mention –
I’m a native speaker of English, and some people have sometimes said that I’m not too bad as a writer.
I “toil for sentences’ (I like that phrase, MoR :) ), wrack my brains for the right word, and despair over grammar and punctuation (my relationship with the semi-colon sometimes feels about as difficult and complex as some of my worst dating experiences). (And I’m forever writing long, overly complex run-on sentences.)
Every writer I’ve ever heard of agonizes over these things.)
Hi Man of Roma and thanks for stopping by.
It’s easy to say not to get discouraged when I deal with the frustration of being unable to put my imagination into words as I used to be able to when I only spoke one language.
At times it almost makes me wish I hadn’t move to the UK.
Hi Evelyn and thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for your advice and you should definitely consider taking part on NaNoWriMo.
And I know I didn’t make my post clear enough, my main and only problem is that I have all the imagination, all this detail in my head, but I can’t put it to paper so to speak. The characters, the stories, it’s all there in my mind, but I can’t describe it how I want it to making it sound like a story/novel written by someone else.
And the examples I used are mostly unused words, but I am unable to know all the words in every language. I used to be able to speak German perfectly and now I can’t do either. That’s what’s frustrating!
As for revising, I’m not so much of a reviser. Yes, reading it through once and correcting language or phrases is a given, but apart from that I never do apart from fixing plotholes or glaring errors.
Semi colons and me don’t agree either, but my relationship to the comma is even worse! ;)
As for the pact, I tend to drift between online communities meaning I don’t always concentrate on just one project. At the moment I’m primarily on my blog and the wordpress.com support forums, but that can change in a few weeks.
However, at the time of writing it is my best intention to take part in this year’s NaNoWriMo; I think you should too!
One method I always used in languages is the ‘input’ method (input: reading, listening). Especially reading helped me a lot. Once you are flooded by this input (I mean, *really* flooded), output (writing andd speaking) will come out more naturally. This is how babies learn. You can’t well express your imagination? Choose some good imaginative English writers you empathize with and read them *a lot*. They’ll guide your hand. You might greatly profit from this, who knows.
PS
To my horror, I realised my tone was teacher-like. Forgive this old mummy, cat :-(
PPS
Thanks, Evelyn, and hello.
What, you can’t do sarcasm in German? Boy, what a disadvantage. ;-)
I’m a huge fan of Leo as well – it has a pretty deep well of definitions now, and you can discuss translations with the pros if that’s your thing.
Only wish they could help me interpret the spoken word someone from backwoods of Saxony or Bavaria or the like – I have to do that sometimes at work and always have to ask a native-German colleague to help out.
i don’t see what’s wrong with your english. it’s good! anyway, nanowrimo is more like a practice of creative writing rather than rigid, grammar iron fist-ruled sort of writing. :) it’s okay to be ungrammatical in creative writing, ‘cos it’s creative! ;) it’s not so much of how much you know, but what you can do with the little you know.
Man of Roma:
Your tone wasn’t teacher like, don’t worry!
But using other people’s words or ways of writing doesn’t make it my own. And I tend to not read many books these days, there is not much that interests me at the moment.
Ian:
Not any more, no. It’s shocking and very inconvenient to say the least!
Heh, I’m a native German and don’t understand them, there is no shame in admitting that. I suppose it’s the same if one was to go to Scotland knowing only the Queen’s English.
How many years have you been in Germany and learning German?
sulz:
My English here on my blog and forums is good, but it’s the creative side I have problems with.
I know what I want in my mind, but can’t put it into words or describe the details.
Are you planning of taking part in NaNoWriMo? Or have you done it before?
I can’t wait for Intense Debate’s threaded comments!
Nice to meet you too, MoR :)
Hi, Cat -
Some people have more a natural knack for it than others, but that’s essentially a learned skill. There are any number of books and websites offering advice on how to draw characters and conjure settings, etc. (I’d be happy to point you to some if you’d like), and NaNoWriMo.org has a forum for help with that sort of thing.
The other thing is – practice, practice, practice. Both reading and writing are great practice.
Read authors whose work you admire, even if it’s not the tone you want to use. In fact, it shouldn’t be – developing your own Carocat tone and style is much better than trying to emulate another author.
(Books on CD/audiofile/podcast aren’t quite as good practice-wise as physically reading a physical book (IMO), but are a godsend if you’re short on time – you can listen while doing reasonabaly quiet household chores, or while excercing, or on your commute, or whatever. Most libraries (in the US, at least) have a pretty good seletion, so you don’t have to run too much expense.)
And write. Just write.
Write anything, even if it’s crap. Or, as an exercise, try writing the crappiest 100-300 words you can. Write little bloggy things (like maybe describing the best, worst, most important, most trivial, and/or strangest bits of your day). Then toss them (or post them :) ) when you’re done.
My old Russian instructor (no, I can’t speak Russian worth a damn (but that’s no fault of his)) used to say that you have to make a million mistakes in Russian before you can truly begin to learn the language. I’m not sure if you have to write a million crappy words of before you can truly start to learn the art and craft of writing, but I am sure it couldn’t hurt. :)
(And the pact idea was just an odd little thought – no worries.)
- Evelyn
Are you trying to get out of the pact now?! ;)
Thanks for all the advice, I’ll definitely try and do some of that.
I guess the other downside is however, that I am also very very lazy and lose interest quickly as evident by this blog and the long breaks it’s had! But that’s a trait I also need to combat on other levels.
Again, thanks for all the advice.
haven’t nano-ed before, though you’re making me tempted to. :lol: i have ideas brewing in my head, but i’ll give it a pass this year as i’ve just started working and i’m also doing a personal project. i’ll email you the password to the protected post, which talks about it. :)
Well, you’ll be able to follow my experience either here or on Twitter to see what it’s like. :)
Looking forward to reading about it, I saw you were hinting at something on your blog.
Well maybe we can some sort of a “half-pact”…
…perhaps call it a “Gentlewomens’ Agreement”?
As for laziness, well – you can’t write a book without doing everything it takes to write a book. I know this because, with all my drafts and plans and notes, I’ve never actually finished anything yet. :? :)
@Evelyn
The pleasure is also mine
@Cat
Reading (or listening) a lot doesn’t mean stealing other people’s ideas or style. It means IMO to internalize language structures thus getting into a language in a more natural (biological) way. After this flooding therapy phrases will pop un in our mind in ways surprising.
We have in our genes certain reaction-mechanisms for languages that are pretty much biological. We are made to learn ‘by example’ and thru full-immersion more than with grammars etc., like babies do. Grammar can be good at a later stage (and in fact kids go to school afterwards: they need a clean-up but they are already fluent).
So people like us that are not English (nor Russian or whatever) mother tongue can in my view try some form of substitute to natural language learning process in this and other ways. I met a Canadian guy who spoke 12 languages and was proud of the fact that he had never studied their grammars.
Allow me one last thing. Reading in my view is the most important practice of all, the written language being way more complex. Plus, we want to produce good written language, don’t we.
Ciao sweet Cat
and sorry if I intruded on Twitter into personal matters)
Man of Roma
Man of Roma, please do not worry, everyone is always welcome to ask me anything and it is my decision if I choose to answer. :)
And yes, I need to read more, I used to read at least three or more books a week, these days I barely read any. I do, however, read a lot on the internet, online newspapers which I suppose doesn’t help creative writing all that much.
Evelyn, perhaps it is time that you do finish something. Given NaNoWriMo some more thought? ;)
Well, Cat, you seem to have been the pebble that started the landslide.
I went and checked out the NaNoWriMo site, and thought of the historical novel set in Medieval Scotland that I’ve done tons of research & planning for but never yet started in on actually writing the draft. Now I’m signed up for NaNoWrimo (screenname there is evelyn) and have spent the past weekorganizing my old research notes, doing new research, sorting out my timelines and story arc, and otherwise doing all sorts of preparation of the type that I have told you is not really necessary. :)
(And it isn’t, but if your novel is going to be set on an island in the Inner Hebrides in 1496-98 and is based on a historical incident, and you’re aspersnickety as stickler for detail and accuracy as I try to be, it doesn’t hurt. )
I even got so distracted playing with all this stuff that I’ve neglected this site, and my blog, for a week. :(
If anyone asks, I’ll tell them that it’s all Carocat’s fault. :)
- the prodigal Evelyn
*whistles innocently* Yeah, I lost interest in this blog again. I really must stop being such a nomadic Cat. I love comments and I love this blog, but I get so sidetracked. :(
I’ve jsut looked on the site and OMG, you did it! I’m so impressed and proud!
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