Someone recently asked me if I was going to write in English or Spanish. And the truth is… I don’t know.
Well, I know what I want, but my feelings are complicated. I want to write in English, but English is not my First Language, so I wonder if I should and if my writing would be any good.
Writing in Spanish is weird for me, though. I’ve read and studied Literature in English for decades, so Spanish sounds weird to me sometimes (Especially explicit language, which sounds too technical or too cheesy). Still, I would be able to tell if my writing is crap in Spanish, right? Maybe.
For me, the main reason to write in Spanish is that… I want to write Romance with LGBTQ+ characters, and it’s something one can’t easily find in Spanish. I love helping and I want to help Spanish speakers find stories that will make them happy (which is why I became a translator, but that’s another story).
However, I love writing and reading in English, and if I was confident about both my English and my writing, I wouldn’t hesitate: I’d write in English first, and then see if I want to publish anything in Spanish as well.
Maybe that’s what I should do. Just follow the Fake-it-till-you-make-it philosophy. After all, there are proofreaders, editors and beta-readers out there. I wouldn’t be alone.
Sol Vera's Blog 
Not an easy decision, I have the same problem…
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With English and Norwegian?
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Exactly…
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But Norwegian people are much better at English in general. I can’t tell the different when Nordic people speak English and native speakers do.
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Thank you 🙂
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Personally, I tend to write ideas in both Danish and English. However, when it comes to the story itself, I often write in English since it comes more naturally to me, and often my stories takes place in countries where Danish would be way too unnatural for me to use.
I’m working on a fanfic right now that takes place here in Denmark. I started writing it in English at first, when suddenly I realized it wasn’t Danish at all, it was American. Like, the feeling of it. So I started from scratch and wrote it in Danish, then I will be translating it to English once it’s done – and even use direct translations, to give it the full experience. Which is actually where I started thinking about this at first. And honestly, the answer is quite simple – you don’t have to choose. Use both. If you pick one, you can always translate it afterwards.
Of course English will always be an obvious choice to most, since more people can read it then. But I’ve found that writing in your native language can be quite fun, too. It can be difficult at times, due to the differences, but tbh you’re allowed to mix multiple languages if you want to. Most native writers nowadays do anyway (at least here in dk) :p Writing should never be restricted in any way. So just go with what you feel like! Then it’ll all sort out eventually 🙂
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Yeah, my notebooks are written in a strange mixture of English, Spanish and question marks. Some days one feels more natural than the other, but it also depends on the story. I wish I could read yours in Danish, but I will wait patiently until you translate it as well.
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