Welcome and thanks a lot for checking out this thread!
What’s the goal of this thread?
I am creating this thread because a few years ago, me as a person who has English as a second language, I struggled a lot with language in my writing and not gonna lie I still do. However I’ve learned a lot the last years and I hope I can help anyone by writing this.
My advice:
~ Use a thesaurus. Extremely useful if you have a limited vocabulary and want to make your writing more diverse. However, I must warn that sometimes which synonym you can use really depends on the context.
~ Use grammarly. This is a kinda app that helps you with your writing, it gives feedback on your grammar and even the free version is extremely useful!
~ Don’t hesitate to ask someone to proofread your story and help you with your language. It’s not a weakness to ask for help instead it only makes you and your work stronger.
~ Keep it short and simple, don’t make it too complicated for yourself with long sentences and difficult grammar or words.
~ Don’t use it as an excuse and have faith in yourself. If you care about your writing and want to write in English there are more than enough ways to make sure the level of English in your story is good. I provided you with some of them here but there are so many more way to improve your English! Don’t give up if your English isn’t that good yet! You don’t want to know how awful my English was but now it’s pretty decent.
~ My last advice, don’t force yourself to have perfect English. After all it’s not your first language and it’s hard to learn a language and use it flawlessly, and even native speakers make mistakes!
I hope this helped anyone and feel free to share your advice down below
•If you don’t know a word, use a dictionary or ask someone for help
•Reading texts written by native English writers often helps you improve your English
Advice: Not that I expect anyone to have such a perfect grammar, yeah? But if you want to improve your grammar, then what I suggest you is: if, for example you see one word or more that was misspelled, correct it.
One thing that has helped me a lot with improving my writing and language in general would be to read a lot in English. It’s super helpful and fun at the same time. By reading you’ll pick up new words and phrases used by native speakers and yep, good stuff.
My teacher said that what separated native and non native speakers were idioms, expressions and customs in the language that doesn’t necessarily get taught in school. I’ve never had an ear for languages and always got “awkward sentence” in the margins on my papers but my friends who rarely got any mistakes on their essays only got the critique that they talked too formal haha. (Meanwhile I got that I had to speak louder XD)
Something else I’ve learned is that you should try to avoid too long and too complicated sentence structures unless you’re 100% sure that you won’t make a mistake
Oh man, there was a long and really good thread about it on WattPad forums. I ranted my heart out about what it’s like to be a non-native speaker writer. Unfortunately, it got nuked together with the whole community when the company pulled the plug
A few bits of advice I can think of:
Writing fiction in a foreign language is an incredible feat. Be proud of it!
You’ll never reach the natural fluency level of a native speaker. That’s okay. You don’t have to hold yourself to the same standards.
As a non-native speaker, you’re writing with a serious handicap. It’s only natural if you ask for extra consideration.
Native speakers don’t bite. Many of us imagine that we’ll get scolded for writing in their tongue. Situations like that are rude exceptions, however.
In fact, most native speakers think that writing in a foreign language is amazing. Don’t hesitate to share that you’re a non-native speaker - let them admire you!
Be conscientious and hard-working, but also be aware that you’re working with a handicap. Don’t let others downplay it! ‘I know you’re a non-native speaker, but…’ pretends to understand your special needs, only to throw it out of the window.
You’ve probably spent more conscious effort polishing your English than most native speakers ever will. While they may use it naturally, you’ve studied it. Don’t underestimate it!
Most native speakers don’t know a thing about English. Being able to use it =/= understanding how language works. Native speakers are notoriously awful with language terminology and theoretical understanding of the rules. If what they say doesn’t make sense to you, chances are you’re right.
(Seriously: My best friend learned as much about English grammar from me as I did from her. Also, a dollar for every native speaker who describes spelling and punctuation as ‘grammar’ )
When all else fails: Take a look at a random story written by a native speaker on any given site. Chances are it totally sucks - and you can do better
