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Q&A How to write when thinking in multiple languages?

If it's your first draft, just write it as it comes. You can't edit a blank page. After your first draft, go back through and clean up the polyglossolalia. If you're writing in third person, pick ...

posted 9y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:29Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17745
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:22:07Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17745
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T04:22:07Z (over 4 years ago)
If it's your first draft, just write it as it comes. You can't edit a blank page.

After your first draft, go back through and clean up the polyglossolalia. If you're writing in third person, pick one language and make it all that. (Obviously if your characters speak multiple languages, you can decide what to keep and what to translate.)

If you're writing in the first person, you may choose to have a multilingual narrator. You then have to pick one "main" language (the language of whatever you think your audience will be) and figure out from there how much of the other language(s) you want to translate for them. For example, if the first-person narrator's main language is French, you can leave in a few swear words in Spanish, but if she's going to have a lengthy conversation in English, you need to translate that for your French readers.

There's a certain charm in code-switching (when a character changes languages for a few key words because the main language just doesn't have the term or phrase), so I wouldn't edit out your other languages entirely.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-06-16T14:30:30Z (almost 9 years ago)
Original score: 5