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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40204
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40204
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

First off, I basically agree with [Cyn's statement](https://writing.stackexchange.com/a/40193/2533) that lots of footnotes can make a text feel more like an academic work than a novel.

That said, you say that the purpose of these footnotes is to help a translator.

Ask yourself: Why would such notes, in whichever form, intended for an extremely narrow audience, need to go into the text the reader sees?

One alternative approach I've seen done with good results is to **provide a separate "translator's guide"** to your story. There, you discuss things like the _rationale_ for various word choices; why a translator might want to leave certain passages untranslated; the meaning behind specific, non-obvious terms; whether in different cases an idiom should be translated literally or replaced with a similar one; and so on.

Such a guide can be written in a much dryer manner than the prose itself, without detracting from the story you're telling; not least because most readers don't even need to realize it exists. It also allows a translator to take your _intent_ into account, by knowing what your intent is, rather than simply translating the words on the page into what they _think_ your intent was.

You do need to be careful to not make it _too_ restrictive, but if you limit it to discussion of various forms of _intent_ then I don't think that would be a significant risk.

Original score: 5