4 things to expect when writing in a new language

          Since I started writing back in 2016 my main language has been Bulgarian. I had no confidence in my English to start writing stories and to be honest I still don't. I probably wasn't going to try it in the near future but a short talk with a really dear stream to me changed my mind. Or at least got me curious enough to start and see where it goes.

          I've been writing in English for a few weeks now and here is a list of some things that I experienced while still adapting. Also, some tips that helped me to go through it.

          1. You will have doubt.

        You will doubt your choice. After all this is a change. Just a different language right? What's the worry for? It ain't that easy. You've developed connections in the language you have been writing until now. A person close to you might be reading your drafts, they might not know the other language and you don't want to let them down. You're just getting yourself anxious at this point.

• You need to take a deep breath and realize that all this is not real. Another person will start reading your drafts, you are not letting anyone down. People will find something to read. You're just afraid to make a change because you already have something going, some kind of an established safe space. You fear that if you step out of this place you won't be able to create a new one. That's not true.
• Ask people if they want to read something from you in this different language. And if they say yes you should have a short story or prologue or whatever ready. You can ask on the internet for strangers to check out your work, it's not as hard to get people around you as you might think it is.

          2. It will feel weird.

        Obviously, I know English well enough to talk with people but story-telling is something else. When you've been writing in another language you've developed a voice with that other language. And suddenly needing to change phrases to have a meaning in another language doesn't feel as right. It will not sound like you. You will feel like someone else is controlling your hands and it's not you the person pressing down the keys. And this feeling won't go away for just a week.

• What I can advise you is to just get to know this new voice, this new person that you become when you change the language of your keyboard. Just be ready for a long process of adaptation. Most of all don't think about it too much. You will eventually get used to it. This is said from a person who has been writing in English for about two to three weeks.

          3. You will feel lost.

        When I made that change I had a few scenes in mind for the story. I didn't have the starting scene so this one sort of happened on its own. The best example I can give is that you're just being introduced to the writing world and all you want to do is write. I had moments when I didn't know what to write but pushing through was easy.

Just keep going. Push that bit a little harder. It's not that hard to write in the early stages.

          4. It won't be good.

        As much as you will want it to be good it just won't feel right. You will be using a lot of repetitive phrases, words, and all that. You will want to rewrite it later on the second read. Change some words and all of that. And punctuation will be a nightmare if you don't find a handy cheat sheet.

• For words use the translator and Word-up. It's an app that shows you words and articles with them. That is if you transition to English. Word-Up helps with English only.
• For phrases just read whatever from natives. Always look up what the phrases mean and/or ask to be sure. You will get far and eventually you will become fluent in writing this new language as you are in your mother tongue.

          Starting a story is like putting a new upgrade to your writer profile. You might want to start with short stories to explore this new tab of your hobby. Or a story that unfolds like a collection of short stories. This is how I would describe Tails of broken kids.

          Before I forget. You can now follow how I progress in my wips in the "Writing progress" page I created. You can see how many chapters are written and how many words a chapter is plus the status of the books. Both of the ones I'm updating are in drafting process for now.

          That's it from me for this article. Till next time hammer-on and jam along.