Languages Of China.
this is why you don’t equate Mandarin with Chinese
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Languages Of China.
this is why you don’t equate Mandarin with Chinese
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when you want to write something really deep but it ends up sounding like
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Hey everyone! I’m a little late in the game, but it’s #FourGodsFriday! I am open to any questions about The Four Gods. Characters, universe, history or mythology, I am open for questions!
Note: You have until midnight to send in an ask/question, all questions will be answered on Saturday.
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Hey there, everyone! So I’ve decided to start this weekly segment on writing advice, each week focusing on issues I’ve personally run into in my journey and questions I’ve been asked. For this week, I’m going to cover a few ways to insert foreign languages into your MS.
Method 1: Inserting simple phrases in said language.
Example from The Moon-Eyed Ones (Cherokee):
“I don’t want you going to the white settlement anymore. Do you understand?”
I must have looked like I didn’t catch what she had said, and I was distracted with my thoughts on top of that.
“Holigatsv, Nvdodikani?” She repeated, slower, this time.
“Vv. Goliga.” I said.
This method is good for simple sentences or phrases like the ones I presented above, providing you actually know these phrases in the respective languages you are using and are 100% certain of their meaning. And with the context of the dialogue before that, the reader knows that the characters are confirming that they have an understanding between them. I usually like to pair this method with the following, being…
Method 2: Write dialogue in your native language, implying that they are speaking in another.
Examples from The Four Gods (Yue and Korean):
In the seating area were Caixia, Fengge, and another
woman Gen did not recognize. They were all talking in a language he couldn’t
understand, but it sounded like a tribal language of the southern coasts to him.
He neared them anyway to see if he could decipher any of their conversation.
Chonglin nodded, his hair pulling at his nape
from the tightness of his topknot. “Your kingdom is a fine one, Your Majesty.”
The language still felt new on his tongue, and he admitted he wasn’t as fluent
as he would have liked to be, “I am just glad that I had a chance to speak with
you in person. I was worried that my intent would not be properly expressed.”In these examples, I am implying that Fengge and Caixia are speaking a dialect of Chinese that Get has heard, but doesn’t understand. In the second example, I mention that Chonglin is speaking to a royal figure in a language he can speak (Korean, or what would be Korean at the time), but he is still adjusting to it. I recommend doing this method if the language is one you do not personally speak or is one you are not confident in using in order to prevent translation mistakes.
I did this one in The Moon-Eyed Ones as well, considering I am nowhere near fluent in Cherokee, but a good chunk of the characters are speaking Cherokee the majority of the time. It’s the same in The Four Gods, that since the book takes place in China, the characters are speaking a dialect of Chinese. This brings me to the third method, being…
Method 3: Writing complete phrases, conversations, and sentences in the language.
Example from Eidolon’s Eden [WIP] (Myaamia):
When the train hissed to a stop, Martin led the group onto the platform, but they were suddenly greeted by an
older man waiting by a dusty Model A. The man rushed over to Martin, who had
barely disembarked from the train car and pulled him into a tight hug.“Aya aya, Mihcalaankwa! Neehahki-nko kiiwayi?”
The man exclaimed, patting Martin on the back.The priest pushed up his glasses, which had been
knocked off the brim of his nose. “Neehaki
niiyawi, Akima.”The man’s grin
spread across his entire face, but he soon noticed the other people behind Martin in blacks and looked
them up and down inquisitively.“Ah…awehniiki
oneki?” He asked.In this example, there is no English dialogue between the characters and no offerings of any kind of translation to the reader. Granted, these are still simple phrases anyone could learn, but unless the reader speaks Myaamia, they wouldn’t understand the conversation. However, in this particular instance, this conversation between characters continues on to reference that the other characters present also do not speak Myaamia and are just as confused as the reader. I do not recommend using this method unless your goal is to leave your readers lost and confused with what is happening, and 90% of the time, that is not what you want to accomplish…unless you want your readers to search for a dictionary or translator app every time your characters speak with one another. (Pro tip: That’s a bad thing. Don’t do that.)
Out of all these methods, #2 is my preferred method of choice, as it is probably the most foolproof and mistake-proof out of the three, since #1 and #3 can sometimes end up with translation mistakes. And depending on who your editor or beta readers are, they may not speak those languages either, so you better be sure you know what your characters are saying to one another (unless you yourself are fluent in that language or you have access to ask native speakers). But my personal experience is that peppering in small phrases can make your book and characters a little more well-rounded and can make dialogue that much more realistic.
For writing bilingual or polyglot characters mixing up their languages, reference this post. The above advice is intended for characters carrying a conversation in one language that may not be your own native language.
And that’s all for the first WAW! If you have any topics that you want me to cover, you can comment here or shoot me a message. I hope some of you found this useful and I’ll be back on Friday to start special Q&A sessions for The Four Gods. 🙂
Until then, everyone!
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Thats the weirdest erotic sentence i’ve read all month
this fucking post singlehandedly ruined my life
You don’t really appreciate how fucking great fan fic is when it comes to writing sex untill you stop to recognise how Serious Literary Stars fail at writing sex.
DO A BARREL ROLL
#in all my years of reading fic i have never encountered a sentence this terrible #did he just say that his dick smacked EVERY MUSCLE in her body except you know her vagina? #like I’MMA SMACK YOU IN THE CHEEK I’MMA SMACK YOU IN THE SHOULDER I’MMA SMACK YOU IN THE CALF #what is your dick doing?? #how do you think sex works morrissey??
Forget what his dick is doing, what are her breasts doing? How do a pair of fat sacks attached to a ribcage barrel-roll anywhere? Let alone across a man’s mouth and then his wanger immediately after? Sir, why is your mouth so dong-adjacent? Is your weiner detachable, is that it? Do you have your joystick clutched in your hand so that you can score a sweet schlong-to-titty-roll immediately after a kiss and then proceed to beat your banana all over her body in the world’s most failed attempt at erotic massage??? HOW DO YOU THINK SEX WORKS???
… guys
….. Are the sex scenes in My Immortal better than this?
“HE PUT HIS THINGY IN MY YOU-KNOW-WHAT AND WE HAD SEX.”… I mean. Comparatively…
Like, in My Immortal, it’s at least implied he knows where he’s supposed to put it. It’s very simplistic, Ikea-style sex (insert tab A into slot B) but that’s better than this vague, useless composition of random, nonsensical placement and movement of body parts.
So yes, the sex in My Immortal is, in this sense, better.
OK so I’m sure people are aware of this, but just in case you’re not: there is an annual ‘award’ given every year by the Literary Review for bad sex scenes in fiction. The above entry (sorry) by Morrissey won this illustrious award in 2015 (and yes, he threw a massive tantrum about it, because he’s Morrissey):
The best part of this is that the 2016 nominations were just announced, and OH BOY, there are some absolute crackers this year:
And in case anyone is interested, these are some of the entries that Morrissey beat to the top prize last year:
I agree. We are spoilt by fanfiction.
I literally never want to hear anyone badmouth fanfiction again, I have never in all my years of internetdom read anything as troubling as, “Under that sling, her breasts were like young fawns, sheep frolicking in hyssop – Psalms were about to pour out of me.”
“Come, sonny boy” is where I absolutely lost it
@m0th3rw4r – never put down your writing again. Ever. These are published!!
I feel like at least half of these are trying to be Hemingway–which is yet /another/ reason to never try to be Hemingway. (Number one reason is that Hemingway sucks)
No matter how horrible I think my sex scenes are, I am reasonably certain they are not this terrible.
I’m waiting for a show that takes these romantic scenes and takes two stances. One is what could anatomically happen and the other a way that the human anatomy would have to be in order for these weapons of sex destruction to take place…like an erotic Mythbusters.
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Thats the weirdest erotic sentence i’ve read all month
this fucking post singlehandedly ruined my life
You don’t really appreciate how fucking great fan fic is when it comes to writing sex untill you stop to recognise how Serious Literary Stars fail at writing sex.
DO A BARREL ROLL
#in all my years of reading fic i have never encountered a sentence this terrible #did he just say that his dick smacked EVERY MUSCLE in her body except you know her vagina? #like I’MMA SMACK YOU IN THE CHEEK I’MMA SMACK YOU IN THE SHOULDER I’MMA SMACK YOU IN THE CALF #what is your dick doing?? #how do you think sex works morrissey??
Forget what his dick is doing, what are her breasts doing? How do a pair of fat sacks attached to a ribcage barrel-roll anywhere? Let alone across a man’s mouth and then his wanger immediately after? Sir, why is your mouth so dong-adjacent? Is your weiner detachable, is that it? Do you have your joystick clutched in your hand so that you can score a sweet schlong-to-titty-roll immediately after a kiss and then proceed to beat your banana all over her body in the world’s most failed attempt at erotic massage??? HOW DO YOU THINK SEX WORKS???
… guys
….. Are the sex scenes in My Immortal better than this?
“HE PUT HIS THINGY IN MY YOU-KNOW-WHAT AND WE HAD SEX.”… I mean. Comparatively…
Like, in My Immortal, it’s at least implied he knows where he’s supposed to put it. It’s very simplistic, Ikea-style sex (insert tab A into slot B) but that’s better than this vague, useless composition of random, nonsensical placement and movement of body parts.
So yes, the sex in My Immortal is, in this sense, better.
OK so I’m sure people are aware of this, but just in case you’re not: there is an annual ‘award’ given every year by the Literary Review for bad sex scenes in fiction. The above entry (sorry) by Morrissey won this illustrious award in 2015 (and yes, he threw a massive tantrum about it, because he’s Morrissey):
The best part of this is that the 2016 nominations were just announced, and OH BOY, there are some absolute crackers this year:
And in case anyone is interested, these are some of the entries that Morrissey beat to the top prize last year:
I agree. We are spoilt by fanfiction.
I literally never want to hear anyone badmouth fanfiction again, I have never in all my years of internetdom read anything as troubling as, “Under that sling, her breasts were like young fawns, sheep frolicking in hyssop – Psalms were about to pour out of me.”
“Come, sonny boy” is where I absolutely lost it
@m0th3rw4r – never put down your writing again. Ever. These are published!!
I feel like at least half of these are trying to be Hemingway–which is yet /another/ reason to never try to be Hemingway. (Number one reason is that Hemingway sucks)
No matter how horrible I think my sex scenes are, I am reasonably certain they are not this terrible.
I’m waiting for a show that takes these romantic scenes and takes two stances. One is what could anatomically happen and the other a way that the human anatomy would have to be in order for these weapons of sex destruction to take place…like an erotic Mythbusters.
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#thefourgods doodles! Top left: Zhen, Gen’s servant when he serves as Crown Prince. Top right: Yang, Gen’s oldest brother who is one of the many dukes of the kingdom. Bottom left: Song Daiyu, the lead courtesan of heaven’s Flower House. Daiyu was actually designed by my CP. Bottom right: Ling Huojin, Fengge’s older brother and chief of the Fenghuang tribe. Yay for side characters! #writerslife #characterdesign
AUTHOR | HISTORIAN | ARTIST 