On writing

[wiseheart]

I think I just had a revelation recently.

When I started writing in English, about a decade and a half ago, when the Tolkien fandom was on its film-induced boost, I used to hear people complaining about run-in sentences left, right and center. That made me very nervous; firstly because I tend to build long, complicated sentences (which is an infestation from German literary language, I think), and secondly because I used to be even more insecure about my English than I'm now.

However, recently I read a lot of fanfic in the Sherlock fandom, and I think I finally begin to understand what all those people meant all those years ago. There are interesting stories that I actually like, but they make me incredibly tired after a couple of chapters, because the author writes in a hectic manner that make it hard to make out the individual sentences.

Considering that these authors are usually native English speakers, I think I'm not doing all that bad, in comparison.

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

It took me awhile to learn to shorten my sentences when I started story writing. I think you write well.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) It took me a long while until I dared to believe that long sentences aren't necessarily a bad thing - as long as there's a coherent concept that the reader can follow. Not always an easy thing in German literary language, and since I started writing in German much earlier than in English, I needed time to adapt. Still, I for my part like long sentences sometimes. *g*

[sammydragoncat]

my cousin, who is a college professor, was always complain about the undergraduates papers and their use of run on sentences. You know I like the way you write, and when I first started reading your stories - I did not initially realize that English is not your strongest language.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Awww, shucks... Now you made me blush...

But seriously, writing in English isn't an easy task. Hungarian (my mother tongue) has a completely different grammatical structure than any given Western language, and since I grew up with German as a second language, I tend to use all other languages the same way. Which, as we know, not always work with English. German is much more structured and logical, and English sometimes drives me up the walls. *g*

I'm a lot less insecure now than I used to be fifteen years ago when I started writing in English. Back then I thought that people who were criticizing me were always right, just because they were native speakers. Now I'm tearing my hair out over the grammar and spelling of some authors who are supposed to be native speakers. It's a teacher thing, I guess... I expect everyone to respect their own language and use it correctly.

[sammydragoncat]

I think it must be - I am sure my cousin would agree with you.