I've always loved to write. It's a chaotic process for me because I'm always going all over the place rather than focusing on one thing at a time, but it's enjoyable.
Lately, I've been working on a story with various characters of my own I'm deeply attached to, and I've started writing it in English. Why English when French is my native language? I don't know. English has always been the language I switch to when I need to talk about things that affect me, and as a matter of fact, the themes of the story I'm working on are difficult. And they do affect me a lot.
Out of curiosity, I've wanted to write some bits of it in French, mostly to practice my creative writing, and it turns out that I suck at it. I wrote in French a lot when I was younger, but the more I learned English, the more I used it to write, and I now find myself unable to write something that I find good enough in French. Everything is messy, I don't know how to carry on once I'm done with a sentence, the style is either way over the top or absurdly simple. Anyways, I hate it. I've managed to write the summary in French, but it's more of a guideline for me, which means it's straightforward and quite simple in the style, with very few complex sentences.
I guess the only way to get better is obviously to keep on writing, but I just don't feel like writing in French. I don't know why, but it feels... not as impactful. Which probably isn't true. And it's leaving me at a loss what to think about it all.
Anyhow, I'll go back to my tribulations in the hopes that someday, I'll be able to write in French and actually like it.
Hi Nolwenn, I'm a creative writer as well (short stories and novellas) so I understand not being happy with what you write! Happens to all of us. I might guess that you feel English is more impactful because the most popular books in the world (recently) were written first in English, as well as the most popular films and TV series, music, etc etc. Subconsciously, it might seem that if you aren't writing in English you're wasting your time. Your work will never get anywhere. That's not true, of course, but it might be a reason.
Thanks for the feedback! I didn't even think of that, but now that you mention it, it's a possibility. I do feel that English is the language I've associated with creativity and feelings, while French has always been used for argumentation and critical thinking (the pros and cons of French education, we argue really well, but we can't write stories). It might also be linked to the fact that I specialized in literature during my studies, and it gave off vibes like "your writing isn't good enough if there aren't fifty figures of speech per page", while English was mostly about the meaning of the story and its themes. Thanks for the corrections, also!
Interesting! The same actually happens to me. I tend to automatically switch to English when writing. And most of what I write in my native German sounds (to me) either very simplistic or very formal.. I’ve also been wondering why that is :) Even when reading books I mostly tend to choose English ones, because contemporary German writing somehow doesn’t draw me in as much. Hoping to change that, though. Since I would like to be able to actually appreciate literature in my native language ;)
Hi Nolvenn,
I also seem to have a similar problem, although I'm not so much into writing. But when I write something, I tend to switch to English. Here on Journaly, I often do that to reach a broader audience. I mean basically everybody speaks or at least understands English and therefore you can share your thoughts with more people.
This is the first time I read you and that was very good! And that's coming from a professional editor. The fact that I only gave you a handful of corrections is very telling (as Linda can attest:)) Excellent work and impressive command of English!
Yup, I can definitely attest 😅
😂