Wit & Travesty

Do what you love—love what you do.

International Interview: When Authors Write Novels in Their Second Language

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international interview with writers via wit and travesty

This week’s post is going be amazing! About a month ago, I participated in a thread on Your Write Dream about writing in different languages. It honestly blew my mind that there are so many young international writers that are publishing in English—their second or third language! I can hardly imagine writing confidently in my own native language, let alone if I tried to in Danish or German (I’m fluent in both).

I wanted to learn more about what it’s like to take on such a crazy task, and these three awesome writers were willing to answer my questions. So today, I’m sharing those interview questions and their responses. I’m excited for you to meet these amazing writers!

1. Tell me about yourself! Where are you from & how many languages do you know?

Elitsa Boneva

Elitsa Boneva: My name is Elitsa. I’m 18 years old and from Bulgaria. Apart from my native language I know English (obviously), German, and bits of Spanish and Russian.

Andrea Marques: I’m from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! I speak three languages more or less well (Portuguese, my native language; English my second language; French my third language), and a couple more on a very basic level (Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, and Norwegian being the main ones).

Marina Costa: I am from Romania and I am an economist by profession. Besides Romanian, I have a diploma of certified interpreter for English, French and Spanish.

2. Which language do you primarily write in & why?

Boneva: It really depends on what kind of story I want to write and what genre it fits. When I began writing it was mainly in Bulgarian. I got inspired by Agatha Christie’s books and I wrote my own criminal story (it’s not finished yet though).

Later I discovered Wattpad and decided to give it a try. English is now the language I primarily write in because I find it easier to express myself when I write Teen Fiction or Young Adult books. It is also easier to reach a wider range of readers, since basically everyone on Wattpad knows English.

Marques: I write primarily in English. There are several reasons why: English is an excellent language for literature, in my view, and also a very natural one to write in. It has enough flexibility and fluidity that I can express myself well in it.

As I have several foreign friends, it also works as a lingua franca, the one I write in so everyone can read. Many of my Brazilian and European friends also speak English, so it evens out. I get a wider audience.

Costa: I write primarily in Romanian, but I also write in English. I write my historical fiction books in Romanian because I write them for my friends and for other people who might not speak English.

But I write interactive stories on the internet (roleplaying games) in English, (also historical fiction adventures) because there are more people who speak English in the world and on the net. I have writing partners from US, UK, Australia, Canada (both French and English native speakers), all Scandinavian countries, Indonesia, Germany, and other countries. I had more in the past.

3. What’s the best & worst thing about writing in another language besides your native language?

Boneva: See, it shocked me how different expressing yourself is in Bulgarian and in English. Most authors acquire a

Andrea Marques

certain type of writing style throughout the years and they stick to it. I, on the other hand, have to switch between my Bulgarian-writing self and my English-writing self, and let me tell you—it’s not easy.

They’re two different personas: the former is a master of description—sceneries, nature, almost anything; the later prefers to focus on the inner world of the characters. My Bulgarian-writing self is used to the 3rd POV, whereas my English-writing self usually uses the 1st POV.

Sometimes there are no words in the English language to describe what I want to say; sometimes it’s the other way around. Knowing other languages as well causes me to mix words and definitions in my head.

What’s great about being able to write in two languages is that it expands my perspective.

Marques: The best is the wider audience, I think, considering English is one of the most spoken languages in the world. The disadvantage is that sometimes, I can commit very basic mistakes if I’m not careful.

Costa: The worst is that no mater how fluent, one still can’t master the vocabulary in the way a writer should. It is more limited by nature. The best is that you write for a larger audience.

4. Which languages does the writing market in your country favor?

Boneva: Definitely Bulgarian. My generation, the young people, are more likely to read literature in other languages, simply because most of us know English. The world around us is speaking English and since it has become way more global than it used to be 30 years ago, we have no other choice but to learn the language. That’s not the case with the older generations.

My parents, my grandparents—they don’t speak English and they don’t need to. So naturally, they can only read books in Bulgarian, so that’s what the market is offering them. I am cool with that, though.

Reading generally benefits our language skills and that’s a much needed thing in a world where teens massively don’t know when to use they’re, there, or their. Bulgarian kids also have a poor spelling and grammar knowledge, so I am all for reading books if that is going to help them.

Marques: Portuguese, as it is the official language of Brazil. My country has an active market for books, though it’s considerably smaller than that of other countries such as the US and England. Nonetheless, it is not uncommon to find books in English (imported), and most of the books sold end up being translations from foreign books.

Costa: The writing market in my country favours Romanian books which are published on paper, not electronically. But I know a few Romanian aspiring writers who write in English aiming the international English language market (Wattpad, fanfic sites, electronic books).

5. What advice would you give writers who want to publish books in their non-native language?

Marina Costa

Boneva: Go for it! Be brave! It takes a lot of time to write something you’re satisfied with. I am often afraid that my grammar or vocabulary are not as good, but the truth is there are so many sources on the Internet nowadays that can help you get better.

I am forever thankful for Tumblr—I found so many useful materials on there—from how to describe smells and texture to how to build Archetypes. I can recommend a blog called Ink&Quills—it has helped me a lot. My main advice would be research and don’t be so harsh on yourself—good things take time.

Marques: Find a good editor; read a LOT in your writing language, so you can catch the flow and fluency of language beyond the textbook basics and vocabularies.

A lot of people end up writing in a way that feels unnaturally stiff and too correct. Real natives never write or communicate like that. Explore idioms and proverbs, clichés and expressions, which enrich and give flavour to your writing. Also, while the thesaurus is a friend, it can also be a foe. Be wary of purple writing!

Costa: Have their books revised by a native speaker. Not being native speaker shows, no matter how well one has learnt grammar and how wide a vocabulary one has.

That’s the end of the interview! I hope you found it inspiring, fascinating, and motivating. I’d encourage you to reach out to your fellow writing friends and support them—no matter where they’re from or how confident they are with English. Writing karma is a beautiful thing!

Do you have further questions or experiences concerning writing in other languages? Let us know on social media or in the comment section below!

If you’d like to follow and befriend these fine writers, here’s where you can find them on the internet:

Elitsa Boneva:

  • Instagram/Snapchat: @ellitssa
  • Wattpad: @ell_bon
  • Articles on mental health on the Mighty: @Elitsa Boneva

Andrea Marques:

Marina Costa:

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Woof—How Do We Avoid Self-Promo Burnout?

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How to avoid self-promo burnout via wit and travesty

So here’s the thing: I need this post just as much as you might. Burnout is a thing I experience on a weekly basis from being a recovering perfectionist. So my purpose here is to be real with you and remind you that everyone has their issues and hangups with self-promoting. We’ll talk more about that soon enough.

I divided this based on the types of people who are interested in self-promoting: those who treat their blog as a business and those who treat it as a hobby. Where do you fit? I hope what I have to say helps you feel confident as you continue, you get the sense that we’re all still figuring this out, and you know you’re not alone!

Serious? Understand the Industry

I think you’ll be able to have confidence in your social media platform if you know what is at least considered successful in your industry. You can create a better plan, set smarter goals, and feel like it’s worth the investment.

Since I’m not “there” yet when it comes to serious self-promoting, I thought it would be more helpful and fun to share some resources that have helped me. If you’re looking for self-promo help from the gurus, then check out these articles and websites:

I hope these resources help. You can find plenty more on my Pinterest board and elsewhere on Pinterest! The overall point I want to make here is that there are so many resources available to help you succeed. If you want to make money and use social media to find your audience, you can totally pull it off!

Overwhelmed? Check Your Goals

Once you learn about some in-depth tactics for social media, it can feel pretty intense. If you have a full-time job, introverted, a parent, or otherwise busy, it can feel crummy knowing that everyone seems to get the social media thing and you don’t.

Let’s understand something really quick: not everyone is “getting” the social media thing. Professional bloggers treat their blog and brand as a serious business. They have likely also blogged for years or did intense research and business planning before launching their website.

Blogging is not a hobby for them. I do social media work for small businesses as my full-time job. Many companies hire other companies to do their social media. That should be a sign to you that you as a mortal being can’t do all of this and be sane.

If you’re worried about having to spend time on all these things and you’re so overwhelmed that your brain is threatening to shut down, just stop.

I give you full permission to not go insane over social media.

There’s a fear that if you don’t perform like other social media moguls that people will leave you behind. That’s not really true—and if it were, it’s not worth your sanity.

It’s not worth sacrificing your creative time for social media time, unless you actually enjoy social media. Many writers enjoy social media because it connects them with other empathetic writers. We need someone to talk writing with, right?

One way to use social media to your advantage is to be transparent about your writing lifestyle and the ups and downs that come with it. One of our top posts last year was me just spilling my guts about getting over writer’s guilt and imposter syndrome. I swear, anytime that I’m open about my insecurities on social media, y’all rally to support.

If you’ve got struggles, write about them. Tell people about them. Chances are, you’ll get views and comments and followers because a) your target audience is sympathetic b) you seem more real to other insecure writers, and c) sometimes your struggles brings out your best writing or blogging voice.

So what’s the overall point? Evaluate how social media makes you feel and if it works for you.

Is there a specific platform that you hate? Dump that. Focus on the platforms that you understand and enjoy. You literally don’t need to be on everything if you don’t want to.

Do you feel ignored or unpopular? All good things take time. But also look at your goals: are you wanting to sell products or just get likes? We all enjoy ego strokes, but it’s better to have hundreds of legit interested followers than thousands that don’t care about you.

I hope that was helpful! If anything, it’s a good reminder for myself.

Is blogging your hobby or your job? Depending on your answer, you should treat your social media presence accordingly. How do you establish your blogging goals to make it fulfilling and not stressful?

Are You Looking for Your Social Media Community?

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looking for a social media community with help from wit & travesty

So how are things going, friends? Have our previous tips for website and Instagram SEO been helping?

It’s hard to say “share your stuff everywhere” but not tell you how to find these places to share your stuff. There are pockets of communities that are ready to befriend you and include in you the fold—but finding these pockets can be difficult. As I look back on my own blogging journey, I would say most of what I found was gradual and accidental: I happened to make the right friends at the right time and invited me to the right groups. It starts with looking up blog posts on Pinterest and being invited to private groups on social media from the blog owner.

To save you time and brag on the amazing work of other people in the writing community, I’m sharing some tips on where to find your tribe/community/fans/friends/future readers on social media.

General Good Karma Tips

Ultimately, good blogging or self-promotion is all about good karma or following the Golden Rule: be that kind of blogger you want to attract to your social media feeds. And so far, good karma is what most bloggers swear by: it lends to organic traffic, blogging friends, and an increase in views and revenue. Organic traffic means that real people (your target audience) is reading and commenting out of genuine interest—we’re not talking about spammers or people solely interested in promoting their own stuff. That’s the kind of interaction you want all over your social media and your website, right?

Be the kind of blogger you want to attract to your social media feeds.

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You can sow the seeds of organic traffic by first being a good participant in communities and private groups. Since good karma can apply to any kind of online group, I’m grouping my suggestions here to get us started:

  • Balance your participation by interacting with others as much as you post to the group page.
  • Follow the group rules—they’re usually pinned to the top of the page.
  • Participate regularly
  • Leave meaningful content and comments—I’ve already talked about the art of creating meaningful comments.
  • Share and brag—there’s no telling how many online besties you can make by retweeting, sharing their content, or tagging them in your posts if you’re referring to their work.

Overall, good karma looks like accepting the help and services the host/hostess is offering. Community is definitely “all for one and one for all,” but joining a group doesn’t automatically increase traffic onto your content. Your good participation and friendliness is the sure and steady way to do this.

So now that we’ve talked about karma, let’s look at online communities on the web (with a primary focus on writers) and how they differ based on their platform.

Facebook

Facebook groups are likely the easiest to join—you’re likely already a member of one. I like Facebook groups because you can make them private to protect your community—it helps shut out trolls! No one likes online trolls.

Generally, the Facebook groups I participate in are there to share recent blog posts that are relevant to the group, offer our own tips, or to field questions. It’s treated almost as a forum, and if you haven’t already discovered: writing communities are one of the friendliest. People really want you to succeed! Moderators also sometimes host live Facebook videos: that’s one bold way to start an FAQ to get a conversation going.

Writing communities are one of the friendliest.

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Here are some groups you can join. The majority are geared towards writers, but many of them are helpful for general bloggers:

General blogging/Entrepreneur

Writing

Most of these groups are hosted by people who already have a flourishing social media platform. So, chances are, your favorite blogger might also have a Facebook group—or suggestions on which ones you should join.

Instagram

So engagement groups. They aren’t really a new tactic, but since the most recent algorithm changes, many Instagrammers have created small engagement groups to increase likes and comments on specific posts. To clarify, an engagement group is similar to a blog hop: everyone in the group shares a post (you agree to how many and how often a day) and you all comment on each other’s posts.

This approach isn’t 100% organic like we were mentioning before, but it’s one way to learn from other people in your community about how to make your account stand out.

How do you make an engagement group? You can create a thread through the direct message feature. You access your private messages with that paper airplane icon usually found on the home page on the mobile app. One person can start the thread by sending a message to the group, and then you can rename the thread so it’s easy to find. Once you create a group, you can send your post in this thread so everyone has access to it. You can use the paper plane icon for your specific post and then select your group and you’re done!

If you’re interested in starting an engagement group with me specifically, comment below or shoot me a message!

Twitter

How do you sift through millions of tweets to find your community? Twitter is pretty tricksy for me, since it’s either a treasure trove of clever banter or a hell-hole of self-promo tweets or trolls. (Did I mention my disdain for trolls?)

I like to keep updated on specific groups of people by creating lists on Twitter. You can sort all your peeps to filter your feed if you want to specifically find, retweet, and respond to content by people you want to connect with in your industry. Create lists, follow people they follow, then get their attention by liking and retweeting their stuff.

There are also live-tweet groups you can join. Basically, the moderator sets a time each week or month where people can participate in a specific hashtag to answer questions posed by the moderator and other group members. It is SO much fun, and a really quick way to find people that are nice, knowledgeable, and interesting.

Gotta give major props to StorySocial for pulling this off for almost two years now. Kristen Kieffer is just my writing muse, everyone. Also, she’s made it really easy to find the writing community in my few years of blogging.

This is the only Twitter chat one I’ve joined in, but I know there are many more. Tell us in the comments if you know of any we should check out!

Pinterest

Pinterest is a great tool for collaborating with other people and helping each other succeed. Most users do this through group Pinterest boards. Someone creates the board and can grant access to others to add pins to that board.

If you’re looking for more traffic to your blog posts, this is a great place to get your stuff noticed and shared! Instead of sharing your pins on your own boards and hope your followers see them (through the massive waves of images on images), group boards can help you find more “platforms” to share your stuff. Here’s a few examples of writing-related group boards I regularly use and follow:

I’ve noticed that using Pinterest (and contributing good content and eye-catching photos) has helped me gain more views. Just be patient; a person might save your blog post to read for later, but who knows if they’ll actually click it and go to your website! Think of Pinterest as a way to plant seeds—it’ll work for your benefit the more you invest in it.

Final Thoughts

I know a lot of us have issues against over-sharing their stuff. We don’t want to come across as self-obsessed or annoying. To overcome this, try balancing your self-promotion with your regular social media consumption. Remember the karma tips I mentioned earlier.

Basically, for every tweet, Instagram photo, or blog post, be that golden viewer/consumer for someone else. Comment, like, retweet, or share things that you genuinely enjoy. It naturally gets others to notice you, helps you be a part of the community, and establishes yourself as “the real deal” rather than the “buy my book!” tweeter.

Remember that being a member of a community takes hard work, planning, and heart. Even if you are a member of every single group mentioned in this post, it won’t grant you instant followers and fans. You still have to do the work to stand out in the crowd of writers and creatives. But as you actively participate in the community, you’ll find the support, motivation, and friends you need to reach your ultimate creative goals!

Did I leave anything out? Do you have any community or group recommendations? Share your thoughts below, and let us know what your niche community means to you!

Check out the other posts in this series:

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