Exophonic Writing: Crafting Fiction in a Foreign Language

Today’s post is by writer, editor, and book coach Karmen H. Špiljak.

Writing fiction in another language might sound straightforward. Technically, you’re using the same tools as in your mother tongue, so changing the language should feel no different from, say, switching from painting with acrylic to painting with oil. At least that was what I expected fifteen years ago, when I started writing in English.

What I learned was that it is much less about the tools and more about the painter. I fully expected a few challenges and hiccups, but I didn’t imagine that writing stories in another language would feel different. My writing voice sounded different, too. I stuck to it because English became my daily language after I’d left Slovenia. I wanted to make a living as a writer and writing in English meant reaching more people.

Later on, I learned that the practice of writing in a non-native tongue is known as exophony. French linguists have been discussing exophonic literature for almost fifty years, while “Exophonie” has been in use in German literary and cultural studies since 2007. The term made it into English, but it’s far from widespread. In fact, my spell checker keeps suggesting the word is an error.

Writing in a non-native language is nothing new, though. Exophonic writers include established names like Elif Shafak, Khaled Hosseini, Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, poet Nilofar Shidmehr and household names like Milan Kundera, Fernando Pessoa and Joseph Conrad.

There are different reasons authors decide to change their writing language. Hungarian author Ágota Kristóf wrote The Notebook in French because she’d migrated to Switzerland. Samuel Beckett adopted French to change his writing style and prune the embellishments of his mother tongue. Yiyun Li writes in English so she can distance herself from her painful past, while many others simply want to reach a wider audience.

Exophonic writers must master the language and find an authentic way to express themselves in a different framework. Sometimes, this means letting go of certain habits, expressions and structures, other times it’s about navigating cultural aspects without compromising one’s truth.

Ongoing language mastery, I learned, is a blessing in disguise. It invites you to stay curious about the language. You also become more conscious of your choices and deliberate about identifying and overcoming your shortcomings. Here are a few things that will help you ease the transition.

1. Adjust the mindset.

It might take a few beats before the quality of your writing in a foreign language resembles that in your mother tongue, so managing expectations is key. Give yourself permission to write badly, knowing this phase is a necessary step towards progress.

Avoid the temptation to compare your prose to that of writers who are further down the path. Their resources and circumstances are most likely different from yours. You can only make a fair comparison if you pitch your older writing against your newer pieces.

2. Disable the internal translation.

To take your writing to the next level, disable the internal translation and start thinking in your writing language. This might feel weird and counter-intuitive, but it will make a massive difference. If you’re crafting sentences in your mother tongue and translating them onto the page, chances are you’ll carry over the syntax and style from your mother tongue. You might, for example, favor compound sentences or baroque prose because it’s the predominant writing style in your mother tongue.

Sometimes your unique perspective will enrich the language and give it a fresh feel. Other times, it will stifle your prose and bring confusion. In Slovenian, for example, I could say that an icy wind shaves, but in English, I’d write that the wind felt like a razor against my skin. There’s a fine line between authority and authenticity. Every exophonic writer must find their own balance.

3. Master the language.

Exophonic writers tend to have a solid grasp of their writing language. Editing tools like ProWriting Aid, Grammarly and AutoCrit can help improve grammar and spelling, spot any disobedient commas or dangling modifiers and suggest further improvements. While these tools aren’t a replacement for an editor, they can help you hone your editing skills.

Writing fiction, however, requires exploring the language beyond grammar, from semantics to register, intonation, euphemisms and other details of the spoken and written language. The best way to learn is to immerse yourself: read, watch, and listen extensively. This will improve your feeling for syntax, grow your vocabulary and advance your dialogue skills.

I rarely read without a pen and I collect unfamiliar and interesting words in a dedicated notebook. A good dictionary and thesaurus are invaluable, but be mindful how you use them. Unusual or rare words stand out. If you use too many, they’ll divert the reader’s attention away from your story.

4. Scale up.

Before committing to a full-length novel, it’s good to try your hand at short-form fiction. Writing short stories is far from easy and comes with a steep learning curve. You’ll hone your storytelling skills, develop your voice in another language and build up your confidence. Not to mention that it’s much easier to revise a story of five thousand words than a novel of a hundred thousand.

5. Identify your writing tics.

Every writer has a favorite phrase, expression or way to start and end a sentence. You might not notice these tics unless you read your work out loud or ask for feedback. A good editor or editing tool can help identify your tics and weed them out. Writing software like Scrivener offers statistics on frequently (over)used words.

6. Do a quality check.

Ask native speakers for feedback to identify any parts where things aren’t clear or the writing is off. If you can hire an editor, even better. Exophonic author Emma Sterner-Radely wrote candidly about her editors’ confusion about doing something from one’s toes. In Swedish, the expression describes putting everything you have into doing something, but it doesn’t translate well into English.

After revising your story, read your work out loud or use an app that will read it for you. Mark any parts where the words don’t easily slip off the tongue and revise them.

7. Befriend your mistakes.

Accept that making mistakes is a part of learning. Even a thorough editing process can result in a few oversights. If an error slips out before you catch it, be kind to yourself. Take it with a pinch of humor. Croatian author Lidija Hilje, for example, turned her slip into an amusing blog post about the wider implications of roasting the wrong bird: They’re Eating the Peacocks, the People Who Live There.

Overall, I found my exophonic experience to be rewarding. I rely on copy editing and sometimes still struggle to find the right words, but I’ve also honed my style and got creative with the language use. Funny enough, these days I even dream in English.