Shadows of the original: protecting your creative identity across languages

Translation is often celebrated as a bridge between cultures, a vital tool that allows a certain world to transcend linguistic boundaries. And this is true.

Translation and creative writing are closely linked, but switching between them is trickier than it looks. Writers who translate often let their own creative ego take over, accidentally rewriting the author's work instead of honoring it. On the other hand, translators who try to write original stories often get stuck in translator’s brain, where they are so focused on precision that they lose their own creative flow. If you don't keep these two roles separate, you might end up with a stylistic collision that weakens both the original message and your own unique voice.

Here’s how the practice of translation can interfere with your writing:

LINGUISTIC CROSS-CONTAMINATION

Imagine spending hours meticulously deconstructing sentences in German or Japanese to reconstruct them faithfully in English. Over time, that foreign syntax can begin to stain your brain, leading to what's often called translationese. This is not about grammatical errors; we talk about a style that feels subtly off, perhaps a little too formal or even robotic, despite being perfectly correct.

So, you might notice your own sentences beginning to adopt the word order, clause structure, or even the typical sentence length of the language you frequently translate. For instance, a steady diet of translating German literature might lead your English sentences to become denser, with more nested clauses than you’d naturally use.

Besides, you could find yourself inadvertently using phrases that are direct translations from other languages, which make perfect sense there but sound unnatural or awkward in your native tongue. Sometimes, we don't even notice we are doing it.

Finally, you could observe your characters moving, speaking and acting like German or Japanese people, even when they are speaking another language. That can be a side-effect of you being a translator, even a good one.

A COLLECTION OF BORROWED MASKS

A translator has as an ultimate goal transparency, that is, to become an invisible medium, reflecting the original intent and style of the author without imposing their own. 

While a noble pursuit for a translator, this habit of mimicry can make it incredibly challenging for a writer to find or maintain their distinct fingerprint, or voice, on the page.

You become so adept at adopting different voices and styles that your own writing starts to feel like a collection of borrowed masks rather than a singular, authentic perspective.

Moreover, your creative work may even borrow the structure and thematic of foreign works. While this is not inherently bad, it can stop you from being creative and trying to fix things on your own, in your own organic way. Besides, we don't always translate the best of works, and we may pick up bad writing habits from the texts we translate.

LEXICAL PARALYSIS

Translation is a highly analytical process, demanding precision and careful consideration of every word. This intense linguistic scrutiny can sometimes trigger a hyper-awareness that stifles the raw, intuitive, and often messy flow of a first draft.

For example, translators are intimately aware that no two words are ever perfect synonyms. This profound understanding, while crucial for their craft, can lead to a specific type of writer's block when applied to original work.

You might find yourself agonizing over a single adjective in your own novel for thirty minutes, because your translation training has conditioned you to see the hidden nuances, cultural baggage, and subtle connotations of every single word choice.

Ironically, for some, the opposite can happen. They might find their vocabulary shrinking, defaulting to safe, high-frequency words that are easily translatable, thus losing the vibrant slang, regionalisms, and unique idiom of their native dialect.

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Surely, the practice of translation is a powerful linguistic workout. While it can introduce challenges to our original voice, noticing these potential interferences is the first step toward harnessing its power while safeguarding our unique creative spirit as writers. 

I am not saying that translators cannot be excellent writers. On the contrary; people who expose themselves to different languages and cultures are people with a certain linguistic sensitivity that works miracles when it comes to creative writing. The clarity that we are able to achieve in our writing, for one thing, is not something that should be taken for granted. But the traps are inevitable. Beware.

So, sometimes it can be good to step back from your work as a translator, reconnect to your native language and culture, and embrace the full creativity that emerges from a writing practice only.

Do you agree?

Thanks for reading!

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Landmarks and signposts: a good essay is like a map

When my first semester as an MA student came to an end, I realised I had been a survivor. I had survived studying and working as a freelance translator at the same time. To tell you the truth, I had no idea that a person could be THAT BUSY as I was at that time.

So now I would like to share some tips with you on how to survive writing essays, when there's so little time. Hope they help you as they helped me. Ready?

First of all, make sure you write everything as if it were fair copy. Don't tempt yourself to write haphazardly, in many colours and fonts, ignoring the style guide you should be using. It's better to look at what you write and think that it's almost ready. As the hours flow by, it will become more difficult to focus on such changes; that's why it's better to write correctly from square one.

Second, I say, when you use a certain source, you should always put the reference book or article into the works cited list as soon as you use it. And make sure the reference is formed according to the style guide you should be using. This is going to save you much time later, when you will be too tired to take care of such details.

Third, it helps if you imagine that you are not working on a text, but on a map. Maybe it's because my first degree is in surveying engineering, and I enjoy working on maps, but I always tend to visualise my essay as something physical, something which exists in space.

Besides, a very good essay has landmarks and signposts. Landmarks are key issues that we need to write towards them and explain them carefully while signposts are the key words that move us, both writer and reader, from one issue to another. It is important that we use landmarks and signposts in our essays, as if our essays were maps which present ideas in space.

It's so difficult to combine working and studying, especially in the case when you have to write as many essays as I had to write. Writing essays is one of the most creative things ever: first your mind absorbs the information and then it generates new ideas. That's why any tips that are going to make this process easier are always welcome. Do you have any?

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Quotes about writing

I found some very nice quotes that can give us inspiration to write, especially in the days it gets very difficult. I would like to share with you the ones I think are true for me:

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” 

― Maya Angelou

It is important to be who you want to be, in this case a writer. It is pointless to try to become anything else.

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” 

― Maya Angelou

Sometimes there’s no need to hear the answers. You need only to feel that people share with you the same questions.

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” 

― Stephen King

All writers had a passion for reading. 

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” 

― Jack Kerouac

No universal truths were verbose.

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” 

― Anton Chekhov

Don’t be analytical in your writing; you have to show, not to tell!

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

But many people have been inside their homes all their lives, yet have written great novels. It depends. Nevertheless, I like this quote.

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” 

― Stephen King, On Writing

Again, don’t be verbose in your writing. 

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” 

― Stephen King

“Always be a poet, even in prose.” 

― Charles Baudelaire

In this case, writing will never be boring.

“One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper.” 

― Michael Cunningham

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” 

― Jack London

“The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.” 

― Anaïs Nin

Many times when reading a novel I have realised that the writer has shaped many of my thoughts into words.

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” 

― Stephen King, On Writing

In other words, don’t over-analyse. Readers want you to be subtle, and to let them finish the job.

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” 

― Nathaniel Hawthorne

Thanks for reading.

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The easy way of writing

I have been dreaming about becoming a writer since I was a child, and I used to write stories very often.

Yet I had a very sadistic view about writing: that writing should flow naturally out of you. That you shouldn’t fret about it, or else you were not a ‘true’ writer. If you put any effort whatsoever, you didn’t have much talent as a writer. These were my views back then.

Anything that would make my writing life easier, I regarded as ‘cheating’.

Now I embrace anything that can help me write more and better.

One book that has helped me a lot is What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter. The following writing sketches are inspired from this excellent book and its instructions.

The book advises to practise writing opening lines for imaginary novels just to get the knack of it.

The following pairs are based on opposite ideas to make it easier. And it is easier because now I am writing with a solid, concrete purpose:

PAIRS OF SENTENCES TO BEGIN A NOVEL

BIRTH

A new baby exactly at the beginning of the day, cracking alive together with the crack of dawn, can bring nothing but optimism to our black, shabby world. 

DEATH

A low moaning, together with the cry of a bird, and the shadow of a blackbird, marked his last moments of mortal sorrow. 

MOTHER

She cast her eyes down the small body, and found herself. 

DAUGHTER

A twig made a chirping sound –or was it a bird?– as Karen moved towards her mother’s table at St Tropez. 

RICH

Donna’s idea of breakfast consisted beaches, sea, and at least five of her friends. 

POOR

He looked down at his navel, and back in the mirror, he touched briefly his eyebrows, his mouth, his chest, and only then did he realise he was completely, absolutely, terribly hungry.

Do you think that these opening lines would make interesting novels?

What could be happening in terms of plot?

What about the characters these openings evoke?

Would you like to write your own opening lines? It is so easy!

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