By Lisa Montalto
You want to write a story or an autobiography, or even a memoir, but English is your second language. It’s tough enough when you’re a native speaker, so it can be overwhelming for those who are not fluent. Even those who are fluent in speaking English can still not be on par with a native speaker when it comes to writing.
That doesn’t mean you have to give up on the dream. All you really need is a little help. The first thing you need to do is to decide on what it is that you want to write. Writing a novel differs greatly from writing a screenplay, as does writing an autobiography, memoir, and even a blog. They all require different skill sets that go beyond just knowing the correct grammar.
Let’s first talk about why a native speaker of the English language is most often better at writing than a non-native speaker. A native speaker not only knows proper grammar, they know the nuances of the English language. That doesn’t mean that non-native speakers cannot attain the level of writing fluency to become a published writer, it’s just harder.
When a non-native English speaker writes, it can sometimes be clunky and an unnatural flow. It tends to be repetitive with overuse of specific words. They often miss cultural references in their writing and can easily misuse articles such as “a,” “an,” and “the.” And this may sound weird, but the non-native English may be too perfect. The conversational undertones are often missing, making the writing appear almost robotic.
Cultural references make a big difference when a non-native English speaker writes. For example, if you’re from Europe and you’re writing about Thanksgiving, you might refer to it in a very scholarly way, using a description you learned in school, such as, “they enjoyed the yearly festival of food filled celebrated each year by the pagans,” instead of just saying “they were so full from so much turkey at Thanksgiving dinner.” Or instead of saying “we ordered at the drive-thru,” a non-native speaker might say “they pulled up to a voice-box outside to speak their order.” It’s the over-description of things that all natives innately know that contribute to the clunky wording that a non-native speaker may use.
Idioms often pose a problem for non-native speakers. I once met a non-native English speaker who wrote “I often wear many heads” when they meant to say “often wear many hats.” Another wrote “escape goat” instead of “scapegoat” and one wrote “to have free rain” instead of “free rein.” These idioms may seem simple because as a native American you heard them all your life but for a non-native speaker of the English language, they can be confusing. In fact, idioms are so confusing, even native English speakers sometimes get them wrong. It’s a “moot” point, not a “mute” point.
English has been said to be one of the hardest languages to learn. This is mostly due to the way we use the same sounding word to mean multiple things, like bear, beer, bare, or their, they’re, there. These are things that can be used incorrectly, and a spell check/grammar check might not pick it up.
So, what is a non-native English speaker to do if they want to write? Hire someone to write for you. Be the idea person and have it done for you by a native English speaker. But you might want to be credited for the work. There’s an easy solution for that. Hire a ghostwriter who does the writing by the work will be credited to you. This is a great way to get your word out there and to build your reputation as a writer. You can even learn from a ghostwriter as they write your story, and you can see the nuances that are adhered to.
Remember that when hiring a ghostwriter to look for someone who specializes in exactly what you’re hoping to write. A novelist may not have the correct skills if you want to write a screenplay. Think about your genre, category, and size of the book, too. And remember that many books you’ve read are probably written by a ghostwriter.
Ghostwriters Central, Inc., located in Southern California, has been providing professional ghostwriting services to clients worldwide since 2002. All their writers have been vetted by the owner, Michael McKown. If you would like to discuss how they can help you with your project, begin by clicking the link. Your first consultation is free. Thank you for reading.
