Monolingualism Isn't the Rule, but How Do We Make Fiction Do the Thing? | #WritingShenangians

Hello, dear readers. I KNOW, I KNOW. I've been absent for too long and you miss me oh, so dearly. I'm sorry to have deprived you of my magnificent presence. However, here I am and I promise I will try and blog more regularly. Let's just say life got a little too intense for a sec there and my motivation was lost somewhere back in 2013.

Enough of my rambling. You're here because you want good content, dammit! So today to bestow the title of Writing Shenanigans upon this post we shall speak about a favorite topic of mine: language! I'm a linguistics major* in university and that just means I'm crazy about language and the intricate ways our minds work about it.

It's no secret I'm a big advocate for languages other than English being a prominent thing in books. I wrote a post all about this very thing back when I bothered to post regularly (you can check it out here) but it's basically about how most of the world speaks more than one language and how fiction should reflect that. It's all very personal to my excitable and often confused bilingual brain.

actual representation of a conversation with my friends

*this means I sit around with my classmates and make a bunch of weird sounds and write in weird symbols which sounds way cooler than it it.

You say, that is all good and well, Laura, but what the hell does that have to do with writing? Patience, little grasshoppers, all in good time. First, a little background on my magnificent word-weaving, since this is after all the first installment of Writing Shenanigans.

Yours truly is currently trying to write a book. A hopeful endeavor that has consisted mostly of amassing a small fortune of pins over at Pinterest and not much writing. WE ALL START SOMEWHERE, OKAY? However, two of my characters speak languages other than English* and I've found that incorporating that into the story has been a bit of a challenge.

I'm still playing around with POV, but I definitely want one of my bilingual characters as a POV character. Only problem is that she is Korean-American. I know a bit of Korean. Basic stuff, really. My other character speaks Spanish. Perfectly fluent in that, although my parents might beg to differ. They're wrong. Languages grow all the time and my syntax is a bit wonky sometimes, BUT THAT IS CHARMING! That little tirade, however, brings me to my point. How do we make fiction do the thing bilingual (or multilingual) people do in their heads all the time?

actual face my parents make when I say something weird

*they also speak English, but I guess that's pretty self-explanatory.

And at last we have gotten to the very heart of this post. The thing I found while trying to incorporate other languages into my work is that it's freaking hard. Specially when my other MC doesn't really understand either of these languages. Oh, and when I barely know some of the other language my MC logically thinks and speaks in. Not all the time, but some of the time.

So, how do we all go about doing this thing people have no problem doing in their everyday lives and not make it wonky and weird in fiction? I see why so many writers take the easy way out and just brush it over. But, my dudes, language is a big part of who we are as people. Some would argue it's kind of who we are, or at least how we express ourselves.

As such, here we are with a big problem in our hands. JUST HOW DO WE MAKE FICTION DO THE THING WHERE LANGUAGES OTHER THAN THE ONE WE ARE WRITING IN JUST EXIST INSIDE THE MIND AND OUT IN THE WORLD??????? Can you feel the frustration?

My first thought was, just have the character translate. That's lazy and wrong and I'm just not for it because as a bilingual person myself I know that I sometimes think in English and sometimes in Spanish and that I use these two languages interchangeably and it's all as comfortable as slipping into another pair of shoes. I don't really have to think about it much, my brain and my lips just do. Even more so when I'm drunk. * SO HOW DO I MAKE THIS COME ACROSS ON THE PAGE????

My second thought was... well just throw in some words here and there. Some pauses** and lag time for certain complicated words. But I wanted my characters to speak and think in their other languages. Not only randomly say stuff in them. What about when they're with family? They would probably be thinking and speaking in their other language or in a mix of both. It all felt very complicated. Because, well, language is a complicated thing.

Then I figured I would just try and incorporate language like I use it everyday. Keyword being try because sadly enough fiction can do things we don't do everyday, but has a hard time with things we do everyday. Is it going to be hard? Probably. Am I up to the challenge? Definitely. If other authors can incorporate other languages, even made up ones, I can find a way too.

*my friends and I have been known to hold a conversation in at least 3 languages when drunk
**we multilinguals are known to speak slower, even if we're balanced bilinguals or extremely fluent in both languages

What are some ways you can think of to incorporate other languages into your writing? Like seriously, I could use all the help I can get.

Got To Read Them All!

I don't know about you guys, but I feel immensely pressured to read all the books all the time. My Goodreads challenge isn't just a nice personal goal, but rather a sign of both my glory and my disgrace.* So, the fact that I'm currently seven books behind schedule is grating on my every reader nerve. Will the world end because of this? Maybe not, but maybe yes.

This got me thinking about where in flaming Hades this pressure comes from? One answer is my imminent mortality. There's no way I will read all the books I want to read in my lifetime and that's a tragedy, really. Another answer is that being part of the reading community sort of makes you want to read all the books so you don't fall behind. Maybe it's just the lowkey competitive beast inside me that wishes to be the very best at everything, ever. Or maybe it's just that in order to put out content in the blogosphere/booktube you kinda have to read. Well, there's no kinda about it, I just like to think I have a choice.

However, I think all this pressure can be counterproductive. *Horrified gasps from the audience* Just let me tell you why.

*Dramatic, much? Perhaps, but this is my life and I'll be damned if I don't make it as dramatic as I can.

1. All the pressure to read causes you to not enjoy what you're reading

Sometimes it feels like reading is a chore. I think it shouldn't be, that's the whole reason I'm not studying English Literature at school. I don't like feeling like reading is completing a chore. However, when I feel like I'm falling behind I read like it's a chore,which makes me not want to read, which is counterproductive. It's all a big vicious cycle of constant contradictions.

2. It adds unnecessary stress to your life

Life  is stressful enough without having to add on stress about not reading enough. It's stress on top of stress on top of stress. Who needs so much stress? Specially when it comes from something you should be doing for personal enjoyment. 

3. You feel like an useless heap of incompetence

The fact that you're not reading as much as you should makes you feel bad. It puts a strain on your self-worth as a reader. It's sort of like if you don't read enough you have no right to call yourself a reader. Not only that, but you are bringing dishonor to everything and everyone you love.

4. Because of how slumpy you're feeling you decide to not read at all

I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I feel so frustrated at something that I just decide to not do it at all. This year it has happened to me with reading. I feel that it takes me so much time to get through a book that I just don't read at all. Maybe this is a good thing, maybe it isn't. I still feel hella pressured to read while I don't read though.

5. You feel like you can't take a step back and just not read

I know the point above this one is all about not reading, but even as  you are not reading you feel like you should be reading. It's crazy. Certifiably insane, because you can do whatever you want with your life (except murder or some other petty crime, that is not cool) and you should be able to take a step back and not read.

Defining yourself as a reader doesn't necessarily mean you have to be reading all the time. It's okay to not read all the time, you are not any less of a reader for it. Remember, you don't have to ream them all. You can read some, and that is still cool.

On Reading Outside of Your Comfort Zone

I am my most comfortable in my comfort zone.

I guess everyone is, really. I mean, it's named comfort zone for a reason, right? It's familiar and welcome and warm, kind of like an old blanket. Much like an old blanket sometimes you need to throw the old blanket away and get a new blanket. There's a whole wide world of blankets out there and you can try them all. Same goes for books. Except don't throw out your books (donate them to charity or sell them or do something so someone else can enjoy them, unless the end of the world is nigh and you need warmth. Make this your last resource, though).

Going with the blanket metaphor here, I want to say that it's okay to cuddle under other blankets. There's no need to commit yourself to one sole blanket. Except, I mean genre. 

It is hard, but hey, if you wanted easy you would be stuck reading one thing for the rest of your life. For as long as you draw breath. That is a long time (I hope) and really do you want to limit yourself like that? I know I don't.

Whick is why I've been thinking about my own reading and how I mostly read YA. Because man, I love YA and YA is what I know and what I'm most comfortable with, but it can also be pretty limiting on myself. I'm often scared to go out and venture into other genres, because the unknown can be freaking scary. Also, I'm only a marshmallow living in a savage world in which literary snobs abound and no one offers directions. However, lately I've been telling myself to go out and pick up books from outside my comfort zone.

Books from the unfamiliar can be some of the best surprises. This past July, for example, I read Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. This book is magical realism, mind you adult magical realism that is kind of sexy, provocative and so Mexican I could invite it to a carne asada with my family and it would fit right in. And after reading it I found that I loved it and that it was one of the best books I'd read so far. It was that good and I never would have picked it up if I hadn't made my mind up to read outside of my comfort zone.

Sure, comfort zones are tempting and familiar and there's nothing wrong with them, but sometimes it's nice to branch out and see what else the world has to offer. After all, think of all the great books that are out there in the world that you won't discover unless you decide to shake things up a bit and read outside what you know?

What are some books that you've read outside of your comfort zone that you absolutely loved? How often do you venture outside of your comfort zone?

The World Isn't a Big English Only Place | Discussion

Life is a diverse place. This is a fact. Fiction lags a little bit behind. This is also a fact. Most people in the world are bilingual. Also a fact. Now, why does fiction seem to be such a constraining, English-centric place? Particularly YA.

Now, my first theory is that most of YA is produced by English speaking authors and its audience is targeted as English speaking. Translations are produced, but I think that might be a topic for another day as might be the lack of translated YA works in the English market. It's something I'm passionate about, being both an aspiring translator and author myself.

My second theory is that it's just easier to make all your characters monolingual. I mean, you don't have the hassle of translating or producing writing that can come across as clunky and choppy. However, the bilingual brain is both of those things at times.

I grew up being bilingual. Spanish was spoken at home. English was taught at school hand in hand with Spanish. I am fortunate enough to live in a place where both English and Spanish are appreciated and used. Conversations happen in both languages, sometimes at the same time and I think in both languages. Dream in both languages, even. So growing up, the lack of bilingual people in the fiction I so adored was something that I accepted as normal. However, whenever a character was bilingual my face couldn't help but break out into a huge smile.

Language is as part of the human experience as anything else. It's what we use, after all, to communicate and to name our feelings and experiences. It's part of who we are and now as a linguistics major I understand that it also has a lot to do with the society we live in. I won't go into the details, but it's there.

It's so there that you get stared at if you have an accent, or told to learn English, or have people assume a lot of things because of what language you're using. It's a reality, we judge people by the way they use speech as much as we do by the way they look.

Bringing it back to books, I think we have a lack of bilingual or multilingual characters in YA. I know it feels like a battle and writing wise having someone speak two languages might be confusing for the readers and might make writing harder, but truth of the matter is: most people are bilingual. The world isn't one big English only place and I think we should pay more homage to that linguistic diversity in the world.

This discussion belongs in the We Need Diverse books as much as the discussion on more representation of all sorts. Language is tied to identity as much as skin color, or gender, or sexual orientation. It's something I don't think we speak of enough and I think we should. Why? Because for the little kid that speaks Spanish or Arabic or Korean or any other language that is not English it feels important and great when you see someone in fiction that speaks and thinks like you.