A French girl writing English fiction? N'importe quoi!*

I am still quite new to Vocal, and maybe so are you. So let’s get acquainted, shall we? Here, let me start: my name’s Claire Guérin (don’t worry about the accent on top of the e there), and I'm a writer. It feels strange to write this out loud, but I have a few stories on Vocal now, so there. I’m a writer, probably just like you, and I’m an aspiring author. If you want to know more about what I write, check me out on this and other platforms, and subscribe to my newsletter to know when my first novel comes out.

Now that you know a bit more about me, let’s address the froggie in the room. I hope you’ve read this post’s title, because as far as making acquaintances goes, there’s really only one question I dread more than anything each time I meet someone new:

French is my Native Language

Where are you from?

A simple, innocent question. I was born and raised in the same place, and to this day my family still lives in the same house I grew up in, and every Christmas I return to my old childhood bedroom. So the answer to the question is fairly straightforward, and really, I’m lucky enough that unlike perhaps 281 million people across the world, I don’t struggle with my identity that way. No, complications come afterward. Because, you see, I’m French. If your reaction to this is a straight out “So what?”, then you couldn’t make me happier. But I suspect that if we met in person, you’d probably react with a “Really? You don’t quite have that french accent.” (if you’re polite), or a “No way! How is it possible you speak English properly?” (if you’re the less subtle type).

I get it. Frenchies don’t exactly have a good rep when it comes to speaking English. I have a whole theory about that, so don’t get me started on this because it’s not today’s topic! All I will say here is that about 2.5 million French people live abroad, including 400 thousand in English-speaking countries. If these Frenchies want to get their order of baguette right, they have to learn Shakespeare’s tongue, and they do.

Becoming (sort of) Bilingual

Anyway, after the dreadful question has been asked, I find myself attempting to justify my heretic English knowledge. Each time I come up with a slightly different answer, not because I’m lying, but because I don’t have a good explanation. I guess it’s a combination of favorable circumstances: I love languages, I’ve been living abroad for almost 10 years now, over 8 different countries, met people from many different backgrounds and as many mother tongues. But really to me, all it comes down to is that I care. I care about words, speech, and ultimately, about exchanging with other human beings all over the world in the most effortless and natural way possible. I listen to my native anglophone friends and I replay their phrases in my head. I instinctively mimic the accent of the person in front of me to ease conversation. I listen to podcasts every time my hands are busy but my brain isn’t; I watch videos, tutorials, tv shows, movies; I read articles and books (oh! So many books) in English, and when there’s a word I’ve never encountered, I pause to commit it to memory. Mostly though, I speak as much as possible, giving talks, discussing with other people, because to me, that’s the only way to truly learn a foreign language.

Beginning Creative Writing

Now let’s be clear: I’m not bilingual, far from it. When I started my writing journey, I did so in French because creating a novel in English felt impossibly pretentious. That project, however, did not go very far. When I got around to a second writing project, I decided to be more rigorous about it, so I wrote clumsy character flash cards and a loose plot summary… And it all happened to come to me in English. At work or at home, I sometimes take notes in English, sometimes in French, though more often than not it’s an unreadable mixture of both. I couldn’t tell you exactly why, but it seems that my brain associates some thoughts, phrases or emotions with my native language and others with my day-to-day language. So I figured, what the hell! I might as well try writing the whole thing in English. I’m always up for a good creative and linguistic challenge myself, what about you?

I’m not going to say it’s easy-peasy. But it’s definitely doable, and not as impossibly pretentious as I thought it’d be. More importantly, it’s incredibly rewarding and exciting! However, before you close this page and jump head first into a new writing project in a foreign language, let me warn you about the one or two challenges you may encounter along the way.

Wordsmithing when Writing in a Foreign Language

First off, wordsmithing. I for one get this problem all the time while writing in English; maybe you’ll have others, maybe you’ll have none. Feel free to share your own experience in the comments below, I’d love to hear about fellow foreign speakers and writers!

Here’s my major challenge: I don’t know as many words as a literate native English speaker would, or if I know them, they often escape me. That’s okay, because most of the time I can look them up. But have you ever found yourself typing in your favorite web engine “How do you call the pointy thing to wrap wool around”? I have (it was a spindle). Searching for a word you don’t know or don’t remember is not always easy, and even harder is searching for a word you don’t know you know, or a word you don’t know you don’t know. Are you confused yet? In a nutshell, I’m playing hide and seek with words all the time. If I’m lucky enough to hold the perfect French word to convey my meaning, then all I have to do is find its translation, if it exists. But most times my brain’s all messed up from jumping between languages, and Shakespeare’s leaking all over the French compartment (sadly, not in a controlled way). My ancestors would turn in their graves if they heard me. My own dad is rolling his eyes at my laughable attempts in speaking correct French, so clearly I can’t rely on the same muse as Molière. Often I just end up using the next best word, hoping the right one will reveal itself to me later on, with or without the help of a native speaker. Needless to say, I’m not a master wordsmith. I’d definitely need a copy-editor to compensate for my linguistic shortcomings.

Creative Language

On the flip side, if English seeps into my French, then so does French into my English. I’m not particularly aware of it, as after all, the words, English or French, are still my words, but I know it from the reaction of others: my English writing is peculiar. More often than you’d think, good things come out of it: original metaphors and analogies, striking phrasing, vivid imagery… That is one big advantage of writing in a foreign language (combined with wacky brains).

French Translation

My second issue with writing in English is a more personal one: I can’t share any of my work with family. They’re not comfortable enough to read a whole manuscript in English (ah, those Frenchies!), so they’ll never get around to seeing how much of them goes into my writing. I made a promise that I’d get famous enough to be translated into French, for them. Wanna help me with that?

Don’t worry though, if my plan of becoming rich and famous fails, I might just do the translation myself.

But to every cloud there’s a silver lining, and here’s mine: there’s another, more pragmatic bonus of writing in English rather than in your native language, and it’s that you’ll have the whole world awaiting to be conquered. You’ll have access to a wider audience, a wider range of alpha and beta readers, a wider range of writing material and tools…

What you do with this vast pool of opportunity is up to you. So what are you waiting for, fellow writer? English, French or Swahili, just write!

P.S.: All supporting visuals are originals. I’m not a great artist, but I had fun making those, and hopefully it didn’t hurt your eyes too much.

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