Since I thought of doing this anyway, why not post it here bit by bit?
Oh, and I will first post the first draft of the translation, bit by bit, later on what I have done with it.
So here's the beginning of the story I wrote for a book which contains a couple of stories by fellow authors from my hometown. It's in German, I don't think it will ever be translated, unless there is going to be a real huge demand... ;o)
Ernie
(working title)
They would talk about their last meeting for a long time. Not because it had been something extraordinary. It was rather because of what happened to Michael on his way home.
They met every first Friday of a month in their local pub, and they had seen a lot of changes without having gone to a different place.
During the past few years, the pub owner had changed the name a few times, but eventually, he had returned to the oldest, well known name.
Now, while the name remained, the owner renovated the interior, used the back room as a small restaurant, and every so often, "Dragon Fly" was visited by young couples who had heard about the excellent food he served.
And for those who know both languages: the beginning of the German version (I also see this as a story I can still work on):
Frannek
Von ihrem letzten Treffen würden sie noch lange erzählen. Nicht, weil es so außergewöhnlich gewesen war, sondern wegen der Geschichte, die Michael auf dem Heimweg erlebt hatte.
Jeden ersten Freitag im Monat trafen sie sich in ihrer alten Stammkneipe, und sie hatten jede Veränderung mitgemacht, ohne sich nach einem anderen Treffpunkt umzusehen.
In den letzten Jahren war die Kneipe zu ihrem alten Namen zurückgekehrt, auch wenn die Besitzer den hinteren Raum jetzt als Speiseraum nutzten und die Schankwirtschaft "Zum Kanonier" neben dem alteingesessenen Publikum nun hin und wieder Besuch von jungen Leuten bekam, die von der exzellenten Speisekarte erfahren hatten.
Well, I have changed the name of the pub and will change the names of the characters to make them more accessible for the reader. Just for that reason, because I think it might work better that way.
When I started translating yesterday, I noticed that it is something that I enjoy half as much as writing in English, and with some of the sentences it's odd, but since I have all the rights of the story, I can change some of the sentences, and so I might have to comment on some of them later on, but for now, just 24 hours pre-nano (at least where I am), I will have to stop.
Barbara
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Now playing: The Fat Lady Sings - gravy train
via FoxyTunes
Thursday 30 October 2008
Tuesday 28 October 2008
... blogging
Gee, I've done this before, and yet it's still exciting to see the results.
After this blogsite was recommended, I thought about starting to blog again for a few days.
It's not like I don't know what to write about, with nanowrimo starting in just a few days, I should be busy plotting and creating characters for my third nano novel, but somehow, I only have managed to do a tiny bit of that.
But if I start this year's nano the way I started my first nano, all should go well - I only had a sentence just before midnight that led me to write it down just after midnight on November 1, and then I wrote a few more sentences before doing a first count of the words I had written.
About twohundredsomething, only, but I knew how to continue.
Without any plotting before November, with only a few well known characters which I have written about pre-nanowrimo, I managed to get along well, and I'm still amazed how I managed to write about 2K of words every day, most of them after a rough enough day at the office.
This year, though, I thought I could do some plotting, and since a lot of fellow nano participants are talking about how they have created their characters, how they described scenes already, I began to wonder whether they still have any fun when writing next week?
For me, a big part of the fun (and yes, one is allowed to have fun while writing!) of the writing process is to find out where the characters are led by the plot, only part of which I might know in advance. While I have an idea of the plot, of the beginning and the end, and maybe even of parts in the middle, when writing, another scene might come up, change completely, and the characters might even change their minds about something.
Oh well, just the usual, eh? Something that a lot of people have mentioned before, and that is something that I have always enjoyed reading about.
I am soon going to post one of my short stories here, one which I have decided to translate to see whether it works in other countries as well...
Best,
Barbara
----------------
Now playing: Snow Patrol - The Planets Bend Between Us
via FoxyTunes
After this blogsite was recommended, I thought about starting to blog again for a few days.
It's not like I don't know what to write about, with nanowrimo starting in just a few days, I should be busy plotting and creating characters for my third nano novel, but somehow, I only have managed to do a tiny bit of that.
But if I start this year's nano the way I started my first nano, all should go well - I only had a sentence just before midnight that led me to write it down just after midnight on November 1, and then I wrote a few more sentences before doing a first count of the words I had written.
About twohundredsomething, only, but I knew how to continue.
Without any plotting before November, with only a few well known characters which I have written about pre-nanowrimo, I managed to get along well, and I'm still amazed how I managed to write about 2K of words every day, most of them after a rough enough day at the office.
This year, though, I thought I could do some plotting, and since a lot of fellow nano participants are talking about how they have created their characters, how they described scenes already, I began to wonder whether they still have any fun when writing next week?
For me, a big part of the fun (and yes, one is allowed to have fun while writing!) of the writing process is to find out where the characters are led by the plot, only part of which I might know in advance. While I have an idea of the plot, of the beginning and the end, and maybe even of parts in the middle, when writing, another scene might come up, change completely, and the characters might even change their minds about something.
Oh well, just the usual, eh? Something that a lot of people have mentioned before, and that is something that I have always enjoyed reading about.
I am soon going to post one of my short stories here, one which I have decided to translate to see whether it works in other countries as well...
Best,
Barbara
----------------
Now playing: Snow Patrol - The Planets Bend Between Us
via FoxyTunes
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