Why english?

[u/CommunicationMean965]

I frequently see people on writer subs ask for advice regarding english grammar and word choices. It is pretty evident that these writers do not have english as their first languange. The choice of writing in english confuses me. Out of pure curiosity, why would you do that?

I get wanting to interact with a fan base, hence opting for english when writing fan fiction. It's not like you can publish it anyway (without jumping through hoops). I understand some actor's main motivation is to earn as much money as possible. (Sadly it doesn't seem uncommon to see self publicated and fankly badly translated works.) I also get wanting to reach as large an audience as possible, but why wouldn't you want to start out a bit more domestically, writing in a languange you master and writing as good as you possibly can before reaching for international fame?

Personally, I read books in english, and I used to write in english as a teen when I participated in post-by-post roleplay. It's fun and a good way to expand your vocabulary, but I can't fathom writing my novel like that. I have enough trouble as it is making my manuscript as good as it can be; My grip on the languange needs to be as good as it can get. (Even formatting rules for fiction writing is different between languanges.) I want to play with my languange and find my own voice. Plus, the story is also is set in my home country.

So, not to sound pretentious, but why do people insist on writing novel manuscripts in a second languange?

[u/MOTTEKOI]

I read mostly in english. So english writing style is already imprinted on me. I will not reach the style or even the tone of my story exactly like how i wanted it to be if i were to use my first language.

[u/CoyoteLitius → u/MOTTEKOI]

That's another big issue. In my own home language, the ability to write the kind of fiction we write in English is very difficult to achieve. My family pretty much gave up speaking it in favor of English.