/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Use a Japanese-sounding pseudonym, problem solved.

Chase your dreams, anonymous

People usually write for demographics that can understand them. Nobody is going to translate your no-name novel just to release it in Japan. It's a huge risk.

Your only hope is to learn Japanese and perfect it to the point of being able to write novels in Japanese.

>>9951756
I could go the secretive route, I'm sure I could get SOME small publisher to put it out there.

I plan to start by studying the market and reading other light novels. I think the best thing is that a typical light novel is so small that you have more time to edit and work on a rough draft because it doesn't take too long to write itself.

Still, this is a longer-term goal. I am going to school in January in New York, I will take Japanese classes beginning there and work on the novel.

I definitely will be writing for a demographic and something refreshing yet familiar enough to make my readers fall in love with it.

That's the plan anyway...

readingisforfaggots.jpg

No one cares where you from as long as you are good at what you do.

Is crossdressing popular in Light Novels lately? I mean, genderbending, etc. seems to be a pretty common theme.

It's just one of the many ideas for the main character floating around right now. Of course, I would have to do a balancing act, something like that should be a part of a character, not their only feature.

Your only shot at this is to become fluent in Japanese and then use a Japanese sounding name.

You guys are retarded.

Being non-Japanese is a -good- thing. Publishers love gimmicks, and if your Japanese is so damn amazing that you can write a novel that's even half decent you'll be all over the news and people will buy your book just to see what a book written by a foreigner in Japanese looks like.

>>9951781
You should start studying now. If you can't then give up.

>>9951875
Sounds like a plan.

>>9951781
Start Heisig now and memorize the jouyou kanji before taking classes.

>>9951877
Fuck. I forgot to do my reps yesterday.

This is going to sound stupid, but the easiest place to do it is iceland, 10% of people there get published its pretty easy.

And you wouldn't be met with cold calculating racism.

>>9951877
I'll do that, then.

>>9951886
Can you publish there in English?

What kind of books do they even read?

Cute image OP, are you that cute?

>>9951886
Wouldn't it just be possible to just write it in English and pay someone to translate it to whatever language before trying to publish it there. Whether it is Iceland or Japan or both?

>>9951897
I don't think so.

>>9951901
That is not to say I would mind learning Japanese myself, I meant to include.

>>9951886
On this one Japanese fetish site I visit, there's an Icelandic artist who always gets a ton of responses when he posts new pictures, he's the only foreigner on there who even gets noticed. maybe there's something about Iceland.

>>9951901
>Wouldn't it just be possible to just write it in English and pay someone to translate it to whatever language before trying to publish it there.

You won't get published that way.

You don't know Japanese, yet you want to write a light novel?
You are why English "manga" are a thing.

Just write, you know, a novel. There's no shame in writing a novel or a comic book or making a cartoon or drawing in whatever art style you choose. Don't restrict yourself because you prefer Japanese pop culture.

>>9951949
I restrict myself because I don't think the kind of thing I want to write would ever be popular in America.

The difference with English "manga" is usually the style and being in English, it's like they try to imitate but never get close. A light novel's completely different, and I intend to write in Japanese, under a Japanese name. It would be easy to write it in both.

Of course, I will at least try to get it published and get it out there in my own country too--it's just a side-goal I'd like to at least give a try. You never know until you do, you know? If you play it safe and never take that first step you don't get anywhere in life.

OP don't even think you will be good enough to write something decent in Japanese if you don't practice it for at least 10 years. And in those years you need to read as many stuff in japanese as you can, and even after all that you'd still won't be exactly like a native.

source: my experience as someone who writes novels in english without being a native speaker.

>>9952009
He's talking about a light novel, though. Those don't have particularly high literary merit, you know?

>>9952009
I want to read your novels.

Write one in English and post it on /jp/.
Thats what I'm going to do.

>>9952009
>as many stuff

as much stuff

>you'd still won't

you still won't OR you'd still not

>>9952009
It's true, though I don't want to admit it.

I can write it in English and slowly translate it myself over time, which would give me tons of time to look over it and fix anything that is wrong. It wouldn't be too hard to get someone to translate it, but according to the above anon, I wont get published that way...

>>9952030
"as much stuff" could also be "as many things"

>>9952032
You are too cute.

>>9952016
Neither I write anything that has a particularly elevated literary merit.

This is more a problem of writing in a way that "sounds natural" and not something that seems to have been translate by google.

In fact it's a lot harder to master common language than a technical or specific language. That's because common language is where rules don't matter at all, it's 70% idiomatic or default expressions.

And as far as I know Japanese is even worse than english in that regard.

>>9952045
This may be unrelated, but it seems that English is one of the hardest to learn. I applaud you if you work hard enough at it to write in a non-native language. It kind of motivates me, still.

>>9952045
Japanese has idioms and learning caveats like most languages, but syntax and grammar are way more consistent than English. We suffer from combining over a dozen language into one, whereas Japanese is primarily just an evolution of old Chinese.

>>9952030
This is a good example of what >>9952045 is saying. There's really no reason that "as many stuff" should not be correct, but it isn't. It's something a native speaker would know but a learner would have to just pick up somehow.

>>9952053
>whereas Japanese is primarily just an evolution of old Chinese.

The Japonic languages aren't known to derive from anything and the influence of Chinese came after they were already established.

>>9952057
Frankly I would've probably spotted it, if I had paid more attention, but usually I don't care about grammar that much when I post on /jp/. But it's quite true that understanding the different rules for uncountable and countable nouns is one of my weak spots...

You know what really helps me a lot? Google. When I'm not sure how to write something I just google the whole sentence in various ways. Then I see which is the one who gives most results.

This might turn out to be useful for OP too if he wants to write in Japanese.

>>9952070
Your English is very good. What is your native language, if you don't mind me asking?

>>9952057
"Many" is used for countable nouns: "There are too many dogs here."
"Much" is used for uncountable nouns: "There is too much garbage in front of my house."
It's similar to "fewer" and "less" except mistakes are more noticeable to the average person.

The rule itself is fairly solid, it's just a case of knowing which nouns are countable. You can't rely on the -s because there are words like "people". Nobody says, "There is/are too much people here."

>>9952070
Also I'd like to say that if you did not state that English is not your native language I would have mistaken you for a native speaker. You made a small mistake or two but so do other people here since it is an informal environment.

>>9952081
I am a native speaker and I have never heard the terms "countable noun" and "uncountable noun" before reading your post.

>>9952091
A lot of things in English are given names after they appeared because English is primarily a descriptive language. You might notice something is wrong but not understand why.
There is a fuckton of jargon that only a few people know. English language is taught horribly at schools. I only learned what an "infinitive" or a "conjugation" was through French classes. You can learn grammar just by observation, but it would help to point out to kids, "This is called the passive voice, and here's how it's used..."

>>9952080
>>9952087
Thanks, It took me years to reach this level and I'm still not perfect, as you can see.

I think I can be satisfied enough with this because I have more or less the same chance of making mistakes in english than I'd have with my own language. And in the end you still need a proofreader either way.

PS: I'm italian. The grammar is completely different but there's a good side to that: "difficult" words are basically the same, they all come from latin and greek anyway.

What actually defines a light novel?

Is it a certain amounts of words/pages?

>>9952118
People will bitch and bicker about the exact meaning, but they are usually A6-size novellas aimed at teenagers and young adults, often with illustrations. Most of them span a few volumes.

>>9952118
It's determined by weight. If the paper is too heavy it becomes a regular novel.

>>9952132
I can't tell if your joking or not.

An oddball romance between an average guy and a blood-thirsty, raging werewolf...who turns back into a surprisingly normal looking girl. He hides her from the werewolf hunters and...that's about as far as I've gotten with this idea.

>>9953537
>oddball romance
done before, and better
>an average guy
boring
>a blood-thirsty, raging werewolf
mite b cool
>...who turns back into a surprisingly normal looking girl.
and back into boring
>He hides her from the werewolf hunters
as opposed to the ghostbusters?
>that's about as far as I've gotten with this idea.
don't quit your day job

>>9953595
That's the first idea I had today, thought up in all of a couple of seconds.

It's obviously not your cup of tea anyway, not that it's what I've settled on or anything.

I never intended to quit my day job.

>>9953603
I'll put it down somewhere just because but I will continue to brainstorm and peruse other ideas.

>>9951823
You're adorable.

>>9951749
Try to sell your work in America first. If you can't succeed in your own country, you can't hope to succeed abroad.