Writing with an Accent

I’m well aware that I have an accent when I speak English and I’ve decided to make peace with the fact that I also write with an accent. Although I have been writing in English for many years, I still have an accent. Over time I’ve learned to let go of the few negative feedbacks I received on posts I’ve written.

I could have chosen to go in many directions:

1-      Hire someone to proofread every post I write, every email I send out - every thought that I have. But finding someone who can keep your voice, while hiding the accent is challenging.

2-      Stop writing and hide. I could just let the writer’s block (with the added accent) leave me stuck forever.

3-      Just write and hope for the best. Hope that my readers grasp what I’m trying to say, even though it might sound a little funny, or not really perfect.

I have chosen the latter so far. What about the results you may ask? I published “Ask Others, Trust Yourself”, and I did hire copy editors, and had friends proofread the book as well. Hey, don’t tell them but sometimes I changed the edits back to the way I wanted to say things…  🙂 The book has received great reviews. On WomenandBiz.com site over the past 7.5 years since I’ve started publishing it, I got just a handful of people asking me to do some edits on the articles I wrote about them.

A few days ago, I shared at the Creative Conversations meeting (a group of women creative artists/writers/photographers), about a short story competition I learned about, so that the writers in the group could enter it. They encouraged me to also submit a story, but I told them I write with an accent! It’s obvious that I can let go of the accent for certain things but not all. Yet, I’m seriously considering entering that competition, it could be fun to write a fiction story for a change.

Let me know your thoughts and ideas about writing with an accent – is it best not to write at all? Is it best to have someone dissect what you want to say at the risk of losing your voice, to make it perfect? Or is it best to just write (of course writing carefully and editing it as many times as you see fit) and hope for the best?