As I’m writing, I use brackets to mark off text I need to check. My biggest use of brackets for Glamour in Glass comes in Chapter 5 because I don’t speak French, but I have characters who do. That means I’m writing a lot of things that look like this until I have a chance to pass them to someone to translate for me.
From the door of the main house, a woman called, “[Enthusiastic greeting in French. Along the lines of “Hello! I’m so pleased you are here. Bruno do not keep them waiting out in the cold.”]”
Le sigh…
Fortunately, Campbell-nominated author Aliette de Bodard, has very kindly agreed to translate those swatches for me. Meanwhile, I’m using Google’s translator to drop phrases in so I get a feel for what it is like to have big chunks of non-English text. The interesting thing about writing in the Regency is that period books would have large stretches of French, but they would expect the audience to be able to read it. Here, I have to expect that my audience won’t have a clue.
If you’d like to read along as I’m writing, contact me and ask for the password. It’s helpful for me to hear how it’s striking people.