Hello everyone!
I'm completely new here and I have a serious question about languages. As I understand, most novels in Webnovel are translated either from Chinese or Korean languages and somehow I still haven't met a single character with European or English name. So, does that means there are no novel writers from English-speaking countries or are they banned here? I checked FAQ in an Inkstone section, but there weren't any clues about restrictions.
I'm asking this because I'm thinking about writing something (in English) and I seriously don't want to name my main character "Wang". Or something like that. Simply because I don't speak Chinese or Korean and I don't understand their naming system. So I'm planning to use either international names or fictional ones. If there IS some unknown restriction about that, please tell me now :)
Languages and Naming
Nah, no restrictions.
Feel free to use whatever names you want.
In fact, many people here are tired of the unending stream of Chinese-like names which hard to pronounce and distinguish for non-Chinese people. And even more so of Chinese-looking names which make no sense in Chinese. (There is even a topic here on the forum concerning that.)
So I think there is a bunch of people who would appreciate you writing characters with names which would sound normal to western people.
- Edited
Um... Well (Hi and welcome! Though this is also my first time actually going on the site's forums tbh) as far as I can tell, yes there are English names in novels, but almost every one of them are "original novels". Which are novels made on this site and don't need to be translated (aka what you'll be doing so you're good!).
The entire Wuxia and Xianxia genre originated in eastern countries, and light novels in general in webnovel or phone/text novel format were also far more common on that side of the world as well. So many of the pre-existing more famous/successful works ended up needing to be translated which is what your finding!
- Edited
Thanks, my concerns are gone :)
I'm from "middle earth" (aka Europe), so I'm kinda in a middle of two different cultures here. My own culture... Let's say, only about five million people speaks my language (worldwide), so I'm trying to improve my English. Being a writer in my country sucks a bit.
Thanks. I hope, my readers will be resistant enough against my "Engrishu" skills :D