As a writer, for the longest time, one of my biggest editorial weaknesses was tenses. I’d shift past to present back to past all within a paragraph and not even realize it. I just thought I was bad at writing.

It never occurred to me it’s because Chinese has no tenses. /1

The crazy thing is, I learned English in preschool. I started day one not speaking a word, and as little kids do, by the end of the year was speaking more English than Chinese. Like most native speakers, my grammatical constructions in English are largely instinctual. Yet... /2

Vestiges of grammatical constructions from Chinese persists in my writing.

This happens in English to Chinese as well. I’ll construct a sentence w/ English syntax or use phrasing that is common in English but weird in Chinese (the book sat on the table->那本书坐在桌子上)。/3

It’s fascinating what almost subconscious impact our histories and heritage bring to the table. It’s also a good reminder to me to consider folks’ linguistic backgrounds when offering writing advice. Seemingly strange constructions may be stemming from cultural roots. /4

Here’s the thing with art: everything is about choice and intention. My struggle with tenses when done without intention is a mistake, but being playful with tenses is a boon when I break rules on purpose in, for example, nonlinear or achronological narratives. /5

We shouldn’t strive to erase our culturally inherited instincts or habits. We should understand them and be able to wield them with intention rather than fall into them as the default.

Another example of this: /6

In my MFA acting program, a Brazilian classmate told our voice and speech professor he wanted to get rid of his accent. The professor shook her head. “No no, we don’t want to get rid of your accent! It is beautiful and rich and authentically you.” /7

“What we’re going to work on is giving you the tools to turn that accent on and off on command. That voice and accent is gonna make you a million bucks someday; we don’t want to erase it. We’re simply going to unlock more voices within you.” /8

When taking a creative course, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to dampen your voice or modulate it so that it mimics the teacher’s. But great teachers don’t create students who sound like them; great teachers empower their students to find and amplify their own voice /9

All of this is to say:
- something you view as a weakness may become a strength once you understand and master it so it becomes a choice rather than a habit
- look deeper so you don’t mislabel something different as just “bad” or “wrong”. /end