I hope I don’t get hit for this hahaha and sorry for the wordiness I’m gonna just group all of them here. Your responses will be helpful, thank you!
1. Present or Past Tense?
Ayee so I was just wondering what do you guys actually prefer?
The thing about me using past tense is that I tend to switch to present tense when I (yes, just based on my own feels, no grammatically-sound explanation) think I should. Like when the characters are thinking or when I think the sentence is nothing that will become only a thing of the past. Will try to keep this more consistent!!
The results probably won’t affect Blooming Romance since I’m already ten plus chapters into it, unless you guys don’t mind me editing them all over first if it turns out that majority do prefer present tense~
2. Help with translation! (comment below for this one, ty!)
So about the next project I plan to work on, it’s a xianxia one.
Just wondering for those familiar with this genre bc you read them before, what is the common translation for 徒弟(tu di)? Disciple, pupil, apprentice or just the pin yin?? Also for 师兄(shi xiong) and 师弟 (shi di). Are they senior and junior or other translation?
There’s a lot about CHN ↔ ENG that I’m still learning and getting used to. Tbh, I just learned that 打脸 can be literally translated into face slap not too long ago lmao
3. About double spacing (just to know only)
Do you guys like seeing the double spacing between paragraphs accordingly or it doesn’t matter to you whether or not it’s single or double spaced in between?
書庫 
1) Heeeeee..
I don’t even notice anything because your flow of conversation in the story is really good.
So, I don’t know.
I guess I’m voting just because of a lesson I remembered in high school.
I choose present tense.
But, whatever floats your boat.
I’m already thankful enough that you’re willing to translate this story 😁
2. It’s okay to use Pinyin.
A lot of BL novel that’s circling around us are in Wuxia’s genre, so words like Shizun, Shifu, Shixiong, etc.
One important thing to do is to give foot note as a guide so that a non experience reader can still connect with the story.
3. Just use the double spacing as a means to separate the different poin of view or a beginning of new situation.
So you won’t have to use the double spacing excessively.
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+1
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I pretty much agree with everything Zo Arai said!
I’m also just grateful you are translating and tend not to notice shifts in punctuation. I remember hearing that whatever one chooses, it should be consistent, but when I write myself I find myself shifting back and forth and then having to go back and clean it up. I would tend towards present tense myself, but, again, your translations flow well so I don’t end up noticing and I’m just happy to have an overall quality translation.
I also agree about the pinyin, with the caveat of notes. Through people using the pinyin terms in stories I have learned a lot more about Chinese culture, history, fiction and current slang, for instance. I also think that things like “brother” make a lot of sense within the context of the culture, but not so much from a western point of view, so keeping the pinyin keeps it in context, unless there are notes explaining it.
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yep yep, i will work hard on keeping things more consistent|•’-‘•)و✧ and ayeee, will make good use of notes to make sure things don’t get too confusing!
very grateful for your input and to you for taking the time to read my nonsense and the novel i enjoy with me too hehe ( *´ω`*)
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1) thank you kekekeヾ(>᎑<`๑) will do my best to stay more consistent!
2) ayee noted! wasn't sure how much i should abuse the use of pinyin last time and i can't say i'm super familiar with this genre yet haha so will learn along the way!
3) 👌!!
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1) past tense is common and less jarring than present tense, I never notice it in BR, so i think you’re doing ok. I sometimes use present for thoughts too, there’s some tutorials online, and some say mixing tense is ok too and in fact recommended
2) I usually see disciple or pupil, apprentice when it’s a big teacher and the student’s not the only student being taught, some use pinyin, although personally I feel pinyin can be confusing if you don’t read chinese at all, and most english readers will be this
shixiong/shidi sometimes become pinyin since they’re shorter that way and used a lot, same with shizun, shifu, shimu, etc, some also use senior-apprentice brother, junior-apprentice brother, or senior brother, junior brother
I think for some the ‘brother’ was disturbing the romantic connotation?
3) I don’t like the double spacing, (or single spacing from what I see here…) I see it as a mistake, since it comes from deleting the raws, I think? that said I notice it more if it’s on mine than in other people’s posts, so when I read it I don’t really register it haha
this single space is still okay… but double spacing is so big, it’s making me read the ‘space’
it’s ultimately not a rly big thing tho
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ah, sorry, i forgot wordpress changed their spacing, single space is totally ok, double spacing with this new paragraph spacing is very big and extra noticeable
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1) ah that’s good to know! it’s been too long since i last properly did any narrative writing so it gets awkward for me sometimes and i’m never so sure whether i’m doing it right
2) thanks for these info and the examples are really useful! also, the note that english readers may struggle with pinyin!
3) ayee, thanks for the opinion 😂 wanted to ask about this since i usually translate on phone and don’t always have the chance to get on the comp to do the double spacing and stuff, so if i update through phone, it will be single spacing first before i adjust there when i get on the comp. the author did do double space in her chapters when there are some sort of a change of scene in blooming romance itself so i have been trying to stick with that then sometimes mess it up when i re-edit the chapter to add the link or stuff o<-< (though i'm trying to get used to the new editor now since its layout is less likely to screw up)
if you find the paragraphs spacing too big on wp, you can do a shift+enter instead so the formatting becomes
(line breaks) instead of
(paragraphing) o v o
also, thank you so much for your input regarding translation all the time padam <33
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Yea, after looking at it again I was thinking it’s definitely okay it the raw was like that, definitely!
Oh. .
I didn’t notice but I guess I did comment to input before haha
sorry, after reading few chapters I read through the novel in one go, I just go back every now and then to study your translation ></ it's beautiful
thanks ah, maybe, it also bothers me when I edit and selecting a paragraph becomes selecting the whole thing 0 – 0 (basically i'm easily irritated when i edit)
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haha really appreciate your help <33 and same man, i think editing makes everyone irritated easily 😂
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