Translation process - part 1

From time to time, I'm being asked about various steps of my translation process.
I thought it could be interesting to make it public for everyone to see. Also I have nothing new to release at the moment, so it's somewhat of a filler in disguise...

About this guide

I'll describe the way I do things. There may be some variations, but I believe this is similar to most translation projects. I've done it pretty much the same for my whole career, so I don't have much to compare to. Accordingly, I can't really say that this is the best way to do it. Feel free to criticize (constructively) or steal parts that you like.

To edit, or not to edit...

Three roles are involved in my translation process: the translator, the proofreader, and the editor. As you probably know, I shift between having a separate editor and being the editor myself. This results in two different work flows:

Time flows downwards in the diagram

The first part of the guide will focus on the first scenario: me translating and someone else editing. The second part will cover the second scenario, and focus more on editing tips and tricks rather than the process as a whole.

Part 1 - Separate editor

This part will cover the whole process from "I want to translate this" to the release.

I will focus on the translator role, since that the part I play in this process. More specifically, the script and the interaction with other roles.

The translator

The role of the translator is to provide a script.

There are many ways to do a script. The basics are that you want to make a list of all the lines in the manga, and present it in a way that the editor can understand. You may enumerate all the text fields and refer to those numbers in the script, or you can start each line with the first part of the Japanese text.

Personally, I keep it very simple; listing the text in the order it's read with a new line for each bubble. Of course, this only works if the editor is able to connect the script with the original, but so far had very few occurrences of text ending up in the wrong place—in which case they were fixed before being released.

In order to help everyone that will read the script, I use a set of tags:

<...> - Comments from me. Ex
(...)   - Small text somewhere around the outline of the bubble. Ex
[ ... ]  - Square bubble (I only use it if it makes it easier for the reader to follow). Ex
* * *  - Notation from the proofreader. May be followed by a comment. (More on this later)

My setup

This is what my screen usually looks like when I work on a script:



As you can see, I use a lot of simple applications. Most of them are there the first time you start a relatively new Windows computer, and the only think you need to get yourself is Mozilla Firefox and the Rikaichan addon; both of which are free.

Useful programs/sites

I strongly recommend the IME Pad to find kanji you're not familiar with. As long as you have a basic understanding of the Japanese stroke order, drawing the kanji and having the software suggest a candidates really is the fastest and easiest way to find a kanji. Alternatively, I recommend tangorin.com's multi-radical search. Select "Kanji" as the dictionary, and then select the components you can identify from the list. The site will list all the kanji with those components. For example, selecting 力 and 田 will suggest 男.

Rikaichan is a pretty notorious Japanese dictionary addon for Firefox, and for a good reason. One of its greatest strengths is that you're not limited to dictionary form when searing for a word, and it will even tell you the form of the word (past, negative, imperative, etc.). This is especially good when you're not too familiar with the language.

Space ALC is an amazing site for looking up things that are a bit too informal for a dictionary. A line may not make sense word-by-word, but put together they make up a saying or idiom. In most cases, Space ALC will give you that saying, or show you how a word can be used in a couple of example sentences.

The proofreader

The roles of the proofreader is to spot and fix as many typos and awkward sentences in the script as possible before it's sent to the editor.

I'm really bad at spotting errors myself. A typo can easily slip by, and sometimes I can be too literal/not focused enough—leading to awkward sentences. That's why I prefer a thoroughly proofreading process. I have no personal experience in proofreading myselft, so I'll keep this section short.

I will send the script and the raw to a proofreader. The proofreader will then edit the script directly—adding *** at the end of every changed line—and send it back to me. I will then go though the script and compare the changes with the original script. This way I'll make sure that no line is rephrased in a way that is too far away from the original meaning. I rarely find anything I'm not happy with, but when I do, I contact the proofreader again and we work it out.

The editor

The role of the editor is to transfer the content of the script to the actual pages. This involves both cleaning (removing the Japanese) and typesetting (adding the English).

Once the script is finalized, I'll send it to the editor. If the editor has the time to spare and knows what I'll send next (either because we've decided on it, or because it's part of a series), s/he may start with the cleaning before receiving the script. Obviously, this greatly speeds up the whole process since time-consuming parts like covering the Japanese text and redraws can be done ahead of time.

No matter when the cleaning is done, the editor can only start typesetting after receiving the script; copy-pasting the text in the script onto the raw. This is to prevent new typos from appearing. In a perfect world, it would've been proofread once more after being edited, but that would be too tedious, time-consuming, and somewhat unnecessary.

The editor will send me the edited version, and we'll both look through it. This is the final, perhaps not so formal, proofreading process. If neither one of us wants to change anything, we'll decide on a release date.

Wrap up

This process involves a lot of interactions between people, and it's not unusual for it to take up to a week. Fortunately it also involves a lot of  waiting for someone else to finish their part; time you can be spend working on another project. This process can't really compete with one-man-projects when it comes to speed. A translation can easily be cranked out in a couple of hours under the right circumstances. However, this isn't really a problem unless the manga you wish to translate is really new, in which case someone else may "steal" it from you and release it before you're done with it.

When it comes to release rate, I've found my process to be superior. The DIY-approach requires constant dedication; after one release, you have to immediately start working on something new in order to have it ready for the next release date.

I often find myself with a "buffer" of finished projects that can cover over a week of releases. If I feel like translating one day, I can do two or three scripts during that day. If I don't feel like translating the next day, I don't have to, because I know several projects are already being worked on by someone else. The fact that I've had a release every two days, without working every two days, for over a month supports this claim.

If I have to summarize the pros and cons (tl;dr), I'd say this process is:

- slow: it takes about one week for a single release. Note that this only effects one release, and not the overall release rate.

+ flexible: you can work on several projects one day, and do something else the next.

+ consistent: projects pile up when you're productive, and you can release those when you feel lazy to fill the gaps. This results in an even release rate.

End of part 1

This concludes the first part of this guide. I hope you found it interesting, or enjoyed it in some way now that you've reached this section. The editing section is deliberately short because the next part will focus on that.

I don't have an ETA for it, but it will be out sometime in the near future.