Using Sudowrite in Non-English Languages

“Join instructors Dahlia and Manon for an in-depth exploration of writing in non-English languages using Sudowrite. This session covers essential tips and”

Writing in Other Languages With Sudowrite:
What Actually Works
(and What’s a Little Weird)

If you’ve ever tried writing in a language that isn’t English inside an AI writing tool, you already know the vibe: it works… until it doesn’t. You’ll be cruising along in Spanish or German, click a fancy “Rewrite” button, and suddenly your paragraph comes back in English like, “Hello, I have decided we live here now.”

This workshop (hosted by Dalia and Manet/Mano) is basically a practical tour through what does work—especially for multilingual writers using Sudowrite—plus a few workflow tricks that can save you a ton of time.

The Big Problem: AI Tools “Default to English”

Dalia kicks off by saying she’s been using Sudowrite since 2020 to plan and write novels, mostly in German. The session’s focus: how to work effectively with non-English text and avoid the tool flipping back to English when you least want it to.

A key detail: some tools behave better than others.

Quick Edit tends to behave better than “Rewrite/Describe/Expand”

Dalia notes that Sudowrite’s “laser tools” (rewrite/describe/expand) can sometimes spit out English even if your draft is in another language.

But Quick Edit and Quick Chat are usually more reliable. The theory: they can “see” more context (like your Story Bible), so they have a better idea what language you’re working in.

The Magic Phrase That Helps a Lot

This came up multiple times and it’s honestly the simplest takeaway from the whole session:

• Add a line like: “Write all content in Spanish” (or German, French, etc.)
• Put it in multiple places—especially in:
  • Genre
  • Style
  • Synopsis
  • Outline / planning areas
  • Basically any box that influences generation

One attendee put it perfectly: if you miss one box, the system may drift back to English later—especially when generating characters or worldbuilding.

Using Quick Edit for Translation (Cheap and Surprisingly Solid)

Dalia demonstrates translating a weird little sample text using Quick Edit with a prompt like:

• “Take this paragraph in English and write it in Spanish, preserving style and tone.”

The group confirms the Spanish output looks fine. One quirk: Quick Edit sometimes removes line breaks on longer text, which is annoying but not a dealbreaker.

Also: Quick Edit has a free/basic mode, so translation experiments can cost zero credits, which is great if you’re trying things out.

Free vs Paid Translation Quality

They run a quick comparison and the difference isn’t night-and-day—more like:

• slightly different word choices
• sometimes formatting is a bit better in paid mode

But for straight translation, the free output is often “good enough.”

Model Testing: Different Models Sound Different in Your Language

Another helpful trick: run the same prompt through different models to see which one “sounds right” in your language.

Dalia suggests making a neutral test prompt (like a short conversation between friends) and then swapping models to compare tone and fluency. They try Italian, hit a snag (because the prompt still included “write in Spanish”), fix it, and it works.

A funny pattern shows up too: AI tends to reuse “default names” for cultures (like “Marco” showing up repeatedly in Italian outputs). The fix is simple:

• pick names yourself using naming sites (like baby name lists or name databases)
• don’t rely on the model’s “most Italian Italian name”

A Practical Nonfiction Workflow: Import, Duplicate, Translate

Manet shares a workflow that’s especially useful for nonfiction writers:

Step-by-step workflow

• Do your research in Word (or wherever)
• Import the document into Sudowrite (importing is free, so do it early)
• Duplicate the project for each language version (English → French, etc.)
• Add: “Write all content in French” in the Story Bible / style areas
• Use Rewrite on big sections like the synopsis to translate them

Manet shows translating a synopsis into French and notes it cost around 192 credits—not bad considering it’s turning a whole planning chunk into usable French.

Translating isn’t “word-for-word Google Translate”

They also point out that older machine translation used to feel stiff. Now, both Google Translate and Sudowrite-style rewriting can produce more natural language—closer to “proper French” than robotic literal translation.

Beats and Regeneration: You’re in Charge

For drafting chapters, Manet uses “beats” (Beat 1, Beat 2, etc.) and regenerates until it matches what they want.

Key tips:

• You can regenerate a specific beat, not the whole chapter
• You can add very specific controls, like:
  • first-person POV
  • present tense
  • nonfiction tone
• If you want a shift (like 3rd person → 1st person), you can guide it beat-by-beat with instructions placed right where you generate.

Practical Tips From the Session

Here’s the condensed “do this, avoid that” list:

• Use Quick Edit for translation when other tools drift to English.
• Sprinkle your language instruction everywhere important:
  • “Write all content in [language]”
• When testing models, use the same prompt across multiple models.
• Watch for “default culture names” and override them manually.
• For nonfiction:
  • import your research
  • duplicate per language
  • rewrite big planning chunks into your target language
• Expect minor formatting quirks (like lost line breaks) and just clean them up after.

Final Thought: Multilingual Writing Is Totally Doable (With Guardrails)

The vibe of the workshop is basically: “Yes, this works. You just have to babysit the language setting a little.” Once you build the habit of pinning the language in the right places, Sudowrite becomes a lot more usable for Spanish, German, French, Italian—and even dialect experiments.

And if you’re curious about trying it yourself, the simplest place to start is translation + quick edits—then work your way up to full drafting.