Diary - A friend of my mum, who is a writer told her

M

Maybo

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Feb 23, 2017
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Chinese
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This is an entry from my diary. Please check it and correct any mistakes.

A friend of my mum, who is a writer told her that he had laboriously finished writing a book, but it will be published only 1000 copies. If they sell out fast, a second publication may be possible. If I were him, I wouldn't be unhappy because people may buy his e-books. He also said people don't like reading nowadays. I don't read as much as I used to be. Probably it is because my attention span has become shorter. I usually read a page and then I would go do something else.
 
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Maybo said:
The book will be published for only 1000 copies.

I don’t read as much as I used to.
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No. Start with "only" and omit "the book". Try again.
 
Maybo said:
I don’t read as much as I used to.
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That's fine. When you say that only 1000 copies of the book will be published that tells me you are disappointed that it's not going to be more than that.

He worked hard at it and finally finished.
 
I would probably say:

I finished writing my book. They're going to print 1000 copies.

Did he really complain that it was hard?
 
Maybo said:
A friend of my mum, who is a writer, told her that he had laboriously [finally] finished writing a book, but it will be published only 1000 copies will be published. If they sell out fast, a second publication print run may be possible. If I were him, I wouldn't be unhappy because people may might buy his e-books. He also said people don't like reading nowadays. I don't read as much as I used to. be. Probably it is because my attention span has become shorter. I usually read a page and then I would go [and] do something else.
Click to expand...
 
Say:

A friend
Maybo said:
Yes. He put in a lot of effort.
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Yes, of course. But the word "laboriously" suggests that he made a big deal out of how much work it was. Of course, nobody ever promised him it would be easy.

You do know that you need a comma after "writer," don't you?
 
Tarheel said:
Yes, of course. But the word "laboriously" suggests that he made a big deal out of how much work it was. Of course, nobody ever promised him it would be easy.
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He said in Chinese 辛辛苦苦地. I don't know how to translate that. Maybe "work his butt off".
Tarheel said:
You do know that you need a comma after "writer," don't you?
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I didn't know.
 
Maybo said:
He said in Chinese 辛辛苦苦地. I don't know how to translate that. Maybe "work his butt off".
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It amounts to the same thing.
Maybo said:
I didn't know.
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It's in the nature of a parenthetical phrase. If you're going to use one comma you should use two.
 
"Laboriously finished" is not a right collocation.
Yiu could say "He worked hard/toiled/slogged to get his book finshed for publishing..."
 
If you want to get in the fact that he worked really hard at it, you'll have to do it in a different way from adding an adverb before "finished writing". You could say something like "A friend of my mum, who is a writer, told her that he had laboriously [finally] finished writing a book that he'd worked really hard on, ...".

I'd probably open with "A writer friend of my mum ...". It means the same as "A friend of my mum, who is a writer" and is shorter and neater.
 
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