Day 13 (16 In Base 7) Of Writing My Novel Again.

I’ve got to find my worst-spelled words sometimes, but yeah, the more tired I get, the worse I spell, too. Reblogging so I can find this post in a pinch lol.

I have made a discovery.

Apparently, the more tired I am, the more poorly I spell.

Fun fact: I'm actually garbage at spelling. A lot of people (both IRL and otherwise) think I'm really good at it just because I know how to spell most everything off the top of my head, but that's just because I've learned them over time from writing so much. Without knowing... I spell extremely poorly.

Why do I mention all this?

I tried spelling "structured" as "struckured".

And that's just the beginning.

I don’t talk about her very much, but this prompt is definitely the MC from It Will Hurt: And There Will Be No Fire. Her name is Yessei, and she’s a vegan and a Vampire and runs a coffee shop but can’t work a cell phone for the life of her.

“All those centuries, and you haven’t learned how to use a cell phone?” “I am 800 years old! Unless you know how to work a 15th century printing press, you can stop laughing and show me how to do the Twitter.”

Day 40 (1:13) of rewriting my novel

I hit 50K today! For that I'm very excited.

Some liked my previous Low Zeneth translations, so I'll share another here.

Hior bv puw ijsonvn bivq

IPA: [ˈhi.or.ˈbə̃.ˈpuː.ˈiː.so.nə̃n.ˈbjə̃t͡ʃ]

Lit. Translation: wish.PRES.SMP 1ST.SNG 3RD.SNG is good.

Translation: I hope you enjoy it. (Literally: I wish it is good.)

Some notes on this: ijsonvn /ˈiːsonə̃n/ is a dummy verb for non-predicative adjectives, like the word bivq /ˈbjə̃t͡ʃ/, which can be "good," or used independently as an NP to mean "goodness."

Syntax in subordinate clauses switches to SVO, as you saw in the example above. A grouping of it might look like this.

[VP [V hope] [NP I] [VP [NP it] [V' [V is] [NP good]]]]

Maybe one day I'll get around to making a syntax tree to describe what's going on, because that grouping isn't quite accurate, but it's good enough for right now.

Day 35 (1:05) of rewriting my novel

Today was a "bridge the gaps" day.

Yesterday, I wrote about Vimir. The day before that, I wrote about Taguchif. In order to bridge those scenes with what I already had, I wrote for, like, 4 hours and about 2,100 words piecing it all together. Now, Part Three is like 12,000 words, and I'm probably just over 1/3 of the way there? I'm staring down the barrel of probably 40,000 words necessary for Part Three.

To be clear, in no way is Meiste meant to be consumed in four parts. Later, I plan to block off chunks as chapters. But not until after I've gotten all four parts to places where they can reasonably be split off into chapters.

Part of what I mean by that is this: Part One was really rushed, comparatively. My "alpha" reader pointed out that the pacing is really rushed in Part One, and that's been on my mind this whole time, but that was really so I could work up the motivation to get through Part Two.

Part One is even, comparatively, short compared to parts Two and Three: it stands at just 12,000 words. And mostly as an introduction to the other three parts. That was a critical flaw in choosing what has become, essentially, in media res to start a fantasy novel.

I plan on adding a scene at the end, once this is all said and done, where Izi, Vimir, and his boss are all at church. With that I can do several big things:

Lay out Zenestian religion. While the Constitution of Zeneste is inherently a religious document, Zenestian government has strayed so far from its original intents to suck power from its citizens that the religion has almost become a sort-of government worship. This was one of the big reasons my "alpha" reader was confused in the first chapter by everyone just accepting that "the Constitution said Izi is Emperor, so Izi is Emperor." It's a level of Orwellian brainwashing that is crazy deep.

Lay out what Izi's world even looks like. At this point in the story, he's just an eighteen-year-old worker in a rice farm taking a single evening of rest to go and worship with his community, including his best friend and most loyal ally.

Set up the windows scene in Part One. In Part One, Izi's astounded by the lack of designs in the Old Chapel of Zeneste, and when he finds the old windows in the attic, he hires somebody to come and replace the windows for him. Since the reader doesn't have context for this, it might make Lozerief's outburst even more confusing.

Foreshadow his mom being the Hero of Life. Like, the Hero of Life appears everywhere, and I don't wanna give away Izi's mom being the Hero of Life too early, but I can afford to drop more hints.

This, alone, would add probably 2,000-3,000 words.

In addition, she recommended changing the pacing so Izi has more like a month in the palace (instead of the 3 days that I wrote in originally.) I definitely could use this to illustrate what the Zenestian government is like: a bunch of corrupt politicians figuring out how they can get more power (Lozerief is an exception).

This has mostly become me ranting about novel plotting, and what I have to do later, but feel free to let me know your thoughts! I'm always open to hear other peoples' opinions (except when they necessitate the disenfranchisement of others.)

Day 25 (34 in base 7) of re-writing my novel

Today I explored one of two very important concepts in my novel: what does magic look like without a body to bind to it? Read ahead to learn more, but there are technically spoilers here.

"No," I decided. "It's-" A foul stench slashed at my nose, popping my eyes open. "What the hell?" I stood and plugged my nose, sticking out my hand. "I don't smell it." Hota stood beside me, hands in their pockets while they looked around. From the forest came a rotting buck the size of a semi truck. I could see its skull from beneath the skin that had fallen away, and only one eye remained on it. "I don't see that." Hota gulped and stood behind me. The buck wasn't real, I realized. The buck was made of magic. This was the consequence of failing to restore magical balance quickly enough. This putrid thing, made from unguided magic, wandering aimlessly in a world where it couldn't interact. Had I failed? Would Meiste soon perish?

Magic without a body is aimless. It is undead. It has no will nor way, rhyme nor reason, nothing like that. In fact, the perception of that magic is what caused it to take a form in the first place. It is only putrid-smelling because Izi perceived it that way, and it only looks like a rotting deer because that's what Izi saw.

Day 39 (1:12) of rewriting my novel

No crazy Low Zeneth translations today, although I'm very proud of its crazy analytical grammar.

Today I'm thinking about post-novel cannon, because I find those events just as fascinating. After the novel is over, the Empire of Zeneste is completely disbanded, leaving just the state of Ir Nouzonif with Izi as its "Emperor."

Meanwhile, the White Army definitely does not finish retaking Odapir, so in post-novel canon, Izi definitely helps Heja'umak reclaim her home city of Odapir City.

Furthermore, the ruler of Tolftorrijv is pretty corrupt in the same way that President Sluwfa was...

And about her, I haven't even decided what happens to her yet. Perhaps out of desperation, she tries to combine the magic she stole inside herself? Lozerief did say it was like "replacing your lungs with lungs that were 10 liters."

I feel like the states of Ytos and Itaush would reunite, since Itaush was one of the Twin Duchies, but left the Confederacy.

Cursed Low Zeneth Translations

Consider this a makeshift guide to how Low Zeneth works.

Overview

Low Zeneth is a language and group of dialects spoken Southwestern Zeneste (the state of Tolftorrijv.) Its last common "ancestor" with Ipol was Classical Zispoel, but it had already started to diverge before the time of the Hero of Life. Low Zeneth is radically different than Ipol in many ways, though it's been influenced substantially by Ipol, too.

I will focus here on the prestige variety of Low Zeneth: the kind spoken in the city of Tolftorrijv.

Phonology/Romanization

Rendered Phonemically:

Stops: /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

Nasal Stops: /m/ /n/

Affricates: /t͡s/ /t͡ʃ/

Fricatives: /f/ /θ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /h/

Approximants: /w/ /l/ /j/

Tap/flap: /ɾ/

Trill: /r/

Vowels:

/iː/ /i/ /yː/ /y/ /uː/ /u/

/eː/ /e/ /øː/ /ø/ /oː/ /o/ 

/ə̃/ /ə/

/a/ /ɑː/

That makes 34 total phonemes broken down from 20 consonants and 14 vowels.

Romanized:

p, b, t, d, k, g

m, n

ts, q

f, th, s, sh, h

w, l, j

r

rr

ij i üü ü uw u

ee ê öö ö oo o

v e

a aa

If you can't tell, I had fun deriving this phonology from the restrictive, Classical Zispoel phonology. Maybe a little too much, but oh well.

Morphology and Syntax - Grammar

Technically Low Zeneth is a VSO language, but that's not the full picture.

Basically, auxiliary verbs get sucked up into the (head-initial) tense-phrase. The tree below describes the translation "fijsesê bv hijfrê" which literally translates to "have I money" and means "I have money."

The result is that most subordinate clauses have the structure SVO, while the main clause has structure SV(A)O.

Low Zeneth has very slim morphology, only inflecting for a simple plural in nouns with -o, and no morphology at all in verbs. A series of sound changes rendered the T/A distinctions of Classical Zispoel basically indistinguishable, so to compensate, speakers of Low Zeneth employ heavy periphrasis.

Cursed Translations from Today

Fijatsia bv io dv luw êraanva ijrenva

Phonemic: /fi.ˈja.tsi.a ˈbə̃ ˈi.o ˈluː e.ˈɾɑː.nə̃.a ˈiː.ɾe.nə̃.a/

Lit. Translation: Will I give you of news urgent.

Meaning: I will give you urgent news/I must give you urgent news.

Üümen ijnvth Dvrr Ilaajote hijthen-luwario

Phonemic: /ˈyː.men ˈiː.nə̃θ ˈdə̃r i.ˈlɑː.jo.tə ˈhiː.θen.lu.wa.ɾi.o/

Lit. Manages Zeneste Emperor Tolftorrijv fight-people.

Meaning: The Emperor of Zeneste (now) manages the Tolftorrijv army.

Conclusion

I just figured I'd talk about Low Zeneth today because I haven't talked about it a lot but have been producing a bunch of translations. I realize only now that I didn't go over forming questions in this post, but maybe later I will. Feel free, as always, to request that I translate random words/phrases into this language.

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower

Taglist?

Would anyone like to be tagged in any of my posts? Reblog/comment if you'd like to be included in any of the following lists:

Conlang Translations

Writing Updates

WIP Exerpts

Linguistics/Conlanging Ideas/Inspiration

@ominous-feychild

All

@oldfashionedidiot @quillswriting

Average person: how does writing work

writer: Well u type an u delete. You rethink. Then u do 187 min of research and correct it. You reread and wonder if u hav a grasp of english. Then u revise

person: then ur done with the book?

writer: then u move onto the next sentence