Tag Archives: Writing

Writing

Conlanging (Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck)

Son of a bitch, I told myself I wouldn’t do any conlanging for this series.

I told myself and for some reason I have the wikiarticle to the International Phonetic Alphabet open in one tab and a multitude of grammar articles open.

Last night, filled with some ideas, I started writing in my little gridded notebook some notes that to the unenlightened would look little different than Quenya.

[hjmi njfɔlm] “I had a dog”

[mia njfɔlm] “We have a dog” (We here is inclusive, meaning the listener is included)

[θɪmiga e mjfɔlwð] “He will have the dogs”

So that is about all the language has right now. I have a verb for “to go” as well and some pronouns, though as you can probably notice the subject is optional when made obvious by conjugation (e.g. “I” is made obvious because it uses the first person singular conjugation, but he/she/it use the same conjugation and therefore need it).

Conlanging then, if you didn’t get it, is the art/science/past time of making up languages. There are lots of ways to do it, it is a ton of fun for those of us with a background in linguistics or a pretty alphabet. It can be as simple as Pig Latin  or as complex as Ithkuil. It can be as realistic as Quenya or as simplistic as Esperanto.

Right now the language as it is is strongly rooted in the languages I speak or have been studying: English, German, Irish, and Esperanto.

So shall we deconstruct things a bit? That’s sort of what I want to do because talking about it with you will help me think about it as well. All these examples are, therefore, works in progress. In two weeks none of these things might exist. They might all be different. So grain of salt and such.

Okay, so we are going to take a step back. Of the three sentences two of them have only two words. I’m going to shorten them into something I can write with only my keyboard and not copy-pasting. By the way, things in //s are theoretical and things in []s are in practice. So let us transcribe these three sentences.

“hmi nfolm” I had a dog

“mia nfolm” We have a dog (inclusive)

“thmiga e mfolwth” He will have the dogs

So, between sentences 1 and 2 the change is “hmi” to “mia” and the changes in English are “I had” to “We have.” So we can guess that “nfolm” means “a dog.” This mostly implies that the language is either VSO or SVO (Verb-Subject-Object) or (Subject-Verb-Object).

We can confirm the word order with sentence 3, where we go from “mia” to “thmiga e”. We are assuming that the words “hmi” and “mia” are verbs that imply pronouns, something that is common in languages. Since “thmiga” has that “mi” base, we can take “e” to mean “he.” So the language is VSO, and uses conjugation to imply pronouns.

Now we only have three sentences, which makes data gathering hard. Lets add some more.

[ɹ̝̠̊en] “hren” – I go

[ɹ̝̠̊en] “(h)hren” – I went

[θɪɹ̝̠̊en] “thhren” – I will go

Oh no, things aren’t getting easier. Two of those are pronounced the same! Well, as the language’s creator I can tell you the theoretical pronunciation of sentence 5:

/hjɹ̝̠̊en/

Which is very difficult to pronounce, in real life it would be realized as the given sentence 5.

We can combine 1, 2, 4, and 5 and see that going from present to past tense adds a /h/ at the head of the word. In the same way we can use 2, 3, 4, and 6 to say making present to future tense adds /θ/ at the head of the word. Using English words it would look like:

(I) Go – I go

(I) Hgo – I went

(I) Thgo – I will go

So if “hmi” is “I had” and “mia” is “We have” we can subtract the “h” to get “I have” (“mi”), which means that adding an “a” at the end changes the plurality of the person (“I” becomes “we”). Same Idea as above:

(I) Go – I go

(We) Goa – We go

So, what about the end of that? “Thmiga e”. If we know “e” is “he” and the “th-” is future tense, that makes “-ga” the third person singular conjugation.

It is going to get a bit harder with “nfolm” and “mfolwth.” The word for “dog” is “folm.” In my work so far “n-” is the indefinite article and “m-” is the definite article. The plural is “-th” but it also mutates the consonant before it. /M/ just happens to mutate to /w/ in this particular case (funnily when /m/ undergoes lenition in Irish, it turns into /w/, that is why “good” is “maith” and “good night” is “oíche mhaith”).

Anyway, I am rambling and I am actually going to do some editing tonight. This is a pleasant distraction to me and I’ve enjoyed sharing a slice of madness with you.

Oíche mhaith! [ihə wa]

Writing

Word Count: 113,634 & The End

Well.

Here it is, the last word count post for a while.

Tonight I wrapped up the Mark III draft of my first novel: Sun-King. Over the next while I’ll probably talk some shop, talk some soccer, talk some life, and whatever.

But there are some other things that need to get done. First, I’m glad to have my life back. This last month I’ve done almost literally nothing but write. I think I played D&D twice and Minecraft twice. I’ve skipped out on a lot of stuff that I might have otherwise enjoyed so, probably not going to do that again any time soon.

Friday through Sunday, Brigid and I will be at ConFusion in Dearborn, Michigan. Brigid will have some copies of her books and be giving panels and I’ll be wandering around.

After that, over the next month, I’ll do my line edits and get the novel to my “first” readers.  After that, more editing, though hopefully less, and then copy editing.

I know I’ve already essentially made this post but a lot of this need reiterating for my own purposes rather than yours.

Once things move along I’ll probably post some tid bits here for you guys to enjoy.

So, signing off these word counts!

Oíche mhaith, bitches!

Writing

Word Count: 100,731 and Next Steps

I’m heading down the final stretch of this first total re-write of my first book. Today was another 10k day. I think by next weekend this will be wrapped up.

So where do we go from here?

Well, first, you’ll stop getting these vile daily word counts. That was mostly an accountability thing and now that it is done. I got my rewrite done in far less time then I suspected.

Next, I’m going to take a few days off.

Third, after those few days I am going to reread the whole thing again and make line edits for character voice and motivation. This will hopefully bring some consistency to everything. One of the weakest points of the original run is it took over a year and my opinion and vision for the characters changed greatly during that period.

Fourth, I will have to figure out the map. The book needs a map, so I’ll have to design a B&W version for print. That’ll suck up a weekend easily.

Fifth, once the map is done and added to the manuscript it will go back out to two of my original first readers and then potentially a third fresh first reader. The point is that the two will see that I properly address their major concerns and the new one will make sure the surprises and such still work with this new (hopefully better) version.

Sixth. Copy editing.

Seventh, either get the book into the hands of publishers or move to self publishing. Still leaning toward self publishing, we’ll see how the con goes if I make any contacts who can sell me on traditional publishing.

Eighth, book 2 bitches! That has been sitting for a long time, and a lot of things have changed, so now it is time to get back to that. Probably start from scratch again, but full of all sorts of enthusiasm. Steps seven and eight will happen in parallel.

Ninth, get published one way or another and see all you guys at some cons and some signings. I cannot wait to get out there and sign books and talk to people. I’m looking forward to panels more than I can express.

So that’s that, motherfuckers! Not too many word count posts left, hope they didn’t ruin your lives too much. This has been very exciting for me if you couldn’t tell. Glad to have gotten this far.

Sláinte, bitches!

Writing

Late Night, Not Done Yet Thoughts

It is currently 7:30 in the evening. For me, the day is twelve hours old and I still have a few hours of writing left. I took a few hours out of my day today to test-play the new version of D&D (I play Pathfinder) and found it enjoyable, but not as good as Pathfinder. Call me stubborn.

So, at this point, I’ve effectively had seven hours to write and my current word count is quickly headed toward 15,000. I’m very confident that will be broken tonight if I don’t spend too much time on this.

Chapters One, Two, and Three have all fallen into place. Those were three of the weaker chapters because many of the issues later reside in these three. Characters needed strengthening, motivations needed realization, a lot needed fixed. But that is in the past. Now I have to keep my focus on not slipping. Hopefully sending it past a quick first (second?) read will ensure that it is being fixed properly. Actually, just emailed it to her now. We’ll see how long it takes for her to check. She’s been busy with minecraft.

I’ve added four pages to the book already, but that seems to be holding pretty constant. Almost all of it is from the prologue which got completely overhauled. I’m coming up to the first chapter (Chapter Four) where I suggest a complete overhaul to the chapter. This is amusing to me because I feel like I’ve been focusing on complete overhauls so far.

So, we’ll see.

See you at the end of the day.

Detroit City FC, Soccer, Writing

Mid-Day Thoughts

Maidin mhaith!

Word count is climbing, I’ve been writing since 7:30, so plenty of time. Plus I still have the rest of the day ahead of me. But now is as good as a time as any to stop and write down some thoughts that I’ve been ignoring lately.

First, writing is much, much easier when you have already written it before. I find myself much more willing to rewrite than I had first expected. When I first deleted my entire first book (in a separate, new file mind you) I suspected that I’d be about 30% “new” stuff and 70% “old” stuff. I find myself much closer to 50/50 if not actually favoring to write completely new material.

And I haven’t even hit any of the “bad” chapters yet. When that happens I might run the counter all the way to 100% new! Who knows, but I feel good about the Mark III (as I’ve been found of calling it).

Unfortunately the changes might force my already paid-for cover to essentially become unusable. I’ll mull that around a bit.

 

Meanwhile, in sports, Newcastle continues to sail down the rails like an out-of-control rollercoaster headed toward disaster. All three of our keepers have been injured in the last week, the big derby is tomorrow, a keeper finally got off the bench and it is our triple fall-back. Completely blew our chance at the cup by losing to a team we had already sank this year.

Manager Pardew continues to prove that only he can be awarded “Manager of the Month” while in a four-game losing streak (for the previous month after five wins seemed to completely turn our chances around). For fuck’s sake I hate him. His inconsistent leaning toward losing. But apparently five wins and is enough to completely overlook months of constant failure and dismay, despite a return to his normal form.

I don’t know what he’s doing at training but all the fucking injuries that are coming out of that pitch makes me think he is walking around beating everyone with a cane.

 

On the Detroit side of things, perennial pain in our ass and complete failure of an owner Dan Duggan is once again promising a USL Pro team in 2016 and he’s even building a stadium in Detroit. By which I’m assuming Pontiac because he can actually afford that. I really wish he’d just fall of a financial cliff and disappear forever.

The good guys however are rapidly expanding. Season ticket sales are rumored to be coming up to a sales cap in order to ensure that tickets can still be sold at the gate. It might actually hurt our financials because season tickets are so much cheaper for us and them.

However, to help compensate, DCFC gear is going retail. A local sports chain here has started carrying gear and tickets, which is absolutely awesome. Brigid and I have talked a few times about how you know that the team is really getting acceptance and having your stuff in retail was a huge part of that.

I will admit being worried that our grass-roots movement might take a battering from corporate asshats like Duggan, but I think if we can persevere we’ll make it through the storm in the end. But sitting in the past looking forward is much scarier than sitting in the future looking back.

Word count will be posted at the end of the day. Spoiler alert, I’ll likely break into five digits.

Slán!

Writing

Tomorrow

So I went through all of my third first reader’s notes yesterday.

It took about eight hours give or take. I ate dinner at my desk to save time and had a couple cups of coffee to power through it.

Tonight I am going to drink Guinness, play minecraft, and have one more day above the roses before tomorrow I do something drastic.

Tomorrow I roll the counter back from 109,000 to 0. And I start again.

Well, perhaps I am being a bit dramatic. I am not starting from scratch or anything. But the changes have to be drastic. 13 chapters require complete rewrites, 3 of those require such drastic changes that there is literally nothing of value in the words I have on the page other than a reminder to myself on how not to do it. Nearly all the rest require pretty heavy modification but can at least pull from the existing text.

So tomorrow, book 1 goes back to “0” and we try again. Lessons learned. But by the end of tomorrow, expect that number to be high. And expect it to grow pretty quick.

I’ll be back around 110,000 before you know it.

Actually, this is a great opportunity for some drastic changes. At least one whole character is being axed completely. I’m rather glad to see him go, to be honest. Character voices and dialogue can be overhauled for both consistency but also dialect, something I’ve wanted to add for quite a while.

I’m excited. This break is going to be busy. This month is going to be busy. But it’ll get done. And it’ll be better for the effort.

Tonight, though, tonight I enjoy a little bit of stupid fun before I go back to the hard work.

Writing

Where I am in Publishing

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I don’t talk much about writing here event though the initial purpose of this site was to showcase my writing. I have another DCFC post planned, but I just got my biweekly soccer-related boost in views so I should save it for a little bit.

Bin a bit of a hit-n-miss few days. Windshield is cracked from a rock strike. Of course it isn’t covered by the warranty so it is up to me to fix it. It won’t cost more than $200 but still. For fuck’s sake.

So right now I have two books in various states of completion. Sun-King, book 1 in my still-unnamed series, is in the hands of its last first reader. My hope is to get it back during the Holiday Break and do all editing then. Originally it was supposed to publish in time for ConFusion in Detroit. I was going to try to get on a few panels and do what I do best – talk until people either hate or love me. With no book, that is not happening.

But the time-line is pretty much solidified. By January have editing complete. Get it to a copy editor. By March have those edits and formatting completed. Internal formatting includes having the map completed. In March I’ll order my proofs and ensure everything looks good.

I actually have cover art. We’ll see how the printing handles that. I can always work with my wife to whip something else up if all else fails.

That means I hope to be published before DCFC hits the field in May and my attentions are moved elsewhere.

Meanwhile, book two (Yew-Throne) is sitting and resting while I try to recharge my batteries. I was consistently hitting about 2-3k words per week for a while but half-way through November I tripped up and have since put it to the side. I am hoping for a late 2015/early 2016 publishing time frame.

I’m hoping to get some wind in my sails and get going with that again. I am at about 45k words aim to finish around 110-120k. I have the next chapter or two in my head, but the transition is keeping up at night. I am one of those people who writes very linearly. I write things in order: 1-2-3. It doesn’t matter if later the order is 1-3-2, but especially with chronological things I write in order. It helps me keep facts, characters, and settings straight since my notes are rather sparse if they exist beyond an email memo at all.

So I have a plan of sorts. But as of writing it is waiting for people to get back or waiting for the creative juices to start flowing again.

Waiting waiting waiting…

Website, Writing

The Hills Remember

Check it. I posted a one-shot story on the Paradox forums: The Hills Remember.

Please consider that I write these usually in one sitting and they represent mostly practice for me. There are likely mistakes and it likely comes to a quick end because it is nearly 9 and I haven’t eaten or showered yet.

Also, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve added my wife’s website to the top bar. Please check out her stuff. She works a lot harder than I do and deserves some love.

Sláinte, bitches.

Writing

Cartography

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Been doing a lot of book stuff but very little involved writing. Mostly been working on my maps.

Brigid once pointed out another blog post to me where someone had written a piece on the sins of fantasy writers. One of the points made was essentially “Maps were Tolkien’s thing. You aren’t Tolkien. Ergo, don’t do Tolkien’s thing.”

I have several problems with this.

First. I love maps. So fuck you, random internet person.

Fuckyouzard

Second. Their entire piece was “No one is as good as Tolkien” copy-pasted until it was slightly shorter than War and Peace, which is admittedly shallow-minded and also debatable at its core.

Third. Seriously, who died and made them king of fantasy? Fuck you random internet person who I can’t bother looking up.

Maps and fantasy go hand-in-hand. Our world has maps, why wouldn’t a fantasy world? Maps are a great window into the human condition. From racial segregation, to the pride of nations. From isolated languages, to internet traffic in every corner of the world. Maps convey history, science, sociology, greed, adventure, stupidity, and the power to unite. A map can show the lines than humans have drawn over centuries of bloodshed, or in an instant erase them completely and show us as fleas on the side of an elephant.

A map in the first few pages of a novel might have trouble showing that sort of emotion. Without an known history, a history linked to who we are, a map might fall a little flat. Someone from Poland is going to see their western border in a very different way then the border between North and South Korea. Even if they were too young to experience either of the wars that set them.

It is the job of an author to make people care about the little map at the beginning. Whether it is of a continent, or a single mountain by a lake.

But, in a more pragmatic way, a map is a great way to show scale to a reader. Without context a hike from New York to Chicago can be five miles, fifty miles, five hundred miles. We know that it is a long way to hike. But we know that through experience and from looking at it on a map.

I think that if you are going to drop enough place names – actual, proper place names like “Main Street” or “Edinburgh” or “Poland” – it is important to use a map. ‘Enough,’ of course, is the key word. Use your brain, I can’t do it for you. But if a character just walks from “home” to “the grocer” and distance isn’t important, yeah leave the map on the desk.

Hmmm, I’m think about that urban sort of setting. Can a map help?

Eh… I won’t say no. I love maps.

Just -and this is a  general complaint about naming places- put some thought into your names. I read the first book of the Codex Alera series by the well-known Jim Butcher. The map drove me crazy because I recognized several of the place names and it took me out of “fantasy” world and put me more in the mind set of “this person apparently assumes I’ve never cracked open a history book ever.”

That is definitely something I’d avoid. Given that series was based on a challenge given to him to write something based off two “lame” ideas given by someone on the internet, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if some of the place names were after-thoughts. Still. “Aquitaine” is totally a place in France. Still is. Hard to think of it in a world of magic but that is totally a personal complaint; not bashing on Mr. Butcher.

Also, to the (other) guy on the internet who thinks Pokémon and the “Lost Legion” trope are lame.

Fuckyouzard

As a game Pokémon is a lot of fun. If it is “lame” because it lacks depth or complexity, I’d say you are wrong (look up competitive builds and you’ll get the depth to the engine) and also having a less linear story/game-play is great for that an RPG. Wish they’d stop trying to shoe-horn their shitty writing into it.

The lost legion trope is fun, I wish they’d stop doing it with Legio Nona Hispana, that story is played-out. Honor and soldiery tropes, there is a lot to do there and a lot of things you can do to make it unique. Plus the idea of a larger, vastly superior force being ground to paste by a smaller, native population has some great historical baggage to bring along with it.

As subtle as a brick through a store window.