Creating Fantasy Languages

One of the most interesting aspects of fantasy works is the fact that they take place in worlds of their own, with the potential for entirely new life-forms, cultures, and languages. A few fantasy authors have capitalized on this unique opportunity by going so far as to create their own language(s) to populate their fantasy world. Of course, J.R.R. Tolkien stands as an eminent example of such a practice.

In today’s blog post, I’d like to examine first of all whether it’s worthwhile to create a language/languages for your world, and second of all provide you with some resources in case you are interested in creating languages. So, without further ado, let’s begin.

Pros:

• Languages provide depth: There’s nothing that proclaims the hard work and seriousness of your story than a language. Adding a unique fantasy language adds an immediate dose of credibility to your story that your readers may enjoy.
• Languages add believability to characters and settings: Languages can be invaluable tools for developing various unique civilizations and cultures in your story. Also, individual characters may be better described and recognized based on the language(s) that they speak.
• Languages can be fun to create: This one’s pretty self-explanatory—languages are a fun break from the grind of churning out a rough draft or meticulously editing your manuscript. Just don’t get so caught up in languages that you neglect the story itself!
• Languages are important biblically: The account of the tower of Babel tells of a time in which everyone spoke one language and “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Gen 11:6) Recognizing the power of language, God created different languages, causing people to be scattered and divided throughout the earth. In short, languages have power biblically. Don’t underestimate this power in your story!

Cons:

• Languages are time-consuming to create: It takes a lot of effort and time to come up with a unique language, especially if you use a distinct alphabet. Tolkien himself began the work of creating his elvish languages in his teen years, and the project was still in progress in his forties. Be aware that this isn’t a project to take lightly!
• Languages don’t advance the plot and rarely help to create better characters: While languages do have some role in the story as part of the setting, they are not usually instrumental to the progress of the plot itself. They also don’t usually add to the believability of characters, since other elements—such as their likes, their dislikes, and their interests—are more essential to readers’ knowledge of characters. So don’t let languages become too much of a priority.
• Languages require explanation and can distract from the overall story: Let’s be honest here—foreign languages slow the action down. They should be used sparingly, if at all. Be sure to weigh the benefit of adding depth to the cost of slowing down the story before you insert any languages into the story!

With that analysis behind us, let me point you to some resources in case you would be interested in creating languages.

The Language Construction Kit: a very helpful resource for those trying to create an artificial language. You can use the resources in as much or as little depth as you wish.

Language Creation Society: if you’re really serious about creating a language, they have some helpful resources on their website. Be warned—it’s not for the faint of heart!

Discussion Thread on Creating Phonetic Systems: You may have heard me mention the HolyWorlds forums once or twice on this blog. That’s because they contain many, many helpful discussions on topics relevant to Christian fantasy writers—including this particular easy-to-understand guide to creating languages and phonetic systems.

Article on How Language Affects Behavior: this article by Stanford researcher Lera Boroditsky highlights examples of how the language you speak affects how you see the world and how you behave. Although it’s not directly related to creating languages, it is very fascinating to skim if you have a few minutes to spare.

And that brings us to the end of today’s post. Now it’s your turn: have you ever tried inventing a language? How did it go? Any advice on how to include languages in your fantasy story?

Day of Rest and Review, Part 2

Two weeks ago, the first part of my series of two posts on a "day of rest and review" was featured on the Holy Worlds blog. Here's the opening of part 2, published today.

In part 1, I discussed the concept of a “DoRR”: a Day of Rest and Review devoted to God and centered on your writing. Just to recap, here’s the overall structure I suggested for your day:

1. Begin with Scripture, prayer, and journaling.
2. Look Back
3. Look Now
4. Look Ahead
5. Close in Scripture, prayer, and journaling.

In today’s post, I’ll take a closer look at the “meat” of the DoRR—the three middle portions of look back, look now, and look ahead.

Read the rest of the blog post at this link. And, for a dose of much-needed writing humor, here is Calvin and Hobbes.

Guest Post: Day of Rest & Review

I have the pleasure to announce that the Holy Worlds blog is now featuring part 1 of 2 of a series on a "day of rest and review" by yours truly. The first post is available at this link, and the second will be posted next week. Here is my introduction to the series:

In this series of blog posts, I’m going to talk about the benefits of taking one day each 6-12 months off of your work or studies to rest and review your writing. There’s a parallel for this in the business world: it’s called a “personal development review,” which is a term you might see if you brave the world of cubicles (prison cells) in the member care or human relations department of a large company. It’s not a thought that would normally cross the farthest reaches of a starving scribbler’s mind.

But maybe it should.

I think this subject is one that's largely forgotten yet incredibly important for our development both as writers and as Christians, so I hope you'll take the time to head over to Holy Worlds and check it out. Look around the blog while you're at it, too!

As a side note, you may have noticed that Faerie & Faith has been somewhat silent the past two weeks. I do believe it's becoming  an annual tradition for me to post very little in the month of November (which is the month in which writers go crazy and sit at keyboards for hours on end trying to reach 50,000 or more words before the end of the month). If you're interested in my thoughts on Nano, you can find them here. Enjoy, and be assured: I'm now back in the full swing of blogging, and plan to post all the more in December.

Review & Giveaway: Finding the Core of Your Story

Have you ever had anyone ask you, “I hear you’re a writer. What’s your story about?” Usually, when this happens, I curl up in a ball of embarrassed fright and confusion, trying to figure out how to condense two hundred pages of manuscript into a manageable soundbite. Recently, however, I benefited from the advice of Jordan Smith, a filmmaker and friend from Holy Worlds Christian writing forums. With his help, I’ve been able to write a (decent) 1-sentence hook for my story—in short, a logline.

How is this supposed to help you? Can you get logline advice from Jordan, too? Well, you’re in luck: Jordan just published a book titled Finding the Core of Your Story: The Quick and Easy Guide to Writing a Logline. Here’s the description from the product page on Smashwords:

What's a logline? It's a very short description of the core of your story. It gets to the heart of what your story actually is and conveys that information in as little space as possible. Ultimately, it’s a tool you use to get busy people interested in your story.

Not only that, it’s a handy tool for keeping your story on track. If you don’t know what your story is about in a single sentence, you run the risk of meandering your story into places where it doesn’t belong.

Filmmaker Jordan Smith has earned a reputation as a logline guru. Now he’s written this fast-and-easy book to share his logline know-how with you. Inside, you’ll find:

- The Quick-Start Logline Chapter to get you going right away

- The four fundamental logline rules

- Useful chapters on nitty-gritty logline details

- More examples than you can shake a stick at

- And more!

You don’t have to be a filmmaker to use a logline. You just need a story that you want to tell. Whether you write novels, movies, or even operas, this book is for you. Every storyteller should be able to say in one sentence what his story is about. This book will help you learn to do just that.

I read this book—finished it in one sitting—and I definitely agree with the description above: Jordan’s humor and easygoing voice, along with the short and to-the-point chapters and practice exercises in each chapter, makes this book a valuable tool for any writer or screenwriter. Also, as a novelist, I appreciate the insight into writing from the screenwriting angle—Jordan presented his material in ways I wouldn’t ordinarily think of. Plus, it's affordable even for impoverished writers like me.

If any of this has piqued your interest, I encourage you to head over to Smashwords and buy Jordan’s book, Finding the Core of Your Story, here.

But wait. Remember the title of this post? I said there would be a review…and a giveaway. That’s right, three of you will be getting a copy of Jordan’s book, for free! So what do you have to do to get it?

Simple: comment below with a guess at how long my story’s logline is (a logline is one sentence, remember). The three people to get closest to the answer get a free copy of Jordan’s book. Be sure to leave your email address in the comment, so I can contact you with the code for your prize!

Enjoy guessing, and everyone, be sure to read Finding the Core of Your Story here.

Update: The giveaway is now closed. Thanks for participating!