Direlda

So I have quite a bit of homework to work on, which means I probably won't be able to meet tonight. ^^; I've tried to get as much as I can done, but there's still a lot left to do.

So Thomas, Salem and I did end up meeting last night. We bounced ideas off each other, though we didn't end up nailing the genre or setting down. That means you can still join in without really any difficulty. But the writing train is getting ready to leave the station and when it does it will be hard to join in, so be aware of that. For next time we meet, which might be next Tuesday, please bring some sort of character sketch! We are planning on using these characters as a way of helping us get started.

I might be finishing up dinner around the start, but I'll hop on as soon as I'm able.

I'll willing to try again this week.

The Omniglot website in general is just overall useful for conglanging because you are able to see all the writing systems in use by languages. It is a rather great place to go for inspiration. \^o^/

That is a good question, considering you are the only one who responded with a time. So if you are on around 6pm CET, then at least I can hop onto Skype and talk for a little bit. I have no idea if anyone else will be able to meet on the 6th at any time. (School just started up for me today, so I'm a bit tired and frantically trying to make sure I know what my homework is--which is why I didn't remind people like I had meant to...).

Well, if you want to get stronger as a writer then this would be a good opportunity to do so. Writing requires discipline. And what better way to become more disciplined than having others who will keep each other accountable for whatever goals are set. Even I could do with some improvement on how often I write. Furthermore, we can help each other improve our writing skills. I have a variety of resources for teaching creative writing and the others probably have some tips. And you might have some insights that we could benefit from. But, if you don't want to participate, then we understand. Doing a collaboration, even if for fun, imposes deadlines that are harder to put off because you are working with others, which can add extra stress to the process. Blessings on your fursuit endeavors! So timezones are going to be an issue, as 6pm Central European Time is 9am Pacific Standard Time is 12pm Eastern Standard Time. To include you in a brainstorming session we would have to make sure we pick a day when you are free in the evening and the people in the US are free in the morning/afternoon. We might have to have you give input beforehand and then pass on what we talked about afterwards.

So Thomas Maltuin and I did a little bit of preparatory brainstorming for the collaboration idea that SalemPertaeus suggested and one of the things we realized was that we cannot get very far without everyone who is interested in being able to participate. That means we need to find a day and time when we can all get together for at least a little bit to decide on the genre and do some setting and character brainstorming. But before I get into that, allow me to go over some of what Thomas and I discussed and what each of us should prepare beforehand to make the meeting a bit smoother. First up is theme. Thomas and I thought that it would be cool for content to mirror form in that the theme be something to do with a group of people coming together. Ideas we tossed back and forth were harmony, reconciliation, and teamwork. Please try to think about those and decide if you like one of them as a theme or would rather have a different theme. Next is genre. We tentatively decided to go with fantasy as the genre because it is a genre we both liked writing in. However, this isn't set in stone as we want to make sure that the genre of the story is one that everyone who will be collaborating is comfortable with. So please come prepared to discuss our favorite genres in hopes of finding one we all like. Finally we talked about characters. The two of us made rough sketches of two characters that could be used in basically any setting or genre (with some tweaking). So please come up with at least a species, profession, and whether they are male or female. You can do more, but that is the minimum. Thomas came up with a male lynx (or was it ocelot?) hunter and I came up with a female fox city guard. While we are doing this for fun, this is a project that you should be willing to spare a few hours a week for. I doubt that we will meet weekly, but it is important for everyone to do a little writing each week. Granted, if work/school/illness/etc. is making life particularly stressful/busy/hectic/overwhelming I'm sure we all will understand and cut you some slack. Does the evening of the 6th of January work for a meeting time? We'll need to coordinate the exact time based upon timezones, but does that day work for all of us? As far as meeting place goes, I think Skype is a good choice because it is a fairly common program and allows us to do both voice and text chat. Does anyone have an objection to that? People whom it would be good to hear from: Salem--this was your idea, so being able to meet with you is key. Thomas--you are very gung-ho about this project, so it is key to make sure the meeting works for you JollyRancher--you expressed interest, so it would be good to know if this is still something you would like to do Zvoc--you also expressed interest, so do you still want to do this and how do we schedule things to accommodate your timezone? SleepySchizo--you, too, expressed interest, so let us know if you want to still be involved Myself--future Direlda, please get me a calendar with all of my other responsibilities written out so that I can better make schedule plans. And wibbley-wobbley it to yesterday if you can.

Out of curiosity, how many of you here have done any conlanging before? In other words, how many of you have made up a language, be it fully developed or only partially, for whatever reason? I have several languages I am working on, though only two are far enough along to be worth mentioning. One is Taipii, a language for an indie MMORPG by Right Brain Games, since I have assisted in its development (but only assisted, as Jeff came up with it and Tettix and others have also made significant contributions). The other is one of several languages for my fantasy world. I'm still working on the transliteration of that language into English because it doesn't have all of the same phonology and clicks and ejectives pose interesting puzzles for mapping into Latinate script. But I may share some of it with you at some point. This thread should be more for talking about conlanging, sharing tips, and briefly mentioning any conlangs you have worked on. If you want to go in depth on one of your conlangs, then feel free to create a new thread for it in the Writing and Books section of the Art Cave.

Monday night is usually game night for me, so that probably won't work. Perhaps Tuesday night, then?

I'm on board. Really all we need is a time to get together to brainstorm. I'm in a writing group with two (technically three, but he hasn't shown up in months) other furs and while we don't do collaborative fiction, we do help each other come up with and refine ideas for our stories. So if we had a time and a means (Skype, IRC, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, Google Hangouts, etc.) to get together and bounce ideas off each other in real time, then we could come up with everything we needed to much easier.

Well, some of your versions work better than others. The version of the 15th doesn't work so well because it lacks punctuation in that section and could use a few more words to clarify. The version of the 16th works better, though "history" causes trouble for the left side, "manifest" sort of causes trouble for the right side, and while I like "with in" it is hard to read it as a single preposition when reading across. For yesterday, the version where you have "{LIVE}" doesn't work as well because "live" needs to agree with a singular noun "Identity" and a plural noun "histories." And the other version of yesterday doesn't imply to read in down in columns in addition to standardly. Adding "all" in to the left side either before "have shaped" if you like the way the version of the 16th works or between "have" and "shaped" if you like how the version of the 17th sounds would probably make things work a bit better. I'm going back and forth on whether or not "manifest" should change to "manifesting." For the version of the 17th you're going to have to choose whether to keep "histories" or "Identity" the same and then change the other to singular or plural, respectively. As a side note, dashes tend to be a bit longer when used they way you are using it after "footsteps," so it should read: footsteps-- to convey the right sort of dash (sadly I don't know if it is possible on the forums to get the unbroken dash of that length to show up in posts). All-in-all you are doing a good job with the revision process! With poetry reading it out loud can help. And with this sort of interwoven sentences it often is good to write each out separately to make sure they make sense (and, if you're daring, you can try a palindromic poem next--it reads the same forwards and backwards not counting punctuation and revolves around a single word in the middle of the poem).

i was suggesting that you do something along these lines but with your own words: these vulpine words with love of aburaage form in soups and salads a sentence of double proportions it takes a bit of doing, but i know that you can do it-- i don't capitalise right now not capitalising is cool do be do be dool

Teehee! But, yes, they look good! And wouldn't they be fuzzy anyways considering they are anthropomrophic animals? Teeheeehee!

Nice!