Category Archives: WB1–Language Clinic

More on The Worldbuilding Series
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Holly Lisle's Create A Language ClinicThanks to feedback from my test readers, I’ve already written two entirely new chapters for the Language Clinic this morning. I’m tearing apart a third right now, and will probably emerge with two separate chapters from it. I’m closing on 110 pages, and trying very hard not to go over that. And I redid the cover for the Language Clinic (very slightly) to make sure it was clearly identifiable as part of the Worldbuilding Course (this again thanks to my test readers.)

Holly Lisle's Create A Culture ClinicBut in the middle of doing this, I suddenly realized what the next book in the Worldbuilding Series had to be. The Create A Culture Clinic. I took twenty minutes and created the cover, to make this direction official in my own mind. I’m not setting a release date, even a tentative one, on this yet. But when I’ve finished Night Echoes/Shadow Music, I’ll start in on it.

No Sleep
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We’re already in the outer bands of Alberto, and lined up for a direct hit, and I can’t sleep. So I’m working on the Language Clinic (editing is easier than writing right now).

Jean is offering a BookPack giveaway: A copy of Talyn, a copy of Lynn Viehl’s Dark Need, a copy of Lazette Gifford’s Muse, and a book of the reader’s choice by Tamara Siler Jones to one lucky winner. Check her site for details on how to enter.

Back to possessives and plurals.

Victims… Er… Language Clinic Testers Announced
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Twenty-nine folks signed up to volunteer. I looked over their entries and did not disqualify anyone. So that meant that each person would have a 1-in-14.5 chance of being chosen. Pretty decent odds, really.

I then wrote down the numbers 1-29 on a sheet of paper, cut them into rectangles, folded them in half, and dumped the papers into a snack bowl. Each entrant’s number was his or her reply number in the request for testers post.

I chose two. I’ve emailed both testers. My testers need to agree to get their comments and suggestions back to me by Monday (I’ll email a .pdf to them first thing tomorrow morning). If either doesn’t get back to me today with an e-mail accepting the deadline, or has to disqualify himself or herself due to a busy weekend or work or whatever, I’ll select replacements. Still have the snackie bowl, still have the rest of the numbered slips of paper.

Oh? The victims?

Reply 8, and Reply 20.
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(No. I won’t leave it like that.)

Thanks to Rowan Wilson and Shawna, featured guinea pigs of the day.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered for this–you may yet be called into service.

The rest of the writing was on the sideline today. I’ll pick up with my other deadlines tomorrow morning.

Finishing Up the Language Clinic Now
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Sample of Written OsjiI’m done with everything but trying to get the file down to a managable size. While I’m working on that, I thought I’d post an example of what you’ll learn to do in the course, copied from the book. The sentence to the left says, “So kiudlingen geskiveet’ninim,” with directly translates into English as “I moonroaded from the fighter.” The full meaning, however, which is tough to translate, is “I escaped the enemy attacker by risking my life and sanity traveling through the deadly, monster-filled alternate dimension by means of moon magic,” with overtones of near-suicidal desperation.

In the Create a Language Clinic, you’ll learn to create concepts that don’t exist in English, invent logical vocabularies and working grammars, develop both spoken and written sentences, learn how to create a stylistically coherent written alphabet, and discover such neat tricks as how to make your world background seem bigger than it is, and how to make the words in your language sound really foreign while not scaring away your readers.

Oh, yes. And create original names for anything in your world in about fifteen minutes.

I’m tremendously excited by the way this book has turned out. Now if I can get the Word file size under 6 MB (really, six megs) I’ll do the Dance of Joy, Numfar.

Got the Words
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Got over 2000 on the paranormal, as yet untitled, but currently known as SHADOW MUSIC, plus revising everything I wrote yesterday.

Got 2000 and change on the Language Clinic. Have to do an illustration for the written languages section, and write in supporting text for that, and then it will be finished. I figure I’m about 500 words from finished. Will wrap it tomorrow.

Did not get my pages of revision on HAWKSPAR yesterday, so those are my next item.

Overall, however, the schedule is working out, and I feel good while doing it.

Long Haul Through Part 1 Today
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First part of the schedule was tough. I ended up tearing out some of yesterday’s work, so to stay on schedule, I had to write considerably more than two thousand words to finish with the right number. Final word count on the paranormal, which is probably going to end up titled INTO THE ROSE GARDEN: 4027.

Title, if we do go with it, comes from the following poem, which does an excellent job of presenting the theme of the book:

Footfalls echo in the memory,
down the passage which we did not take,
towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
T. S. Eliot

On to THE SCHEDULE, Part 2. Language Clinic.

Ditching Words
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Had to toss over most of the 4000 words I had already done. On the bright side, I finished with 2027 words that I can keep. Doesn’t significantly affect the schedule; I’ll still do 2000/day, and still finish the thing with time to edit it.

And tomorrow I’ll start at a great pick-up point, I won’t have to edit old material, and I should be able to put together a clean, fast run.

On to the Language Clinic.

You Just Roll With It, Baby
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Found out yesterday that the book that was going to be due on August 1, 2007, is now due on August 1, 2006 in order to get an April slot in 2007.

This means I have 56 days including today to write the book. But that’s not all. I’d scheduled the next fifty-six days to finish the edit and rewrite of HAWKSPAR, and that still has to be done in the same time frame. What was going to be a leisurely final walk through the project has now become a pressure cooker.

And I still have to finish the Language Clinic within the next few days, get it through edits, and get it on the site.

I’ve been up since four, and have already done most of a line-for-scene for SHADOW MUSIC (still the working title, not final), a couple hundred words of the book, and my schedule.

Schedule

Mornings:

SHADOW MUSIC
56 Days to turn-in
Subtract 7 Days Revision = 45 writing days
80,000 words – 4000 words already done = 76,000 words
MINIMUM: 1700 wpd 7 days per week
GOAL: 2000 wpd to earn some breathing room and a day or two off

After SM Goal Reached:

CREATE A LANGUAGE CLINIC
2 sections remaining: Syntax and Written Language
Estimate 2000 words per section/ 4000 words total
GOAL, one section every two days, or 1000 words/day

Afternoon:
Full run-through of HAWKSPAR revised manuscripts
940 pages
56 Days to turn-in
Divide into:
28 Days for write-in / 34 pages per day
28 Days for type-in / 34 pages per day

Glad I got the blood pressure fixed BEFORE this hit. It’s up a bit this morning. however, so I’m guessing I’ll be throwing some rowing or other aerobic exercise into this mix to get me through the next two months.

The easy thing to do would have been to say, “No, I can’t hit that deadline.” The professional thing to do, though, is to roll with it. This is the job. Sometimes it’s hard.