Since I’ve Actually Thought About This For My Con World, Let Me Indulge:

Day 24 (33 in base 7) of re-writing my novel

Since google docs (my primary writing tool, accompanied by my note-taking journal) doesn't quite accurately describe my true word count, today I will celebrate 30,000 words like I promised yesterday, because it's close enough to be within a 5% error.

I wrote more today, including getting deep in the weeds with the relationship between Izi, Hero of Cognition, and Dolgof, the Hero of Life. Without sharing very many spoilers, they're in very similar situations. Or, have been.

Izi, the current Emperor of Zeneste, has never been in a position of power before, nor has he been a proper leader. Dolgof had been in his position during the drafting of the Constitution of Zeneste, but she never became a good leader.

I like this dynamic between them. Not only does Izi have someone to discuss what being a leader means with, he also has someone to juxtapose himself against, however unhealthy that may be.

The findings are in! Thanks to the 105 people who voted.

The results are pretty expected, I think. The prestige American and British pronunciations are in roughly equal distributions. I figured mine ([ˈɑɹnd͡ʒ]) would be pretty low down, and it was, lol.

Shoutout to:

That one British person in the replies, for whom "orange" rhymes with "Stonehenge." I assume it's a true rhyme, which is cool!

Also, shoutout the the one person in the tags from Singapore who gave the pronunciation [o.ɹeɪntʃ] (something akin to "oh-wrench"). I'm in a languages of Southeast Asia course right now, and we glanced at Singapore English and Singlish, so this was another cool glimpse.

Y'all, I just got curious at one point, and I hope this isn't a repeat of a previous post. So, if you don't mind:

Wiktionary

orange - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Wiktionary has a couple of recordings if you're curious about the difference/don't know linguistics and can't read IPA.

Follow-up question:

What words/phrases (if any) rhyme with orange?

This is a hotly-debated topic in the English language. I sincerely believe that in my dialect, no single word is a true-rhyme with orange that isn't also either a portmanteau or explicitly related to the word "orange." (E.g. blornge does not count for me, even though it does rhyme, because it is a portmanteau of blonde and orange.)

Reblogs are appreciated!

Apparently boomer Democrats are having meltdowns over a gen-z progressive who is primarying an 80 year old Democrat because she "went on trans podcasts" and wore a Charizard kigurumi

one of the funniest things I see people say about "standard english" btw is californians who are like "yeah basically all american english speakers speak the same way so it makes sense to call that 'standard american english'" because you know they only perceive it that way because californian english has like every single vowel merger simultaneously so they can't tell the difference between other american english varieties. they're fish who don't know they're wet

i hope im not just a mutual to you but also a really annoying stranger who is somehow always going through something

Hey, I wanted to share some conlang news with you all. A friend of mine named Jake Penny just released a video describing their creation of a new conlang—Pankashku—for the movie Madame Web.

Now if you've actually seen Madame Web (unlikely, I know), you may recall not hearing a conlang in it at all. This is because the actual Pankashku dialogue that Jake translated for the film was cut in its entirety, and Jake was not credited.

As a professional conlanger, I can tell you this does happen, and it always sucks, but it especially sucks when it happens with your first and only job. Jake isn't alone this. Bill Welden created a conlang for the movie Noah, and it, too, was cut and Bill wasn't credited. Both were paid, and, of course, the contract states that your work will be used at the company's discretion (which includes not at all), so it wasn't like they were taken advantage of, but when your work isn't used and you're not credited it means no one hears about you, and industry word of mouth doesn't spread to get you future work. It really, really sucks, given that there are so few opportunities for conlang artists to be compensated for their work.

That is why I'm sharing this here! If you're interested, please give it a watch, but if not, please reblog it around, if you would. A lot of work goes into creating a language, and the least we can hope is that our work will be heard/seen and appreciated.

Also, if you'd like to support Jake, they and Miles Wronkovich have a YouTube series/podcast which you can support on Patreon here.

Thanks for your time! <3

Foreshadowing is so fun! Even though I'm still on draft one of my novel, I may list which of these elements I've incorporated so far below.

Lozerief knows stuff she shouldn't. How did she know Izi's dad? If she knew his dad, did she know his mom? (Spoilers, yes, she did, duh.)

Colors. Everywhere. Lozerief wears black, foreshadowing her role as Hero of Earth. Izi wears white, foreshadowing his role as Hero of Cognition and her antithesis. Hota wears teal for their role as Hero of Mind.

I (mostly) know how this will end.

Not a Checkhov's gun but I repeatedly bring up Izi's old home for more reasons than just trauma.

I keep track of what I put in languages that I create so that only I (and the characters who speak those languages) know what they're saying. (I foreshadow the rise of the White Army this way.)

Names with meanings is a big one for Lozerief...

I realize only now that Lozerief is the character who hides the most, and it's amazing she doesn't spoil it all right away. Maybe she's bound by some old agreement...?

subtle ways to include foreshadowing

one character knowing something offhandedly that they shouldn't, isn't addressed until later

the crow rhyme

colours!! esp if like, blue is evil in your world and the mc's best friend is always noted to wear blue...betrayal?

write with the ending in mind

use patterns from tragic past events to warn of the future

keep the characters distracted! run it in the background until the grand reveal

WEATHER.

do some research into Chekhov's gun

mention something that the mc dismisses over and over

KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU PUT. don't leave things hanging.

unreliable characters giving information that turn out to be true

flowers and names with meanings

anything with meanings actually

metaphors. if one character describes another as "a real demon" and the other turns out to be the bad guy, you're kind of like...ohhh yeahhh

anyways add anything else in the tags

Happy Pokemon Day!

I've been playing a lot of Pokemon (GO!, FireRed, and Ruby specifically), so I decided that, in honor of Pokemon day, it would be fun to imagine my ocs as gym leaders or champions!

Yessei: Dark type gym leader, Elite 4

L. 50 Houndoom

L. 50 Weavile

L. 50 Kingambit

L. 50 Scrafty

L. 55 Mandibuzz

L. 65 Hydreigon

If you can't tell, I think Yessei's team would frustrate an entire generation of players lol.

Something about Yessei's arc just screams dark-type, despite how positive she can be about it.

Stardust (Kalinua): Steel-type gym leader, 5th gym

L. 30 Magneton

L. 30 Metang

L. 30 Skarmory

L. 35 Gholdengo

Just to make this team a bit of a nuisance, I feel like Kalinua's Magneton has the ability Sturdy, preventing you from knocking it out in one hit.

Kalinua's military background just radiates steel-type.

Hota: Psychic-type gym leader, 3rd gym

L. 20 Gothita

L. 20 Solosis

L. 25 Hatenna

Since Hota's gym is the third gym, it shouldn't be too hard. One dark-type kinda sweeps this whole team: you could sweep with a larvitar, lol.

C'mon, Hota literally is psychic.

Iziser: Fairy-type gym leader, 4th gym

L. 25 Togetic

L. 25 Azumarill

L. 30 Dachsbun

Not a super hard gym, either. Any steel-type sweps here.

Fairy type seems the most appropriate. After all, it is the new king of Pokemon types, lol. That being said, I like the idea that Izi would hate that he loves these Pokemon so much, lol. He would be good friends with all of them.

Tag list for the regulars who might want to do this themselves, lol:

@quillswriting @oldfashionedidiot

Not dead, just hibernating, lol!

I can see a version of this prompt being very characteristic of Lozerief's unrequited love for the Hero of Life, although the Hero of Life (henceforth Dolgof) definitely cannot read minds. I imagine their interaction would go something like this:

Dolgof: Do you still think of me after all this time?

Lozerief: No shit I still do? You led me on for nearly seven-hundred years and expect me to just, I don't know, forget about it?

Dolgof: I didn't mean it like that, I just-

Lozerief: No, no. You misunderstand me. I still don't know if you know what you did, but it took a Zenestian civil war, a fifty-foot lava monster, and the world almost exploding, to get over those grueling centuries.

The whole thing probably ends with Lozerief teleporting off in a hot rage.

It’s been many years since you’ve stopped aging. You’ve seen nations rise and fall. Met, and forgotten countless people. One day, as you’re resting your eyes in a park, dreaming of a love long past, the person on the bench next to you speaks. “You think of me after all this time?”

friendly reminder to everyone that first draft just needs to exist.

it doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to be there. stories go through so many different drafts that nobody is gonna care if your first draft is a little messy.

you can’t edit and clean up something that doesn’t exist, so make it exist!