I wanted to write a bit of flashfic featuring dragons, but that isn't happening today.

If you don't want to read about depression, including examples of negative self-talk, stop here.

OK?

If constructed languages are required for worldbuilding these days, I'm done for. I've tried on occasion, but it seems to be too much work for too little reward.

Grammar is overwhelming. I mean, I remember the general shape of the declension and conjugation tables back in Latin, and depending how you count it, German has half a dozen or a full dozen of different ways to construct plural forms, and worst of all, when you can speak a language you do not think about grammar much.

But I at least try to have some consistency in the sound of names from the same area (or at least have a reason when I don't... the area Sylvie is from, for instance, is a bit of a melting pot that involved three major langauges, at least), or come up with rough frameworks or little quirks that might inform how someone talks in a second language, or thinks about certain things.

Like, Raaji doesn't have different words for "curse" and "gift"; they are both "qualities bestowed on someone by someone else". There's a contrasting word meaning "inherent trait of a person". Being afraid of cats because as a kid you were accidentally locked in a shed with a cat that got angry and agressive would be the former, as would be being good at embroidery because your grandfather taught you. Being afraid of spiders because you find them just creepy, or being able to get stuff off high shelves because you are tall the latter.

Also, whatever word they use for "yes" starts with R, so when speaking English (or a language I render as English because translation convention) using "right" instead of "yes" seems a likely habit.

Second-language quirks are something I can observe in myself sometimes. For example I don't use "must not". German has the expression "musst nicht". "Musst" alone would be "[you] must", "nicht" would be "not", but put together it means "need not". The English logic is "you must (not-do-that)", the German "you (must-not) do that".

I think scraps and fragments and rough ideas are enough for me. I can't help thinking I should get more systematic about inventing names, when I don't just lift real-world ones.

What's something interesting you noticed when you learned a foreign language? When considering secondary world fiction, what do you think of fantasy names vs names you find in the real world, too?

Recently I'd been thinking about talking about a bad-mood day, and got distracted thinking about colours.
I mean, the customary expression is "feeling blue " , right? But that doesn't click with me.

If depression has a colour, it's the dirty brown-grey of greasy dishwater. It stinks, it drags you down, and you have to reach inside it to pull the plug, and even if you get rid of it it'll leave a dirty film on your hand, and the sink, too.

Blue, by comparison...

The sky on a sunny day is about as clean and open as anything gets, thought the palest blue that is the sky reflected off fresh snow may get close.

There's a grey-blue of faded jeans, comfortable and dependable.

Deep indigo and midnight blue are calm and reassuring.

Ultramarine, deep and vivid... now, that's a well to the heart of world to draw strength from.

Can't say I understand where the blue = sadness association comes from.

How do you feel about blue? Or do you have a particular strong association with any other colour(family) you'd like to share?

So, I've decided to try the Blogging A to Z challenge again. Last year it was drabbles, and I finished in December. This year I'll write about whatever, though I'll try to get in worldbuilding or writing related things primarily. We'll see how it goes. Onwards!

Believe it or not, despite mostly posting and writing unrelated flashfics, there are a few bigger worlds growing in the back of my brain. Most of them are pretty vague yet. Wanting to picture them a bit more clearly I guess is a good reason to write more.

Probably the wildest universe I've dubbed Aetherworld. The basic idea is a universe not filled with nothing, but with something that can support specialised life - yay for space whales! - and even, up to a degree, with the right equipment, oxygen-breathers like us.

Another aspect is that gravity may work differently from "planet" to "planet", meaning there can be flat worlds, or hollow worlds with the inside surface of a sphere being habitable.

Partly it's an exercise in "what if" - change some of the basics, then consider the consequences and build something that is internally consistent - that I like about speculative fiction. There are things I still need to figure out - what does the border between atmosphere and "space" look like, for example.

And then there is the imagery. One of the seeds this idea crystalised around was people sailing into the sky to catch fist-sized stars in fishing net.

Exploring this universe should be fun; it lends itself to stories centering on discovery.

How weird and wild and removed from reality do you like your fantasy, whether it's what you read or what you write?

The end of the year is approaching, and one of the typical activities for this time is making goals for the next year, and possibly checking how you did on the past year's goals.

Me and goals is a bit of a fraught relationship. It seems hard for me to develop and keep good habits. I mean things like, for example, going for a daily walk, wiping down the shower stall to reduce calcium deposits, or hanging up my jacket after coming home rather than tossing it over whichever convenient piece of furniture is closest when I take it off. I'll keep it up for a while, think it's become automatic... and then drop it again.

On a bad day, thinking about that makes me feel like a complete failure.

It also invites thoughts like "Why bother even making goals?"

But here's the thing:
Even if I drop a good habit after a while, my life will be better for the few weeks or months that I do actively keep it up.

So, I'll keep making goals regarding better habits, and I'll keep trying to meet them, but I'll do my best to not feel bad if I don't meet one.