The "trying to motivate and encourage each other's creative progress" thread

[Raphael]

This is meant to be a little bit like the What have you accomplished today? thread over in the Conlangery forum. The difference would be that you don't have to post anything; you can simply say how far you've gotten with something without posting it; and that what you talk about wouldn't have to be conlanging- or conworlding-related.

Yes, this is partly based on my hope that I might get more work done if I have to sometimes tell all of you how much work I've gotten done. Nut if other people could use some motivation and encouragement from time to time, too, please post in this thread, too!

So I'll go first. For a project I can't really talk about, I still have to write about 13, or, depending on how you count, 12 and a half pieces of writing. Specifically, second drafts of most of them. Which really sucks, because I've been meaning to write these second drafts for about five months now, and so far I could only get myself to write about two and a half pieces, reducing my to-do-list from 15 to 12 and a half items.

Perhaps if I have to regularly post a cryptic line like "another piece done" here, I can push myself to write more.

[/ˌnɐˈɾɛndɚduːd/]

Lovely idea for a thread! I don't know much about this project of yours, but the 12.5 different pieces of writing must be different enough, so I would recommend switching between them whenever you feel yourself losing steam on any given one, and more importantly, to take regular breaks. I recently spent myself working on retroactively designing a protolang using the comparative method on several of my recent conlangs about a month ago, and I haven't brought myself to so much as look at the project since then because of how burnt out I got over it, all because I didn't take breaks often. you'll (hopefully) find yourself itching to work on your project after spending enough time not thinking about it, and that's a sign to go back to it.

(apologies for the jumbled up post, normally I try to refine ideas before I post them but I'm starting to feel a little sickly.)

[Raphael]

Lovely idea for a thread!

Thank you!

I don't know much about this project of yours, but the 12.5 different pieces of writing must be different enough,

Not that different. They all belong to the same project.

and more importantly, to take regular breaks.

Well, I just took what was mostly a five-month-break, although I did get some writing done during that time.

[Qwynegold]

I really hope this thread could help people!

Perhaps if I have to regularly post a cryptic line like "another piece done" here, I can push myself to write more.

How about coming up with some kind of rewards that you get to give yourself for every piece finished?

I've been looking at these really old notes for a protolang for the dwarves that I never got any far with. During work days I don't have the time or energy to do anything, and when I have a day off, time just flies by and I don't get any conlanging done because of various chores and things.

For this language there's a small word list, a phoneme inventory, lots of sound changes for a daughter language, four different suggestions for the phoneme inventory of a protoprotolanguage, some grammar sketches and a few notes about morphology. What I should start with is searching through my computer to see if I have started a LexiquePro dictionary or not. If not, I should start one and add the words from the word list. It's just a protolanguage, so there's no need for long explanations of each word.

I have no idea what had made me decide this, but apparently transitive verbs must be volitional and intransitives can be either volitional or involuntary. There are three passive forms: volitive animate* passive, volitive inanimate* passive and involuntary passive. It's unclear what the deal is with the volitive inanimate passive, since inanimates can't have volition. I've now been thinking that maybe you use this when you want to use a transitive verb with an involuntary meaning. Something like:
glass fell-INV.PASS.INANIM by 1SG
I accidentally knocked over a glass.

*Agreeing with the patient.

[Raphael]

I really hope this thread could help people!

Perhaps if I have to regularly post a cryptic line like "another piece done" here, I can push myself to write more.

How about coming up with some kind of rewards that you get to give yourself for every piece finished?

Sorry about the very belated reply, Qwynegold.

When I saw your post, I decided that I really should get off my butt and get some rewriting done. And to motivate myself a bit more, I decided that I didn't want to respond to your post before I had gotten some more rewriting done. And now, after running out of excuses, I really did get some more rewriting done! I'm fairly happy about that. Thank you for motivating me! I guess I might be back on the right track now.

I've been looking at these really old notes for a protolang for the dwarves that I never got any far with. During work days I don't have the time or energy to do anything, and when I have a day off, time just flies by and I don't get any conlanging done because of various chores and things.

For this language there's a small word list, a phoneme inventory, lots of sound changes for a daughter language, four different suggestions for the phoneme inventory of a protoprotolanguage, some grammar sketches and a few notes about morphology. What I should start with is searching through my computer to see if I have started a LexiquePro dictionary or not. If not, I should start one and add the words from the word list. It's just a protolanguage, so there's no need for long explanations of each word.

I have no idea what had made me decide this, but apparently transitive verbs must be volitional and intransitives can be either volitional or involuntary. There are three passive forms: volitive animate* passive, volitive inanimate* passive and involuntary passive. It's unclear what the deal is with the volitive inanimate passive, since inanimates can't have volition. I've now been thinking that maybe you use this when you want to use a transitive verb with an involuntary meaning. Something like:
glass fell-INV.PASS.INANIM by 1SG
I accidentally knocked over a glass.

*Agreeing with the patient.

Congratulations on your progress!

[Raphael]

Repeating what I just posted in the Contradictory Feelings Thread:

On two out of the past three days, I managed it to get small but still serious chunks of rewriting done!

If it had been two days in a row, I would have posted this in the Happy things thread, but since I unfortunately wasted Wednesday, I'm posting it here instead. Still somewhat happy.

Part of the explanation might be something I posted in the Computer & Tech Thread:

Now that I've set up an old notebook as my secondary computer, I've put tools on it so that I can do various things with it, but I haven't put a copy of my password manager's database on it, so I can't use it to log in to anything. So far, the initial impact on my general productivity seems to be encouraging.

[Qwynegold]

Sorry about the very belated reply, Qwynegold.

When I saw your post, I decided that I really should get off my butt and get some rewriting done. And to motivate myself a bit more, I decided that I didn't want to respond to your post before I had gotten some more rewriting done. And now, after running out of excuses, I really did get some more rewriting done! I'm fairly happy about that. Thank you for motivating me! I guess I might be back on the right track now.

Oh, that's great.

Congratulations on your progress!

Thanks! It was a really small thing, but I've made more progress now. I've all the words (a bit less than 200) into a Lexique Pro dictionary and I've started rewriting and expanding the grammar. Right now I need to ask the ZBB to help me understand what the imperfect really is, but I never have the time to sit down and write a proper post.

[Raphael]

Very belated update: I've finished the introduction and the first chapter of a new project of mine on which I started to work over the last few days. I'm afraid it's a political tract. My plan is that it will have 9 chapters after the introduction. Of these, I still have to write chapters 2, 5, and 6, and perhaps half of chapter 3. I plan to take chapters 4, 7, 8, 9, and about half of chapter 3 from various parts of now mostly abandoned earlier projects of mine. I hope it'll work out.

[Raphael]

Very belated update: I've finished the introduction and the first chapter of a new project of mine on which I started to work over the last few days. I'm afraid it's a political tract. My plan is that it will have 9 chapters after the introduction. Of these, I still have to write chapters 2, 5, and 6, and perhaps half of chapter 3. I plan to take chapters 4, 7, 8, 9, and about half of chapter 3 from various parts of now mostly abandoned earlier projects of mine. I hope it'll work out.

Now I've finished Chapter 2. It kept getting longer, because I kept thinking of more things I wanted to include in it that hadn't been part of the initial outline.

The good news is that this might well mean that the really heavy lifting is done. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 are supposed to be shorter, and in the remaining chapters I should, hopefully, be able to rely very heavily on re-using already written passages.

[Raphael]

I've cobbled together Chapter 3.

[Raphael]

I've cobbled together Chapter 3.

And Chapter 4.

[Risla]

I've cobbled together Chapter 3.

And Chapter 4.

Good job! Just about halfway there?

I hit 40k words on my novel last night, including drafting one of the hardest chapters. Now I have full working drafts of the entire first ten chapters, as well as a random smattering of chapters from the rest of the novel (eg the last three are more or less complete).

[Raphael]

Good job! Just about halfway there?

I hit 40k words on my novel last night, including drafting one of the hardest chapters. Now I have full working drafts of the entire first ten chapters, as well as a random smattering of chapters from the rest of the novel (eg the last three are more or less complete).

Thank you, and good luck!

[Raphael]

Chapters 5 and 6 are done. Thankfully, that required a lot less new original writing than I had expected. I could recycle more passages from earlier projects than I had thought.

Now there's only Chapters 7, 8, and 9 left, and all three of those should be mostly a matter of copying and pasting, so they shouldn't take too long. And then some final polishing.

People shouldn't get their hopes up high, though. It's not some kind of enthralling or beautiful novel or imaginative story. It's just a cranky and, by now, fairly long political tract. But it still means a lot to me.

[rotting bones]

People shouldn't get their hopes up high, though. It's not some kind of enthralling or beautiful novel or imaginative story. It's just a cranky and, by now, fairly long political tract. But it still means a lot to me.

Sounds interesting.

[Raphael]

People shouldn't get their hopes up high, though. It's not some kind of enthralling or beautiful novel or imaginative story. It's just a cranky and, by now, fairly long political tract. But it still means a lot to me.

Sounds interesting.

You'll probably hate most of it, except for the parts that you'll see as just telling you things you already know. But thank you anyway.

[rotting bones]

People shouldn't get their hopes up high, though. It's not some kind of enthralling or beautiful novel or imaginative story. It's just a cranky and, by now, fairly long political tract. But it still means a lot to me.

Sounds interesting.

You'll probably hate most of it, except for the parts that you'll see as just telling you things you already know. But thank you anyway.

Maybe you will write a second edition with more arguments and historical case studies as they occur to you.

[Raphael]

Last chapter done! Now on to the final polishing!

[alice]

A long and complicated song is coming together, at last.

[Raphael]

A long and complicated song is coming together, at last.

Congratulations and good luck!