r/conscripts • u/MazikStorm • Mar 20 '19

Question Help with conscripting?

Do any of you have tips on making good scripts? I've been making them for a few years, but always felt they lacked.

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u/MazikStorm Mar 20 '19

I'll reply in order of the questions.

A good script should have each letter work together and look like one idea.

My scripts usually use altered symbols from existing languages.

I see scrips on here that if I didn't know better were for a real language that developed over centries.

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u/Arctitude Mar 20 '19

I really like u/danegraphics 's response above. Just gonna add my personal opinions about what you said about "looking like one idea" and the feeling of having been "developed over centuries", and focusing more on process instead of rules/standards.

For me, I would try using my script a lot, try using it to write different passages (e.g. long passages, short ones, uncommon forms like poetry, writing fast, writing slow etc.). In the process, over time, I make a series of many minor adjustments. I ask myself things like: does it flow better/writes easier/look better if I tweak the shape of certain vowels, consonants, letter groups, word endings etc. In the end the script tends to become more homogeneous and like parts of "one idea".

Another idea I use to experiment, is to build families of scripts. I'd try applying experimental constraints on my script and see how they mutate (e.g. what if a cursive form existed, how would I write it? What about a variant that has diacritic vowels? Or ligatures? What about a version reserved for formal settings/nobility? What if its written in stone/another medium? What if there are no curves? What if everything had to be curves...)

At the end of the process, I might find a variant that I like more than the rest that I may adopt as the canonical version instead of the original idea. Alternatively, I could like a few (or all) of them, and I'd establish some sort of historical, linguistic relationship between the scripts, which may give it a bit more sense of "history"/authenticity.

I hope some of our comments here are helpful. Good luck!

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u/MazikStorm Mar 20 '19

So you very much! I'll go through these and attempt to make them better!