I used Grammarly to grammar check this post because coming up with words in the right order is hard enough without having to worry about spelling spelling things right. You know how sometimes you’ll see a mistake in something you wrote even after it’s been edited, proofread, polished, etc? Sure you do. We allllll know what it’s like. Grammarly is like spellcheck on steroids. It picks up all the little things that spellcheck can’t be bothered with. It goes deep, telling me “You ended that sentence with a preposition… bastard!” It even gives you a score when it’s finished. The first thing I checked got a 70 out of 100, so… yeah. They sniff out the issues like a bloodhound. If you’re looking for something that goes a lot deeper than just checking your spelling, this is definitely something you might want to check out.

But you didn’t come here for a commercial! You came here to find out… well. I’m not sure why you come here. But I’ll do my best to keep the level of content flat so you’ll always be able to find what you’re looking for. Today I’m going to talk about scifi. I’ve watched a lot of science-fiction in my life (I quoted Stargate SG-1 in the first paragraph, for crying out loud), but I’ve barely written any. Want to know why? Because it’s HARD. Right now I’m almost 40,000 words into a story called Cryptography of the Leaves. It takes place on an alien planet, and the main characters are from two different races. They speak English, but I’m trying to be as accurately alien as possible. I’m trying to shy away from anything that sounds “too human.” I came up with a few rules about the alien languages they’re speaking so that when I write their dialogue – even though it’s in English – there will be a kind of cadence that gives away the fact that they’re being translated.

I have a new respect for authors who do world-building well. Max Gladstone is one of the best I’ve read recently. He created a vast and complex world that I know will only become more incredible as he continues writing. I’m struggling with mine. It’s fun! I really like what I’ve come up with so far. But geez, getting the words on the page is like pulling teeth. So if you’re one of the people who has been reading/enjoying the story, the updates might be a little more sparse from here on out. I think the story is drawing quickly to a close, and maybe that’s why my muse has stumbled a little bit, but I didn’t want people to see me posting other stuff and thinking CotL was abandoned. I would never do that to you folks!

Now, back to bumping my head against the wall of this story. I got 800 words yesterday and hopefully I can double that today.

(And for the record, this got a score of 46/100 when I checked it at Grammarly. Yikes. ::g::)