demalteb

Say a writer wants to create a language for her (fantasy/sci-fi/etc) novel. Say she doesn't have the time or knowledge - or talent - to go full on David Peterson. What would be the most important parts to get down? What would be nice-to-have? What should she omit altogether, because it will only get too involved and derail her writing project?

Yes, cool, somehow I never even thought of hiring someone. Should the need arise, I probably will.

Damn, now I want to create a language.

ETA: Thanks for the link. Good advice there!

I agree, somewhat. In almost all cases, a few random notes here and there should suffice: "By the way, those swamp people have no word for war, because they live in total isolation - but they have 10.000 words for flies." Mention one or two words of their language for flavour, and be done.

OTOH, writing should be fun, if you're not explicitly doing it for the money. Which most of us don't, and never will. And conlanging can be massively entertaining. Plus, and I can't overstate this, it makes you learn so much.

I'm sure /u/Dedalvs will heavily disagree with you on the Dothraki thing though, lol.

Which trends in conlanging should just die?

Why do you dislike your middle name? :-)