How Do You Eat an Elephant?

Kam le elefant wape?
How you elephant(singular) will be eating?
How do you eat an elephant?

In wip siled in wip!
One bite after one bite
One bite at a time.

I was just thinking about the work I would still have to do on my conlang in order to get to a point where I felt like it was finished, and I was just feeling like I would NEVER get there.  Too many other more important things to take care of in the mean time, too many little details to wrestle with, too technical to understand, etc.

Anyone who's been reading my blog knows that I constantly cry SIMPLIFY and I realized I needed to take some of my own advice again.  When I first began getting into conlanging, so much of it was over my head (and there are a lot of things that still are!), but I just kept with it, taking in what I could, and utilizing what I did know as best I could.  Its good advice for beginners as well as higher-level conlangers.

I stopped myself and thought that instead of thinking of it all as a whole, I needed to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and taking little steps.  Get that list of words finished.  Later, test out the different tenses.  Later, translate that page of text.  On and on.  Small but consistent efforts are often more effective than larger but inconsistent efforts.

Bottom line is this: Don't try to make an entire language all at once.  Its a huge project, that will take a lot of effort.  Break it down and stay focused on the next step, not on how far you have to go. 

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

1 comment:

ilverai said...

Great advice...though from my own experience I can say it takes a long time before you realize it yourself.

I actually find I am most successful now at making significant and steady process by giving myself a few "goal" sentences to translate/tinker with...using some of the elements I have already developed, but always working in things I still have to develop or am not happy with.

So far for me this has been the best process.

Just ran across your blog, looking forward to reading through it!