My Personal Spark: an inspiration directory

This post is part of a series to augment the Author's Manifesto available for free download.

The best and latest inspirations of mine are gathered here at www.DNFrost.com/spark.

Find more content navigation in my Resource Directory.

Also check out the books of my TotKW Saga at
www.DNFrost.com/books.

Recap in Sequels: NEW POST!

Explore my philosophy on sequels, specifically on the level of exposition and recap they should have. I decided on approaching sequels as standalone novels, each an independent unit within the larger story.

Read more of this post here...

---

---

What is Spark? On this website, the spark tag refers to ideas that are mine and mine alone. It is the structural opposite of the guest tag.

The inspiration & spark series shares my ideas on a multitude of subjects, like my personal philosophy and creative adventures.

Read more about this tag here... Soon.

---

Author's Manifesto: a free download

Get to know me with this collection of tales about who I am, what I do, and why I do it.

You'll hear about the inspirations that drive me and discover the story behind my stories.

Read more about this download here...

---

Download my personal inspirations in the Author's Manifesto here.

---

My thoughts on magic

This 10-part post series explores my ideas for the magic system of the Known World.

It starts with The Seeds of Magic and expands into ideas about the magic taxonomy, as well as ideas for magics not yet represented in the Known World.

Explore posts 2-10 here:

---

I am a linguist

This 8-part post series delves into my passion for language and linguistics.

It starts with Formatively Foreign and expands into ideas about constructed languages, from my first efforts to the developed languages of the Known World.

Explore posts 2-8 here:

---

Download my personal inspirations in the Author's Manifesto here.

---

I am a truth-seeker

This 6-part post series probes into spiritual truths I've discovered about life.

It starts with The Great Questions and expands into ideas about sharing these truths, both through teaching and through the power of storytelling.

Explore posts 2-6 here:

---

I am a poet

This 4-part post series relates how my poetry evolved into the prophesy of the Known World.

It starts with Humble Beginnings and expands into ideas about meter and rhyme, crafting riddles, and creating prophetic poetry for the TotKW saga.

Explore posts 2-4 here:

---

Download my personal inspirations in the Author's Manifesto here.

---

Why I write

This 2-part post series shares my passion for writing and the power of storytelling.

It starts with The Great Experiment and ends with The Greatest Adventure Ever.

---

I am a cartographer

This 2-part post series expresses my passion for maps as tools for storytelling.

It starts with Why I Love Map-Making and ends with Every Story Deserves a Map.

---

I am a writer

This 5-part post series traces my journey from novice writer to published author.

It starts with Genesis of a Writer and expands into ideas about working with writing partners, refocusing into solo work, and the path to publication.

Explore posts 2-5 here:

---

Download my personal inspirations in the Author's Manifesto here.

---

More inspiration & spark

This ongoing post series includes a number of inspiration posts that stand alone.

The latest post is Recap in Sequels and an array of other posts discuss topics like goals for my saga, my writing philosophy, and my favorite creative endeavors.

Explore more posts here:

That's it for this post! Check out my latest inspirations for more.

Download the Author's Manifesto here, or start your adventure below.

---

Life is an adventure.
Are You Ready?

Liked this? Share, please!

A Note on the Uncommon Spelling of Prophesy: a language resource

This post is Part 3 of a series to augment the Codex of the Known World available for free download. Start with Part 1 here.

This and other linguistic resources are gathered in my Language Directory for you to explore.

This post is also Part 1 of a series about prophesy. Find more prophetic content in my Codex Directory.

In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the many dialects and languages in my epic fantasy saga. Throughout the Tales of the Known World saga, the word prophesy is spelled with an /s/ in all cases. This is in contrast to the standard American spelling, which uses the /s/ form for the verb to prophesy and commonly uses the /c/ form for the noun a prophecy.

The reasoning for this spelling decision is threefold. Firstly, in many American-English dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster, the entry for the noun prophecy lists the spelling prophesy as an acceptable variant. It is therefore uncommon – but not incorrect – to use the /s/ form prophesy as a noun.

Moreover, Merriam-Webster lists two acceptable plurals for the noun prophecy, one as prophecies and the other as prophesies, further solidifying this /s/ form as being unusual but not ungrammatical.

Check out the Codex of the Known World for more resources!

Many languages around the world have different spellings for correlated verbs and nouns, as in the case of the American spelling of to prophesy and a prophecy. In the Known World, the language of the prophetic merfolk, commonly called Meri, is one such language.

In Meri, most verb/noun correlations, such as to swim and a swim, or to laugh and a laugh, are created with special adjustments that convert a root verb into its correlated noun. To illustrate this in English, consider how to speak becomes a speech, or how to meet becomes a meeting.

Meri is a very regular language, and exceptions to its rules and guidelines are rare. By all logic, the merfolk language should have a spelling differentiation between to prophesy and a prophecy. However, this word is one of Meri’s rare exceptions.

As opposed to a regular Meri pairing like speak/speech or meet/meeting, a highly irregular pairing uses the exact same word for both the verb and the noun form of prophesy.

This brings us to the second reason for using the /s/ form of the English word prophesy in all cases – it is as unusual in English as it is in Meri, and it captures the marked homogeneity of the merfolk word in a subtle yet pervasive way.

---

Download the Prophesy Appendix:

The merfolk culture is built on the prophetic Gift. Nearly all men produce a portent every twenty days, and they devote their lives to interpretation. For more about the role and inner workings of prophesy, check out the Prophesy Appendix above.

---

The third and final reason for this spelling decision lies in the nature of language itself. Over time, languages evolve, usages shift, and spellings mutate to reflect the pronunciation of the day. As generations progress, languages tend to evolve towards more regular and less complicated spellings and conjugations, a linguistic process known as regularization.

In our modern era of text communications, acronyms and abridged spellings such as lol and thru have become commonplace and entirely intelligible. While educators still consider these spellings ungrammatical, the majority of the English-speaking populace can encounter these words and understand them without difficulty.

The more common an English word is, the more resistant that word’s pronunciation, conjugation, and spelling are to the process of regularization. Consider two irregular verbs, the uncommon verb to wed and the common verb to eat (Today I wed/eat, vs. Yesterday I wed/ate).

Modern English has regularized wed and now provides wedded as an interchangeable past tense variant. But due to the high frequency of the verb ate, the regularization eated sounds ludicrous to modern speakers. That said, thanks to online abbreviations, even common words like through are experiencing regularization at an unprecedented rate.

Since the word prophesy is fairly uncommon in English usage, the spelling difference between to prophesy and a prophecy is likely to disappear in the coming decades. In direct contrast, the word for prophesy in the merfolk language is very common as both a noun and verb, resulting in the stable irregularity of prophesy/prophesy in a language where meet/meeting is the regular framework.

This strange unity of verb/noun root words reflects the cultural heritage of the merfolk, which is heavily focused on predicting the future. Their word for prophesy is as unlikely to change as our word for eat, and this final notion clinched the spelling decision, as it seemed silly to undermine the symbolism of the transliterated /s/ form in order to uphold a spelling convention that is dying out in modern English.


That's it for this post! Up Next: The tattering of prophesy for interpretation...

For the Prophesy Appendix, enter your email above.

---

Life is an adventure.
Are You Ready?

Liked this? Share, please!