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#writerscoffeeclub Oct 16. How much does your working vocabulary change between works?

One of my editors once observed, "every SF or fantasy author redefines the English language from scratch in every novel". It's about more than just calling a rabbit a smeerp: we assign new meanings to existing vocabulary.

(The working language may be standardized within a series, but between stand-alones and series works I have to purge my autocorrect and spelling checker dictionaries!)

WellsiteGeo

@WellsiteGeo@masto.ai replied · 6 days ago

@cstross Purge them, or save them as, say, "MerchPrince.dic"?

I've built - and lost - dozens of client-specific dictionaries over the decades : personnel names; field and formation (rock unit) names, etc.
The "and lost" bit suggests that a better system for management might be worth the investment.

Charlie Stross

@cstross@wandering.shop replied · 6 days ago

@WellsiteGeo Once the book (or series) is published I don't need the dictionary any more. (I can regenerate it if I have to, anyway: take the ebook—minus DRM—build a dictionary from it, then run it past a regular dictionary to identify the missing words.)

WellsiteGeo

@WellsiteGeo@masto.ai replied · 6 days ago

@cstross
Ah yes - your work is published.
Mine isn't.
And anticipating getting access to past work for that client a decade later ... not going to work. (Even with Shell, they're too fragmented. Aberdeen vs Den Haag vs Tananger vs Surgut ... forget it!)

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