Here is a classic example of why I have not published Book One of the Shadowstrider series (I know many of you are waiting for it, but be patient with me a little longer).
Okay, as you may (or likely may not) know, Shadowstrider is a multi-generational tale about a Native American family facing adventures only possible in the realm of science fiction (aliens, space pirates, psychic genocidal maniacs, and all that jazz). Many of the family members are religious, following the beliefs of Thekoni, the Great Eagle, and praying in their native language, Rovesia. I invented Rovesia to fill in the need for more "authentic" Native American scenes. Rather than simply say the character prayed to Thekoni, I actually write out the prayer in the native language followed by a translation. When a character gets highly emotions, they may curse in Rovesia (which are usually longwinded hexes). It is a language still in development, although I have a fairly good dictionary in the making.
For the most part, Rovesia was created on an "as needed" basis. In other words, if I want a character to say "The sky is blue" but I don't yet have a word for "sky," I create one based upon root terms (by the way, the phrase would be "Hidumoni udan ama"). This tactic has obvious flaws.
One, I only have so many root terms, so words can get complicated. I even have two characters jokingly compete for the longest Rovesia term they can think of; my favorite is a tie between aawethea'mojadu, or "wolf," literally "silver claw," and Hidumonifawawe, which is their name for the constellation Aquarius, literally "Sky-Jar."
Two, I sometimes use words not realizing the intent behind it. For example, I'll use an existing term for "cold" without double-checking if the root terms imply callousness or climate. I finally corrected this error by putting literal translations in my dictionary... such a hassle.
Three, I often create a new word although I already have a similar existing term, especially when I'm thinking too much in English. For instance, as you'll see below, I came up with a word for "correct" and a word for "true" separately, with totally different root meanings, although they mean the same in English.
What can I say, I'm not JRR Tolkien!
Alrighty, so I'm working on Book 12--that's the last book in the series, honestly--and as I write what is the most common Rovesia invocation, the morning prayer, I realize a glaring error. One of the lines goes "Fill my life with discernment and true answers." I sort of did a "head tilt" at the term "true answers." I always hated that phrase but could not come up with a better translation. The original term was duko koye, which has a literal translation of "bottom-answer (true)" and "answers." Obviously, some distasteful repetition going on there. So I considered it for a moment and thought "'true answers' means truth. I don't have a word for 'truth' yet because I always used duko koye. Truth is when all answers are correct. So why not one word, dukoye?" Directly translating dukoye would be impossible, and "true" and "correct" are adjectives and therefore incapable of being pluralized (-ye is a pluralization suffix). So the closest meaning would be "truth," changing the adjective into a noun.
A minor issue? Maybe, but I'm rather fond of my invented language and I want it to be perfect, or at least comprehensive. As I said, this is the most commonly-said prayer, so I want it to make sense.
So I looked in my handy-dandy Rovesia-English dictionary (a cumbersome text file at the moment) and realized another error. I have duko which means "true" and udsi which means "correct." But those have the same meaning. Crap! So I decided that, whereas duko is more in reference to an answer, udsi carries the implication of living one's live in wisdom (udsi literally means "to be wise"). Which means all references, in all twelve books, to both udsi and duko have to be examined to determine which intent I had in mind.
Luckily, I keep a list of all Rovesia phrases I use, which is a pain in the neck to document but so handy in mass corrections like this. Thankfully, udsi is not used too often. Duko is another matter, as the morning prayer with its duko koye phrase occurs at least once in every book. Due to sheer size and my computer whining about loading anything over 200 pages, I have my novels broken into three parts. Which means 36 files to search and adjust. When you add in my many files with notes for the series, that means over 40 pages to check. This might take half the day.
And this is why I have not published Book One. If I had, then the term duko koye would be in print and unable to change without making a new edition. Such is my OCD approach to writing. When I am satisfied with the whole series, including the languages I invented to give the tale a level of authenticity, then I will publish it. Until then... patience, grasshoppers, patience!
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