Consulting

Specialties:

I offer consultations on the topics of Invented Languages and Internet Language/Chatspeak.

Invented Languages

Are you inventing a world that includes diverse cultures and locations? Do you want your characters and locations to have unique invented names? Are you creating an entire invented language for your world? Do you want to make sure your story accurately portrays linguistic diversity without stereotyping? I'm here to help!

Many fiction writers tend to forget how much of a role language and dialect play in our perception of people, and how closely related language is to culture. Whether you intend to invent entire languages for your story or just use unique names and descriptions of accents, you should consider the role language plays in a realistic world. I can help you imagine the relationships between regional dialects and accents, understand the effect power structures have on language perception, and realistically describe translation and second-language use.

I also offer consultation for the creation of constructed languages (ConLangs) at any degree of complexity from just a few names to a fully fleshed-out language. With 5 years of experience studying and teaching linguistics at a graduate level, I am qualified to help you come up with believable grammatical and phonological structures, create a unique and systematic writing system, and integrate your language into the culture of your world. My specialty is sociolinguistic consultation, which all inventors of fictional worlds should consider in order to realistically represent how characters may react to the way others speak or alter the way they speak as a reflection of the social structures of the world.

Pricing:

Fictional world language consulting: $50 per hour

Invented language consulting and development: $65 per hour

Internet language/chatspeak

What's up with the way kids these days write on the internet? Though it may look random or unskilled if you're not very familiar with it, the creative spellings, nonstandard typography, slang, acronyms, and use of emoji found in chatspeak are actually very systematic for those who use them. Whether you're writing about internet language for a modern-day story or producing text that is intended to be consumed by social media users, it's important to understand how to use features of chatspeak both correctly and appropriately.

As a long-time internet user who is writing a PhD dissertation on the linguistics of social media typography, I am uniquely positioned to help you accurately represent or navigate the use of chatspeak. When is all caps appropriate? Who is most likely to not include periods at the ends of texts or capital letters at the beginnings of sentences? How is text produced on a smartphone different than text produced on a computer? What does the upside-down smiley emoji mean? Which aspects of internet "slang" or grammar are borrowed from African American Language and is it ok to use them? I can help you answer these questions and many more! I am experienced with written varieties found on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Reddit, Discord, Twitch, MMO games, and SMS, among others.

Pricing:

Internet language/chatspeak consulting: $50 per hour

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