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> This week was a quieter one, apparently. Only 19 of you answered, so this
> will be a little shorter than in the past. To refresh your memories, the
> question asked, "What do you need to conlang well?" The results:
> A. Music. (2 responses, 11%)
> B. Grammar/survey/teach-yourself books. (4 responses, 21%)
> C. The CONLANG list. (2 responses, 11%)
> D. Silence. (2 responses, 11%)
> E. Alcohol/nicotine/narcotics of some sort. (1 responses, 5%)
> F. Hearing other languages. (1 responses, 5%)
> G. Other. (7 responses, 37%)
>
> Not all the respondants provided interesting/amusing answers, so not all the
> categories will be covered.
>
> David (DigitalScream@aol) revealed his weakness when he answered (A): "I
> can't do anything without music. If there's no music playing, I hear the
> silence, and it drives me nuts. Language creation is no different. Have
> to have it."
>
> Andreas Johansson complained when answering (C), "It's REALLY EVIL to force
> people to single out one factor like this, but the quality of my conlanging
> (as I perceive it) has much increased since joining the list, and I have
> learnt much on it and got much inspiration form other peoples efforts." Yes,
> Andreas, it was evil of me to try to pound all you square pegs into a round
> hole, which is why I am considering turning this into a web poll, rather than
> an email poll, so that you can give multiple answers without me having to do
> all the various calculations. :)
>
> The lone respondant for (E), Nicole Dobrowolski, insisted that she needs "the
> natural high of being a crazy monkey girl, which fortunately is very easy to
> come by when you're me..." Riiiiiight...
>
> Lots of people listed other inspirations under (G); Taliesin considers
> "ripening" the most important factor: "I learn something, see something,
> think something, and days, maybe years later it suddenly affects my
> conlanging and I get a great Eureka! moment where some
> syntax/phonology-problem or wart mysteriously goes away, or the perfect shape
> and meaning merges and crystallizes into one of the few words that are
> *right* and can never change or be replaced."
> Bonus points go to Sylvia Sotomayor, who listed her job as her most
> important aid to conlanging: "My job consists of talking to professors about
> what they need to teach the class. While most of the time this is fairly
> mundane, every so often I find someone utterly fascinating to talk to, and
> just being immersed in an intellectual environment leads to more work on my
> language. The five years I spent as just a regular sales rep, I hardly got
> any conlanging done at all. Since I started "selling" to professors, I've
> done lots. Having the summers mostly off helps, too. I think of my job as
> having some of the plusses of being a grad student without any of the
> minuses. (Of course, it has other minuses, but ...) "
> And Rosta mentioned that he needed time, while nicotine is something of a
> given for him. Raymond Brown finds his inspiration in "an insatiable
> curiosity about language; a lifetime of delving into every language I can lay
> my hands on; a challenge to create something new." And some of you are
> natural geniuses, like Arnt Johansen, who needs "nothing in particular to
> conlang well."
> Thanks to everyone who participated, and stay tune for Polly by Email No. 6!
> :Peter
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