Altarior

I've been revisiting my world's language and writing styles. I'm also trying to come up with various symbols for grammar, punctuation, mathematical symbols like [plus] and [minus], etc.. And I'm also trying to think of what musical symbols would look like and how they write sheet music.

It got me thinking. I've seen plenty of fantasy alphabets, but I can't remember seeing a lot of fantasy sheet music. Probably because it's so nieche and rarely relevant to the plot, but it'd be great to see more! So how about you? What does sheet music look like in your world (assuming you don't have a normal Earth setting of course)? And what are your favorite examples from fiction if any?

I know only those who write all day every day may dare label themselves as writeurs. I'm doing my best, but I'm exhausted... All I ever wanted was to be a writeur, without it I have no worth as a human.

I have been writing nonestop for 56 years. I have not slept, I have not eaten. I survive by sucking whatever protein I can out of my worldbuilding post-it notes, and extracting H2O from the atmosphere through sheer rage alone. I miss my wife so much.

Please, tell me, is it okay if I take a break? I don't know how long I can hold out. But if I ever stop, even for a second, can I still call myself a writeur? I'm ashamed to ask... I know you must all be disgusted with me. We all know the truth

I started out modestly. In my first draft I had maybe one or two worldbuilding footnotes every 10 pages.

I've improved tremendously since then! I am now on my 58th draft, and at least 36% of every page is now worldbuilding footnotes. When you read the story, literally every second word has an asterisk and there is an explanation for the thing at the bottom of the page.

Of course, I know I'm still not quite there yet.

I think for the final book, maybe 80-90% of every page should just be footnotes on lore and general worldbuilding? I'd also like to replace all of the actual story with just asterisks. No writing, only asterisks.

I'm writing about a diving competition. In this setting, people have elemental magic (all the classics: air, water, earth, fire, etc..). Each person has only one element, ATLA style (except my world has no non-benders). Obviously people with water magic have an advantage. When using their magic, they can pretty much stay under water indefinitely and dive deeper than anyone without the decompression shenanigans. I'm trying to think of a way that would prevent them from cheating.

Of course using magic during sports is strictly forbidden, but there is no way to tell if they're using their magic to outperform and win by just a little. It's pretty much like steroids IRL, it's forbidden but some