small clarification to this question: i'm making a natural-ish artlang for a fantasy setting, so considerations that would benefit auxlangs may not be quite as appropriate - i'd like it to feel more realistic and less constructed if possible

but really any advice helps

@typhlosion this is frankly a terrible method but last time (which was supposed to be more of a natural and less structured language) i just tried to write some text and if there was a word missing i’d simply either try use the “closest match” (sometimes by weird logic) as roots or else just invent a new one if i couldn’t remember, which also has the side effect of inadvertently (naturally?) creating synonyms,,,,,

@typhlosion honestly i just accept that i'm mostly gonna cut up semantic space in a very similar way to english, just because the amount of work necessary to structure the lexicon differently scales so much worse than making the grammar and sound system interesting and different

@typhlosion
I first develope the culture around the language, then ask myself what are the most important things for said culture; the most prominent things have roots, while things that could be considered linked have derivations of the root

Eg:
for a sea-centered culture:
"sea", "fish", "sand", "wave" or even "tsunami" and "foam from clashing waves" could be roots.

"uprising" could be a derived word from "people" + "tsunami"