Board Thread:Linguistics/@comment-4984835-20161103180814/@comment-2040889-20161104200706

Generally, what you want to start with is a set of a few "sample" words and phonotactics. What I do is divide words up into thematic groups (see: any lexicon I made) and think of a few words from each group and try to, with the help of the samples and phonotactics, think of a few meanings, and then what the corresponding word in-conlang would be. I go by what sounds "nice" to me and what fits the aesthetics set in stone by the samples. A few tries should get you at least a few words. I found that working first from the semantic map/meaning of the word towards a phonetic word gives me "better" results and is generally easier than just plain trying to brainstorm a conlang word and then what meaning it would map to.

Derivation is also another really damn useful tactic, making a myriad new words out of a limited set of roots.