Braxtyn Rapp has a name that sounds destined for the cover of a novel or screenplay. And as it turns out, that’s exactly the path this Ohio Northern University student is carving for herself.
An honors student, Braxtyn recently tackled an ambitious honors capstone project: writing a fantasy fiction story and developing a fully-functional fictional language. Drawing inspiration from real-world linguistics, she meticulously crafted its grammar, syntax, and phonetics.
Braxtyn developed the language first because she wanted it to be central to the story, not an addendum or something added just to pique readers’ interest.
“I wanted the language to push the story forward,” she said. “I accomplished that.”
Using David J. Peterson’s book “The Art of Language Invention” for inspiration, and gathering feedback from classmates and professors, she based her language off Gaelic, (both Scottish and Irish) and American Sign Language. It helped that, during her freshman year, she traveled to London and Edinburgh as part of a Fantasy Worldbuilding course, immersing herself in the regional dialects.
The language is both derivative and original. “It feels like it’s not a copy of English,” she explained. “It has different pronunciations, and my favorite part is the sentence structure.”
It was a challenging process, she added, especially making the language sound realistic. “It took me so long, and I’m really proud of the outcome,” she said.
Braxtyn started writing the story in June 2025 and “finished” in December. The story, however, isn’t really finished; Braxtyn will continue to work on it, and it will continue to evolve. The story’s title, for now, is “Listen Not to the Warnings.”
The young writer from Monroeville, Ohio, didn’t initially intend on majoring in creative writing, but her parents and a high school English teacher encouraged her, recognizing her talent.
Outside the classroom, Braxtyn is the editor of ONU’s literary magazine, Polaris. “This year, I’m the non-fiction editor. Next year, I’ll be the fiction editor. We publish work from undergraduates around the world,” she says.
Braxytn recently presented her honors capstone project at the Mid-East Honor Association conference at Indiana University South Bend and also presented a creative non-fiction piece she wrote at the Sigma Tau Delta conference in New Orleans.
At this point in her college career, Braxtyn is considering getting her Ph.D. in creative writing or linguistics. “I’d like to teach college,” she says.