I had to write songs

I have faced a similar problem in writing my sci fi stories. My protagonist is a singer/songwriter. To tell her story, I had to write lyrics of the songs she sings. After I’d written a bunch of them I thought, if I have lyrics, I need music. But I can’t carry a tune. So I found this guy to compose and produce music, and a female vocalist to sing my protagonist’s songs. I now have five songs! I don’t yet know just how I will use them. But this will come.

So I say, go for your new language. But don’t compete with Tolkien the language scholar, who created the entire syntax, grammar, and vocabulary. If I were doing it, I’d start with a pidgin. Some common phrases. What do the spacefarers from the different world races ask or say first when they meet up? “Where’s the bathroom? How much does this cost? What’s your name? What’s a nice g#%wr@ like you doing in a place like this? Did you hear the one about the . . .”