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I'm actually the old fashioned sort who more relies on book-learning than these newfangled interwebz. Some books I recommend:

Ecce Romani I, which is the basic standard for Latin classes in the US. Its basic setup is a small story in Latin with vocabulary at the bottom followed by a grammar lesson. Sometimes, after the grammar section, there is a brief bit about Rome's history, culture, geography, or something along those lines. There are also reviews every few chapters.

The Wheelock text and workbooks, I've heard, are also pretty good. I've never used one myself, though.

I must warn you that you would probably have an easier time if you could learn Latin in a classroom with a teacher there. That's my personal style of learning (hearing someone lecturing and giving specific answers, and allowing me to ask questions).

I'm not too sure about good Latin-based websites. *thinks* My Latin information came mostly from a class and a wonderful teacher. If you want to use the Internet, just be sure that your website is reliable. :3 I'm also willing to answer questions you might have as well as I can.

I know that creating a language can be buckets of fun (I actually love doing it myself); I only want to make sure that the OP doesn't fall into the category of standard fantasy author. =| I mean, how many do you know who actually put thought behind the words rather than just putting down a gibberish word and saying, "O HAY THAT LOOKS COOL!! =DD". I call this the Paolini Complex. ;] Whether or not the OP belongs to this category, I have no idea.

Most of my teaching falls to Latin, mate. Seeing as the little German I know comes secondhand, I could barely understand what that said (something about my knowing a little German, right? And wondering what other languages I knew, I think.). Aliquantula Latina inquito. Facunde Latinam non inquito... Latina Una discuplae es.

@Homura: I love language, if that's what you mean. The way that it affects cultures, is affected by cultures, the way its meaning changes age to age, how different provinces and nations twist the words and make them their own.

I think that correct answer here would be "yes." :3

In all honesty, Latin is a hundred times easier to learn than English. There are just certain aspects of it that are not present in our language that really trip people up. =] If your school has a Latin program, or a local community college has one over the summer, it would be a good investment to take part in. Not only will it help with your story if you do decide to go the Latin route, but it is also a beautiful, interesting language to study.

You could also ask any Latin teachers that live near you for advice and perhaps to coach you on the side in Latin basics. Just some food for thought.

As for making up your own language, I would think that's more complex than picking up a dead language. O_O I mean, you have to take into account dialects, syntax, how other languages might have affected this one, parts of speech, conjugations, declensions, pronunciations, and a whole conglomerate of other details. If you want to pull a Tolkien and spend year upon year carefully crafting a language, then I say go for it. But if all you aim for is a Paolini move with a language whose vocabulary consists of whatever comes out when you bang your head against the keyboard, then don't make up your own. You could always shoot for a healthy medium, but I'm afraid that category is hair-thin and quite difficult to reach.

I dunno. Perhaps I'm letting my language geekiness get in the way with the whole "make up your own language" stuff. Personally, I would go with basing in Latin or Greek. That is so much more fascinating, since you can really delve in Roman or Greek history and show how your magic language became rooted in that society.

In the end, it's all up to you and how much effort you want to put forth.

If you want to have spoken spells not implied, all the more power to you. However, if you're going to use a pre-existing language for them, you had better research until you can prattle off the basic rules and exceptions of Latin's past progressive tense without much thought, and which personal endings you would use with the said tense. There's nothing wrong with having a magic vocabulary founded in a dead language like Latin or Greek, but you have to know the rules of the language you're dealing with.

If you don't, you'll have Latin geeks like me on your tail for getting things wrong. :3

I would help if only you would read the stickies. The OS/P Fanfiction subforum is the place to go if you want feedback. Don't recreate this thread; a mod will move it soon enough.

EDIT: Whoops, didn't even catch the Sasuke bit. Guess that's what I get for not bothering to read most of the first post.

I tried to reread that the other day, to see the way that things that seemed really off-topic before fit together, but I couldn't. I was a few pages in and had to stop because I was literally shaking. My copy made it to the bottom of my laundry hamper again, the lamp beside my bed stays on all night, and now I've started locking my bedroom door at night.

Jeezum, that's a fantastic book. :3

Well... The Twilight fandom has turned a majority of the female population of my school against me.

I wrote an anti-Twilight article and had it published in the school newspaper, Newspeak, a week or two ago. Nota bene, my school is not very large. There are no more than 500 hundred students in it and it consists of people grades 6-12. Still, the day my article ran, I could feel the buzz from people, either in shock that I had written the article, entirely neutral, or calling my message the words of God.

Someone called me horrible, another said I was a b***h, people tried to start rumors (but I'm the sort of nice, geeky person you just can't help but like :3), and I felt the weight of haughty stares following me for the next few days.

There are still quite a few people who won't even talk to me, including a really sweet theatre-friend of mine. D: She doesn't even look at me anymore.

On a brighter note, there were people who said my writing was very good, regardless of if they agreed with me or not. I respect them very much, especially the sane fans secure enough in their opinions to hear mine out. I made a lot of people laugh; that's a job well done, I think.

There you go. My personal victimization.

I'm not going to say that this person was lying or that you must be a simply fabulous writer. In all honesty, I think that you're either born with the ability to write or you're not. Sure, at first it's not going to be great. The words will be hard-coming and awkward enough for you to look back a few years from now and shamefully glance away every few words. Do you think that the world's great painters were able to do everything perfectly the first time they handled a brush and a blank canvas?

The best advice I can give is not philosophical or deep. It’s terribly cliché and you’ve probably heard it hundreds of thousands of times, not to mention that it comes from the mouth (or should I say fingers?) of a fellow inexperienced fourteen year old who really has no right to be handing out advice in regards to writing at all.

Three simple things: Read, write, and live.