Origin
Procedure
I developed Fences because I wanted to experiment with creating a needlessly complicated and cryptic, yet visually appealing, system. The complexity comes primarily from symbols that change based on their surrounding letters.
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The inspiration for this system came from an artistic wall decoration I saw in a hotel in Santa Barbara. It was a red wooden lattice, and what made it stand out to me was that certain parts of the lattice were removed, giving the impression of a start and end point and indicating that there may be a shape hidden within the "Xs" it formed. When I returned home, I began drafting the alphabet using a small subsection of a lattice with a vertical pole running through it. I call this section a "tree", as it has a vertical "trunk" and "leaves" slanting down on either side. I reduced the lattice to a tree with six leaves, but found that there were not enough combinations to represent the alphabet. Eight, was too many, however I eventually decided that eight leaves could serve as a maximum, while the minimum amount of leaves should be six in order to ensure that no area is too devoid of character.Â
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This was not enough, though. I specifically wanted something that had convoluted and unnecessary rules to add to the complexity of the system. And so I implemented various rules on how to start and end words, changed how vowels worked, and created a mechanism for when a word runs over a page boundary. Together, these changes made the already confusing system even harder to decipher.Â
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Because of its sheer difficulty for writing and reading. I decided that it was probably best to create a shorthand version to help with conversion (like moles in chemistry). One would convert from English into the shorthand, and then write the longform, or in the reverse, one would convert a ciphertext into the shorthand before deciphering into English. The shorthand describes the physical appearance of the symbols in as few characters as I could manage. Using the surrounding context, each letter can be simplified into three to four symbols which can then be easily converted into "trees." This heavily cut back on the time it took to write words using the system, and solidified the system further as my favorite system among all those I have created up to this point. It is inherently difficult, and when presented to others, it looks completely incomprehensible. I even have to use a pencil and paper myself to decipher it. I consider it my greatest complete work.
Fences is incredibly complicated and requires the diagram above and quite a bit of preparation before being able to write it. Here, I will explain the definition of the letters and the shorthand version of Fences. More detailed instructions with visuals are available in a pdf linked    .
To begin, make sure you have a pen or pencil along with some paper. The image to the right is the key to deriving the alphabet. The outer circle shows the total number of leaves allowed per step that can be attached to the tree (the central black symbol). You begin by having the six leaves at the top, leaving the bottom row empty. Record each permutation as you write them. The dark grey oval on the right of the black symbol (labeled 1) indicates you should move each leaf down one unit at a time, with the next leaf only being moved when the current leaf reaches the bottom. Continue doing this until all the permutations of the right side are recorded, then do one step on the right, moving down one leaf the same way as before on the right side. Once you have reached the point where all of the leaves are at the bottom and the top row is empty, the ring (labeled 3) at the bottom right indicates
                                 that after returning to the original configuration of the top three rows full and bottom row empty, you must take the bottom right leaf and transfer it to the left side making the new configuration of a full left side and half full right side. Continue shifting the leaves and recording until both leaves on the right side are at the bottom. Now return to the original configuration and take the bottom right leaf and transfer it to the other side making the new configuration half full left side and full right side. Continue shifting the leaves and recording until both leaves on the right side are at the bottom. At this point, continue to the next number on the outer circle.
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Now, the total number of leaves on the tree must be seven. Begin with the left side full and the right side having the bottom slot empty. Begin shifting the leaves as normal and record each new permutation. Now return to the original configuration with a full left side and the right side having the bottom slot empty and mirror the configuration so the new configuration has the left side have the bottom slot empty with the right side being full. Continue shifting the leaves as normal and record each new permutation. Once all permutations are recorded, move to the next number on the outer circle which has all eight leaves on the tree which is just one symbol. Moving to the next number, it is zero which again means there is one symbol.
Writing
Writing is simple in Fences. Just line up vertical lines equidistantly from each other for each letter in the text you want to write, and write in each leaf as described in the shorthand version, connecting the end of each leaf to its neighbors' vertical lines. However, there are a few writing conventions to follow in order to conform to the normal writing standards the system demands. Most important among these standards are vowel rules, and to a lesser extent word boundaries and doubled consonants.
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First, vowels. Vowels are incredibly important in Fences because they completely alter how the system is written. Primarily, they flip the direction of the leaves. This is not a complete mirroring, it is simply turning /\ into \/. This flip is maintained until another vowel is written, and this can cause confusion if the second part of this rule is not followed. Nothing written after a vowel can touch said vowel. When writing a letter after a vowel, even if it is another vowel, you must only write half of the leaf, stopping at the intersection that two normal leaves would make. This only happens on the left side of the tree but this rule must be followed to ensure people deciphering the fence can know when to record the change in direction of the symbols.
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Second, word boundaries. Words in English are marked by spaces or punctuation, but in order to retain a constant flow of symbols, this cannot be done in Fences. Instead, in a similar manner to how vowels create a separation, nothing in one word can touch the next word. You follow the same procedure as with vowels, but instead this time on the right side of the letter. Simply draw half of each leaf at the intersection point. When the vowel direction is normal (/\), this poses no problems and you can continue writing the next word by connecting the leaves on the left to the tree of the previous last word's letter. If the vowel direction is flipped (\/), then a conflict may occur where two leaves will occupy the same diagonal line, making it impossible to determine whether there are one or two lines in the space. To avoid this, make a small circle at the intersection of the lines to mark it as both the leaf of the previous and next word.
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Third, doubled letters. Because of the definition process for the symbols, some letters actually have two symbols assigned to them. This left twelve letters which have two symbols assigned to them. This convention gives a lot of choice of whether to use either version. In general, alternate the use of letters with two symbols. This gives an extra layer of encryption as there are more symbols than there are letters, and this means that for shorter texts, there may be no repeated symbols.
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The rules around these three aspects provide a level of clarity to the system and should be followed at all times. They also add a bit of spice to an otherwise monotonous and repetitive jumble of lines. Of course, there is no enforcement of these rules, but for the readability of your messages the use of these rules will help a lot, especially vowel flipping.
With all the symbols defined, the alphabet can be given symbols. First, assign all vowels by finding the symbols that have an empty row, have eight leaves (should be "U") or have no leaves (should be "Y"). Then go through the alphabet, naming each symbol with a letter until "Z" is reached. There should be twelve remaining symbols which will be assigned to the letters before "Z" in reverse alphabetical order starting at "X" (x, w, v ...). Now all the symbols are defined with letters and you could begin writing from here by using the recorded symbols. For an easier time however, you could use the simplified version provided below.
To use this version, there are directions separated by a forward slash which indicate what to write. Numbers represent leaf groups which should be drawn consecutively (1 = one leaf, 2 = two leaves vertically adjacent to each other, etc). An empty side means it is completely full. Periods means there is an empty space while colons mean there are two empty spaces. If not specified assume there is at least one leaf after every period or colon. For example, G or 2./1. could also be written as 2.1/1.2 but that would be unnecessary as the single period means there can only be one space and thus, the rest are leaves. Also, notice that every vowel is symmetrical. This is something unique to vowels and should be noted.
Now, try deciphering this string:
Now, try writing this message: Good Job - 2./1. ./. ./. 3/.   1./3 ./. 32,