Modern Zelsen writing consists of two scripts primarily, and a third for a special purpose. The most common is the Myk alphasyllabary or abugida, which uses consonant and vowel "bases" and vowel "markers" to construct words. It is not quite phonetic, and is sometimes seemingly irregular compared to the actual pronunciation of many words.

The second script is the Mayk, which was once a logographic system used before the colonial period. Now, only a few select symbols remain in regular use. The use of a Mayk symbol instead of its spelled out Myk counterpart may indicate a different usage of the word. Some Mayk represent words, some modify words. Some are pronounced on their own, some are not. Some are considered to "attach" to words, while others are separate, and sometimes a symbol can exhibit both behaviours, and the use of one or the other indicates its meaning to some degree.

The third script is used only for traditional Zelsen names. It is called the Takoy, and is made up of a number of symbols with varying pronunciations, based on the gender of the name.

Actually, the writing system is mixed logographic-alphabetic:
Gramatical morphemes and certain common lexical morphemes are represented logographically, 
while the remainder of lexical morphemes are represented alphabetically.