Fic update

[jack]

Progress

It's not going to be 50k. It might make 30k. I decided to write reasonably self-contained chapters that could in theory be parceled off as short stories, so I can add more.

It's fun, which is good. I keep having ideas, which is good. I keep not knowing what background (both metaphysics and character) I've introduced and not.

Names

Because it's fun, I'll appeal to my friends for names. I'm rather bad at this bit. I have *some* names I love, but tend heavily to the Capitalised Noun sort, because that's easy (as anyone I've DM'd[1] knows.)

Placeholder name: Ice

Eisvale (Eisval) is a city of magi. Ice was apprenticed as a young teenager to a master magus there. She was fascinated by the workings of magic, and learned everything she could.

His other apprentice was Seaflake. They became friends and lovers. However, as a young woman Ice left the city for several years to persue researches across the continent. Seaflake took this hard, it led to a falling out, and eventually a bitter rivalry.

Now Ice is an important magus in the city, but concerned that she seems to be tied there, and that this restricts her true learning. She's briefly corresponded with Gya, and introduced to the story when Gerald appears on her doorstep saying (1) Gya would like to develop a regular trade route between the cities and (2) he left flewt singing lullabies to a cave full of shadow creatures, could she please zot them?

What name(s) should I use?


[1] Any 'o' is entirely metaphorical.

Comments

[mair_in_grenderich]

*pins lips^Wfingers shut*

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

What? Did I do too many updates at once, or are you just into acupuncture? :)

And don't worry, I'll call *someone* Todd, but not *everyone* :)

[mair_in_grenderich]

Lucy's not a bad name either. Or Nebuchadnezzar. Or are you trying to invent new names by finding strings of letters that sound good? I can't think of any of those.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Um, not necessarily, but that's what I had in mind. Lucy and Ned are good names, but I'd most like names somewhere between them, where they have some appropriate connotations, but aren't totally swamped by them.

[mair_in_grenderich]

appropriate how? setting or gender or personality or all of those? :)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Any of those.

Obviously you can take it too far, but I think there are names that people would find slightly more natural than others for a given person, and hence easier to remember. And you want different sorts of names for different people.

Like, if I call everyone "Lucy", it wouldn't sound very fantasy. And if I called them "nebuchadnezzar" they'd say "why are you named after a hovercraft king?" But if it was something that sounded a bit like nebuchadnezzar it'd work well for someone who was male and fantasy and powerful...

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

Yay! Um, I think you're supposed to be calling it 'a novel' as opposed to a fic though :)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't call it a fic, as much as all writing I do, but is that wrong? Isn't it just an abbreviation for fiction? I haven't been paying attention to lingo.

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I was just being difficult :) I do sort of associate the word with short pieces but I think that's all in my head, really.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

*huggles*

As I said, I was going to think of it as n short pieces...

[edith-the-hutt.livejournal.com]

When I'm looking for names I generally look to Catholic saints. There's 2000 years of cool names there.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hey, good idea. Thanks.

[chess]

Nowadays when I'm looking for names I think of an appropriate word and chuck it at a baby names site, or think of what letter I want it to start with and about how I want it to sound and trawl a baby names site for names which mean something nifty.

[satanicsocks.livejournal.com]

often I find placeholder names end up more appropriate than well-thought-out replacements.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I like them myself, and get attached as I use them, so may find myself[1] unable to give them up. But I can't pretend other people wouldn't ridicule "Ice" and "Gerald"

[1] 'myself is correct, isn't it? But why?

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

One brilliant name-generating strategy (which works particularly well for SF in my experience, but could also do for fantasy) is this. Find a piece of text in a foreign language, preferably one without too many Js and Zs at the end of words. Take two likely-looking consecutive words, run them together, and pull a bit out of the middle. After all, as any mole will tell you, that's pretty much how Lieutenant Kijé got his name.

[calamarain.livejournal.com]

Pick some random syllables, and run them together. Make sure the name can be pronounced... but make sure it's not similar to any other word.

Random examples picked off the top of my head

Maraya
Pilkos
Trulecta
Mim-Natos
Quarrisan

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Pick some random syllables, and run them together.

That's what I'm doing, but aren't that good at :) Mim-Natos is *so* a city in the empire though...

Make sure the name can be pronounced...

And surprisingly many authors fudge this one up, don't they? Tip: if you include a character in a name, either (a) use it roughly how it's used in an existing langauge or (b) have some sort of system -- ' and ! aren't confetti, people! Neither are zjkqlandx.

[calamarain.livejournal.com]

Cool :) Glad to have helped. Just don't do the old Star Trek trick of putting a break in the name via an apostrophe. Surely you could make it flow more easily :)

e.g. Pronounced Bar-koo, spelt Ba'ku. (something from a Trek movie)

[calamarain.livejournal.com]

Oh, and get yourself a LJ-icon :) Even if it's just a blank square. :)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I never found anything I really liked. Is it that annoying?

[calamarain.livejournal.com]

Not that annoying... but it makes your posts stand out a lot less if other people have icons and your post doesn't. It fades into the background a bit.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I guess I could at least have a flat colour, or something.

[calamarain.livejournal.com]

That would work :)