Writer's Block Daily

How do I come up with good place names?

Place names are descriptive, unless you're the Vikings, who named Greenland what it is to make it sound more appealing. Write up a bit of the place's history and some basic facts, then go from there.

Thanks, Crystal.

Rewrote the start of my story, again. I trashed the old one because I didn't like the mass panic that happened within the story. I found it more interesting to have two people deal with a sudden demon appearance than to have two thousand people deal with it.

Also decided to include an introduction with a bit of an exposition about government conspiracy theories. I'll see if I keep this or not.

On a sillier note, due to my printer only printing in magenta and black, I have decided to give one of my characters pink jeans. I doubt it'll have much bearing on the story outside of a few offhand jokes, but who knows.

My hero's supposed to be gifted/a child prodigy (it's the reason why he was homeschooled until recently before the beginning of the story) but I'm at a loss on how not to make this sound like an Informed Attribute? Any suggestions on how to "show" that he's gifted?

EDITED: Never mind.

edited 24th Feb '13 2:41:04 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

Last night I learned that if you're going to give your character knowledge of the fourth wall and the fact that they exist only as a character, don't do that to a character who's a completely smart ass.

Because then they just insult you.

Needless to say it was an exploratory short story and in no way actual canon.

I have actually considered that if my current work ends up in sequential art form, I might start a little non-canon side comic solely for the purpose of humorous experimental metafiction.

Made a concept for Midas's (the Lancer's) character design, and considering I took out a commission for someone to draw it, it may be close to final. Of note is that I gave him a magic-tech left hand. Considering that he works for a scientific laboratory that's dedicated to integrating magic into potential technologies (such as prosthetic limbs), the hand is more akin to a prototype than a final product. Generally, the more complex aspects of having a real hand (i.e. touch) are lost, but for the most part it behaves like a human hand, save for the fact that he can detach it from his wrist and have it walk around on its own. The hand itself is mechanical in appearance simply due to in-universe Rule of Cool; it was perfectly possible to make a hand that appeared more human like, but Midas insisted that it look robotic.

Otherwise, writing has been extremely slow today.

edited 24th Feb '13 7:23:46 PM by TheAlbinoPrimid

Non-canon side stories work well for that sort of thing!

If you did want to make it canon, comics would be a good medium for that. There's been Deadpool, She-Hulk, and I'm sure there are others but I can't remember them right now.

Here's my full criticism of the "you can't write in more than one genre" idea.

I came up with this idea. Since in mythology Norns are said to visit everyone when they are born and determine their fate, maybe there's a code of "Show hospitality to the Norns when my child is born" so as not to risk the idea of your kid being fated to live a bad life, as once a Norn has woven out a possibility for someone's life, it's very hard to get them to unravel it. It can be done, but it's difficult.

Morwen, what sort of story is it, and what is the general cultural background? I might be able to help a little.

For old cultures place names tend to be the old language that gets mangled, and becomes unrecognisable as the language changes.

England is good for this, as the immigrant nature of the island means that new words re brought in, and the language is evolved. English is based on Anglo saxon, had Norman French pushed into it, then absorbed bits of languages from 500 years of conquest.

The farm of Beorn's people - Beorns peoples farm - (A/S) Beorn ingi ham - Birmingham Ditto Snotta's people's farm - Nottingham Aegyls fortified place - (A/S) Aegels burgh - Aylesbury The settlement by the river that only runs in winter - winter bourne stoc - Winterbourne Stoke

Additionally names get mangled by being used every day, and when the Kings men show up in sme arse end of nowhere village they go 'What is this place', then transcribe what they hear.

@Last Hussar: It's actually the Sigurd story I was talking about, with flashbacks set in another world with aspects of Norse mythology and Tolkien. There are your trolls, giants, wraiths, elves, dwarves, but also Orcs/goblins and hobbits. I need help thinking of a name, since a very important supporting character is similar to Thorin Oakenshield, as he's originally a dwarf prince (even has relatives named Thror, Ori, and Nori) from a kingdom called Nidavellir, from the name for the mythological dwarven realm. The kingdom's kind of like Erebor/the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit, which was near the town of Dale. Obviously I can't call the town Dale.

Incidentally, I also have a dwarf character called Thorin Oakenshield, who plays a minor role in this story but a major role in my other story set in the same universe, but he's not a king, just a direct-line descendant of a chief and distant relative of an elected king. The prince hates him because he's from an isolated region, his nation elects its monarchs and he's got Elvish ancestry, in that order.

edited 25th Feb '13 5:34:54 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

Do you ever look at your old stuff and just start crying

Yes.

No.

Never cried over it but definitely cringed on a part or two or older stuff. I personally mentally banished and disavowed all trace of any creative writing project I ever did in high school. (Either for Creative Writing class or English.)

My old works were highly surreal and full of seemingly disparate elements, either had a complex plot or good characters but never both, and featured rather excessive amounts of Food Porn and slapstick humour. I'm pretty sure I haven't actually changed; I've just grown more disciplined over the years . When I look back on my old stories, I tend to cringe a bit and wonder what on Earth I was thinking, but certain characters I wrote when I was about ten still feel like old friends. There's a pair of detectives I still hope to re-use in some capacity.

^ Food Porn is a good thing.

Arg, my chapters seem to keep getting shorter and shorter.

My Food Porn density increased about tenfold once I learned how to cook.

@Morwen - þéostreleah would be a Anglo-Saxon transliteration. That's a 'thorn' at the start - pronounced 'th'. Niðavellir appears to be the original, before 'd' replaced thorn in modern writing. You could go with Theostriley or Deostriley.

Say it a few time to people who haven't seen it, and get them to write it down, and see what they write.

@Last Hussar: Thanks.

Is there ever a good reason to include a love triangle?

What do you find so heinous about it?