Tag: Perfect

What’s in a name?

thestuartsadler

I am someone who obsesses over detail, and when it comes to writing a fantasy novel, that can often mean hitting some serious roadblocks.

I think I’ve mentioned before how I worry about fantastical things like my magic system not being ‘realistic’ (the absurdity of such an issue being both at the front of my mind and also swept aside by the thought that I’m simply not trying hard enough if I don’t fuss over it). There are a number of other things that slow me down though and naming things is certainly one of them!

I can be in a good writing flow, but the moment I need to come up with a name, be it a character, a town, or even a plant, it brings me to a grinding halt. I’ll roll consonants off my tongue, throwing in a vowel here and there until I get a sound I like, then try to build on it, but boy oh boy do I have a hard time.

With place names, I try to come up with meanings behind the names, to give at least some of them a logical, descriptive slant. I like names that sound like they have history to them, that you can imagine the first settlers finding the place, looking at the landscape around them and naming their town in honour of it. At the same time, the mind boggles at how these people would do such a thing without coming up with something you’d expect from a six year old.

‘Let us found our town in the crook of this river, rich as it is in clean water and fish to feed us.’

‘Yes, we should lay down our roots here, but what shall we name our new town?’

‘Why “Crooktown” of course!’

‘Are you sure about that?’

‘You don’t like it?’

‘Well… it’s a bit… y’know. I’d avoid the word “Crook” I think’

‘Hmm, well what about Waterbend?’

‘Waterbend?!’

‘Fishington?’

‘Wow.’

‘Well why don’t you come up with something then?!’

‘Easy. Rivertown’

‘Perfect.’

With people’s names I struggle as well. I know there can be a tendency to avoid common western names in fantasy, at least for the most part, but because they’re so ‘normal’ sounding to us, it’s difficult to come up with something with familiar sounds but isn’t either dull, or looks like someone was named after a coughing fit. I don’t want a hero named ‘Colin’ (no offence to the Colins out there), nor do I want people discussing the villain in such terms as ‘Oh I really liked A’kaqitchothferan, he was such an interesting character.’

Of course as a reader I never even bother about these things, I just accept them. I can think of perhaps two occasions where a name has bothered me and most likely by the time I’m a few chapters in I’ve just accepted it and forgotten I ever disliked it.

Such is the eternal struggle of the writer, obsessing over things the reader will either not care about, or will immediately forgive. Readers can be good that way.

I’d be interested to hear any tips for not letting naming bog you down. I try to at least come up with a ‘placeholder’ name which I’m happy enough with to keep on writing, but might change later. Even coming up with those sometimes is enough to cause me to stumble and struggle to get back into a good flow.

Anyway, back to writing about my hero Chax’oqzim, in the magical fantasy realm of Landworld!

Battling The Tide of Change

thestuartsadler

Hello again and my apologies for being somewhat on the quiet side recently! Unfortunately I am not in a position to write as and when I please, having committed myself to working one of those pesky things we call a job, in order to earn money to pay off the inordinate amount of debt I have accumulated since deciding that we did in fact want to live in a house we could call our own. That job has been somewhat hectic as of late, and a lot of the rest of my free time has been taken up with other things.

Still, here is what I have done in the world of writing since last we met.

  • I entered my first short story competition! A 250 word ‘Supernatural’ flash fiction under the prompt ‘otherworldliness’. 
  • I’ve also a near final draft for another short story competition which I will be sending off in the next few days, under the prompt ‘Dark Matters’ (can you sense a theme to the way my mind works??)
  • Finally I have been up and down and round and about with my bloody novel… which is what this blog post is really about.

I really hope I’m not the only one who fixates on details of their story to the point of self sabotage?! Please say I’m not.

Here’s how I seem to work:

  1. Have idea
  2. Start writing
  3. Feel pleased
  4. Write more
  5. Hit a plot point that needs examination/explanation
  6. Come up with an amazing back story to explain the plot point
  7. Realise the back story negates some of what I’ve written, but decide it’s worth pursuing
  8. Go back to 2.

After a few iterations of this I realised the following: that I was now miles away from my original idea (but kept telling myself this is what being creative is like and everyone probably does it), that I was basically writing myself in an outward spiral, creating ever more complex threads, and that every time I came up with a new idea it conflicted with someone else I’d set up which either required changing or scrapping.

Yesterday I decided enough was enough. Coming up with an amazing back story I’m NOT going to write, does not help me with a  novel I AM going to write! I’ve realised that I need to stop having ‘ideas’ and focus on the story I first wanted to write. Yes, I’ll still make a few changes, but I think I let myself get carried away and was making things far too complicated for myself.

So, I’m going to do two things. The first is that I’m going to go back to basics and make sure I know where I’m going this time. The second is that I’m going to scrap the pen and paper and write on my iPad. I’ve realised that the paper option for me is feeling too much like ‘notes’ as it’s harder to keep track of what I’ve actually written. I think the urge to edit while typing will be less of an issue that constantly changing my mind which is what I have been doing!

I’ve still got a few things to iron out in my ‘back to the original idea’ plan, but I already feel like it’s a more coherent story idea than the wild and wonderful things my brain was coming up with, without bothering to check how they would fit in with what I already had!

If you’re a writer and you’ve experienced this (particularly in Fantasy where you really can go off the deep end!) I would love to hear how you’ve dealt with it!

Until next time… wish me luck!

Losing the Plot

thestuartsadler

Something I have struggled with recently is the feeling that I am constantly second guessing myself. That no matter what idea I can come up with, there is a better one lurking around the corner. This has seriously hindered my writing progress.

Most recently, I was trying to work through a couple of logical gaps in my story. Ideas I had had that needed just a bit more work to mould them into useable threads. I spent a long time just sitting and thinking and came up with a few things to explain the ideas I wanted to use. This was great. I was really pleased with what I’d come up with. The problem was that if I had chosen to follow through with them, it meant I was 40,000 words into my second book, with not a single word of the first written anywhere. This was a rather daunting prospect.

So I did some more thinking, talked to my wife a bit about it and came up with some alternatives which I’m now happy with. The problem now is that having stalled with the writing a little, I’m now suffering the dreaded conviction that my entire story is a boring pile of crap. Which brings me all the way back to second guessing myself on the whole thing.

I keep telling myself ‘a finished draft is better than a perfect draft’ and to give me credit, I’m planning to do some writing this weekend, but I wonder how often other writers do this? Do they constantly criticise their plot before even giving it the courtesy of getting it down on paper? 

I’m sure I’m not alone, so I’ll just keep repeating that mantra ‘finished is better than perfect’!