Regarding Names

I've decided to completely redraft my novel Honour Among Thieves and that means creating an entirely new world for the story to take place in. Some of the storylines that I liked no longer work and there are places which I need to add in events which never could have happened in that god-awful first draft. My main issue, however comes with names.

There is a character in my book who becomes a main character in book two of the series. In my mind she has always been called Arietta, although for a long time I decided that her culture was based off of Tsarist Russia. It doesn't take a fool to realise that the name Arietta just doesn't work. I spent hours researching Russian names and all the confusing information that comes with them (who knew that patronymic names could be so confusing?) and still I found nothing that I liked. I decided on the name Ksenya, although if I'm honest it just doesn't fit her. She's always been Arietta to me and I can't imagine her as anything else.

With this huge rewrite, I decided to scrap the idea of basing the culture on Russia. In a way that's great because Arietta could keep her name but now I have an issue. Arietta is a princess and I decided to name the head of her personal guard Dmitri. I can't have two people from the same culture with one name that sounds Italian and the other that's clearly Russian. It just doesn't work. So who do I rename? Arietta or Dmitri, who suits his name almost as much as Arietta does?

*headdesk*

Another issue I'm facing is part of the world building. Part of the culture in my world surrounds on the cycle of the nine months, each of them lasting forty days. I don't want to bore you with the ins and outs of this but this is probably the most important part of my book. It is the basis of the magic system, the geography and the economics. Then how come every name I try to give it sounds like something from a tampax advert? Cycle? Menstrual cycle. Period? That one's obvious. Phases? Mood swings. 

Names are important and I'm determined to get them right.

I like names, probably a little too much. I often visit baby naming websites and read hundreds and hundreds of them, trying to find one that suits a certain character. I search names from different eras, languages and countries and it still takes an age to find The One. A name is an important thing. Would Harry Potter have been as successful if he was fighting Lord Fartbottom? I doubt it. Names are with you throughout the whole story and if a name is ridiculous, it can be quite annoying.

I'm not even going to begin to mention Teardrop by Lauren Kate. The main character was called Eureka. -.-

If a character name is done well, it can really define who they are. For example, one of my favourite Arya Stark fits her name perfectly. Nicknames can also make a character, such as Beatrice changing her name to the tougher and stronger sounding Tris in Divergent, showing her switch to Dauntless.

I still think that names should be deliberated over a lot, hence the Arietta/Ksenya/Dmitri/Menstral Cycle issue. Even if they sound right for that character or place, some people seem to forget that it's the characters parents who supposedly name them rather than the author. Why would a strict woman name her child Rainbow, no matter how carefree that kid grows up to be? Also, why would someone name their child a name which doesn't exist for the next hundred years? It's these little things that bug me.

Even if a name is brilliant, you don't know how many cause pronunciation issues. I never struggled with this but I know a lot of people who couldn't get how to say Hermione, and I myself initially pronounced Carlisle from Twilight like Carl-sie. In the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas, I know that Chaol has caused a lot of difficulties. I love the name and it fits perfectly, but man did it take me a while to get used to. But after all it is fantasy.

Saying all this, a name is after all just a name. A brilliant writer could name the bad guy Charlie and make him sound anything but sweet. Enter Charlie, the mass murderer and slave master from the mythical land of Cupcake...

Can someone write that? Please?

Names can also be overused. You can't imagine how many stories about a Cassandra I've read, or a dystopia featuring a Caleb. A lot of classic names have been made modern, such as a lot from the Brönte sisters and Austen (Edward, Heath(cliff) and Darcy) to name a few. There is nothing wrong with this, but sometimes it feels like I'm listening to a different artist cover the same record.

I could go on forever talking about this. After all, names fascinate me. There are some I like such as Kaladin from The Way of Kings, and some which make me want to bash my head against a wall (Renesme. Seriously?). Names are important to a story, but they don't make it. If Teardrop was better, maybe the name Eureka wouldn't have annoyed me so much. I really think names are important but they can also be misleading. As most people know, a lot of people initially thought that JK Rowling was a boy, and many authors such as the Brönte sisters were published under male pseudonyms.

There is one thing I can say to fellow authors as I try to avoid making people think about that certain time of the month when they read my book: choose wisely (and may the odds be ever in your favour).

Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names. - Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Why do I write?

Recently I have been thinking about why I decide to write and where my ideas come from. The real, less pretentious reason for this is because I just love writing. I love the way it can immerse me into another world, although I think that there is more to it than that.

I write because I am dissatisfied.

Here me out here. It may just be me who thinks like this. In fact it probably is just me. Either way, I write because I am dissatisfied. Why fantasy? I'm dissatisfied with the mundaneness of reality. I'm dissatisfied with maths exams and assessments, and I'm dissatisfied that dragons don't exist in the real world. Seriously. I write to escape the world that I wish had dragons and Allomancy (I've thought this through and I'd like to be a soother).

I'm dissatisfied with some of my friendships. I hate that I'm so introverted that I push people away and I'm dissatisfied that I don't feel close to people anymore. It's not anyone else fault rather than my own, but that dissatisfaction is still there. I think that that is why friendship is a key theme in my book. There is a beautiful quote from Sarah J Maas' Throne of Glass series. Her dearest friends are characters in books. I do have friends but I just don't have that closeness that Harry, Ron and Hermione do, and I've never said 'to whatever end' like Rowan and Aelin did. I hope I don't sound completely tragic when I say that I do feel a closeness to my own characters. Not in an imaginary friend kind of way, but more so that I just care for them. Genuinely.

I'm dissatisfied with some of the things I read. Again, here me out. I read more good thinks than bad and I'm not saying that what I write will be better than anyone else because it won't be, but what I'm saying is that I'm fed up with a lot of tropes I see in the books that I don't like. Instalove. Save the girl instead of save the world. Vampires who sparkle.

Some of my ideas may come from dissatisfaction, but other ideas come from simple and beautiful love. I love how the trees look when it snows and their branches hang over the road you're driving on. I love that feeling that you get when you talk to someone who just understands you. I love the way that a good book can make me fall in love with places and people that only exist inside people's minds.

We can list all the things that we're dissatisfied with and I'm sure that we'll come up with an extensive list, but I think that true and honest writing comes from the things we love.

Libraries were full of ideas -- perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons. - Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas