With the weather being nice (finally), I've been busy outside working in my gardens. For the past two weeks, I've been putting the finishing touches on the rock terraces (meaning I moved a LOT of rocks and plants and spread several yards of mulch) on half of my hillside flower garden. This past weekend I expanded my vegetable garden by 16 x 10 feet, built two new raised garden beds, filled them with soil and plants, and remulched the whole area. Who needs to go to the gym?
If you're looking for something to read, take a gander at selection in either of these two giveaways.
Fantasy, or Sci-fi and Fantasy short fiction
My Ask Me Anything wrapped up after a lot of questions. If there's anything you've wanted to know about me or my writing, it's probably answered there.
And now onto IWSG...
This month's question is:
What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?
Titles are by far more difficult to come up with. Character names usually come to me as I'm writing or I key mash until a string of letters looks interesting and tweak it from there to get the sound and feel of what I'm looking for to fit the story. Yes, that means my naming process is pretty methodical and well thought out. Ha! Because I'm not a planner for the most part, the vast majority of my characters are named before I get to know them and before I have an inkling what their true part in the story will be. It's like meeting a person, all you have to go on is a name and then you get to know them. Knowing this, the fact that names play an important role to the characters in both Sahmara and A Broken Race is a bit ironic.
Titles, well, they don't usually hit me until the first round of edits when I get a full feel for what the story is really about. Its a theme I didn't originally set out to cover, a feeling, a character moment, a phrase, something that triggers an ah ha moment and poof, there's my title. The poof, makes it sound like an easy process, but its more often a long and painful slog wherein I gnash my teeth over the fact that the book may never have a title beyond Book 2 or Fantasy Story.
Which one is more difficult for you?
Titles, definitely.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've written about this on my blog today:
ReplyDeletehttp://jannghi.blogspot.com/2018/06/titles-or-character-names-which-is.html
I'd love to see pictures of your hillside flower garden. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jean - well done on all 'that garden gym work' ... it sounds an amazing project - the new garden is much loved - and like Chrys I'd love to see some pictures ... enjoy the summer weather - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteYour gardening efforts sound lovely. And like a lot of work!
ReplyDeleteCharacter names are more difficult for me. I agree that knowing the names is important to learning about the character, and sometimes, the name I've chosen just doesn't seem right once I get to know the character. Titles seem to be my specialty.
ReplyDeleteI have been tempted to give books completely non-sequitur titles that have nothing to do with the story or even the genre. Like calling a dark fantasy book "Cocky Pleasures," or a horror story "Mister Grasshopper's Fascinating Encounter with Two Cats."
ReplyDeleteYour AMA is pretty cool. That was a lot of questions!
Yay for Supernatural! You know, I'm not one who likes to plan things out either, but if I don't chaos rains. I suppose that's how it goes when you have 5 kids. Anyhow, I'm with you. Titles are harder.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes try the "random collision of letters" approach to producing names. It's fun. Sometimes I have a session where I produce a lot of cool-sounding names on the page that I then draw on as required.
ReplyDeletekey mashing - I like that. Almost as random as I do it with writing on paper but even better.
ReplyDeleteTitles are so much harder. I've never tried the key mashing thing. I'll keep it in mind.
ReplyDelete*Stella is Zoolander smacking her keyboard*
"What are you doing?" asks worried husband.
Stella looks at her husband with a blue steel gaze. "Naming my creation!"
*Bahahahahahaaa*