What Are You Called

What are you called?

So, I was daydreaming one night, making up a dialogue, and one thing that someone in my daydream said was, “Call people what they want to be called.” I actually have Liska think something along those lines in Secrets of the Moon Fox, when thinking of her vampire contact who had changed her name. It got me thinking about names and what we call ourselves.

Pretty much no one goes by their full legal name on a regular basis. Even people who tend to be called by full names probably don’t do that when interacting with people on a casual basis. How about you? What do people call you? What do you go by?

I spent a few years in Russia as a teenager. If you want to ask someone their name, the phrase actually translates to, “What do they call you?” The answer is, “I am called…”

I go by my first name when interacting with people in person. I go by H. J. Harding as a writer. I recently got hired as a substitute teacher and go by either Miss or Ms. Harding to students.

Neither of my parents goes by their first name. My mom goes by a nickname she chose as a teenager and my dad shares his name with his father and my brother, so he goes by the middle name.

Of my siblings and I, most of us go by our first names, but my one sister uses a nickname version of her first name. Well, our dad calls her by her first name and my brother calls her by another language’s equivalent of her nickname, which I started but don’t use as often.

Some people use different names with different people. Maybe in some situations, they go by their last name. Maybe they have a nickname with friends and a different one with family. What does that tell us about a character?

Some names have certain connotations. Some names seem more associated with certain times and places. These are things to consider when designing your character. It’s even more important when your character is in a situation where everyone gets a nickname.

Let’s take a name. Alexander/Alexandra. Personally, I’ve always liked the name. It also has several built-in nicknames: Al, Allie, Alex, Xander, Sandy, Lex, Lexi, etc. What do you automatically think of when you hear those names? If this was your character what name might they go by in what context? Chances are, no one person is going to use all those nicknames even ignoring that some of them are more common to one gender than another. Maybe yours tends to go by Alex, can’t stand being called Al, and cringes at Alexander/Alexandra because that is what their parents use when they are in trouble.

I just finished a draft of the third Moonlit Memories book. In the book, the main character is referred to by several different names. Anna is the persona she uses, pretending to be human and normal. Liska is how she refers to herself most of the time, part of Luna Liska, her use name as a ninja. This is also how I tend to refer to her. But Todd, the human who discovers her secret and knows her best, tends to use Sakaki, her real name. Each name belongs to a metaphorical mask that she puts on, which may change depending on who she is interacting with. What she is called in any section can be a clue to her behavior and even her mental state.

Names have power. It’s a lesson found in practically any fairy tale. How can you use names effectively? It’s not just having your characters have multiple names, which you have to be careful with, because it can be confusing.

Sometimes certain names have connotations associated with them. You can play with those to provide a little interest. Maybe use a typically gendered name for someone of the opposite gender. Use an old fashioned name for someone very young or vice versa. Use names from other countries or other times. Use names with meanings that contrast or compliment the character.

Don’t forget about the possibility of earned names. This exists in many cultures and can be a fun thing to play with. Maybe the accomplishment that earned them the name is one they regret later or is considered shameful in another culture. Or perhaps the name was meant to shame but they later consider it a point of pride.

It has been found that names of four or five syllables seem to resonate with people the most. Don’t ask me why, just use it. This can go for first and last name, so don’t feel the need to saddle your main character with super long names. There are also exceptions to the rule. Sometimes a good rhythm, resonance, or alliteration can be just as good.

Don’t have names too similar to each other, beware of main characters whose names who start with the same letter. Some overlap may be necessary, but unless it is plot related, try to avoid having a Mary, a Maria, and a Marcia in the same story. Or at least throw in some nicknames. Maybe Mary goes by Marz, Maria prefers her middle name of Theresa, and Marcia is usually referred to as Ms. Blackstone.

How do you uses names to add richness to your story?

Reading to Write

Reading to Write

It should probably go without saying that most writers love to read. We write because we love books. Maybe we write because the books we want aren’t out there. Maybe it is because we just love stories so much we want to share them. These are wonderful and valid reasons to write.

Stephen King once said that a professional writer must read four hours a day and write four hours a day or they couldn’t call themselves professional. Not to argue with one of the bestselling writers of all time, but I do realize that isn’t an option for everyone.

That said, reading is a must for writers. But reading, in and of itself, isn’t enough. There’s a way to get more milage out of your reading.

It is important to read with an analytical mind. Read like you are going to be graded on it by your harshest English teacher. Yes, this can take some enjoyment out of reading. Because of this, it might be best to start with a book you are already familiar with. But the more you do it, the better writer you will become.

Overall Rating: Ask yourself what you liked about the book. What didn’t you like? The more things you can list, the better, but if you are having trouble, try to find at least two of each. This could be as overarching as liking a particular character or setting, or something more subtle, like enjoying the writer’s word choices or style.

Once you have that, ask yourself why. Some of this will be personal preference. Maybe you like certain tropes and dislike others. I love found family as a trope, but hate mistaken identities. I refuse to touch anything with toys or dolls coming to life if it is at all malicious or creepy.

Knowing this, I know that these are things I may want to include or exclude from my own writing. According to No Plot, No Problem, the official book of National Novel Writing Month, it is very easy to find yourself incorporating story elements you don’t like because you think you have to or should.

It’s a lot easier to write if you are enjoying what you are writing, and odds are pretty high that you aren’t the only one who likes it. Maybe it’s something you can be known for.

Rate Each Element: How did the character arc work? Did it feel too fast, too slow? Did it feel unrealistic that they went from where they started to where they ended up? How did the plot work? Did it seem plausible? Even if it wasn’t realistic, could you actually follow why the various plot points happened? Did anything just appear to happen randomly with little explanation? Did the ending feel satisfying? Happy or sad, a good ending should feel like it was the way it had to be.

Analyze word choice and plot twists. Examine scene changes and points of view. Can you figure out why the author did everything the way they did? Can you think of a better way to do it? Who knows, maybe you can.

Genre Considerations: Every genre has its own rules. Did this work play within those rules? Did it tweak conventions? Did that work? If it was a mystery, did you spot the red herrings when they came or only after? Did the reveal seem to come from nowhere? If it was a romance, did the couple actually have good chemistry? Were you rooting for them to succeed? Did they make too many dumb mistakes? If it was fantasy or science fiction involving a magic or technology, did the author explain the rules to the world well? Were they consistent? Were you confused?

How can you incorporate your favorites: Please note, this is not stealing from the author. This is realizing how your favorites do something and trying to incorporate that technique in your own writing. Suppose you love the narrative style of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Addams. Well, figure out why you like it so much. Is it the humor? Is it the word choices? Copy down some samples by hand. What do you notice?

I had an assignment in English once where we had to rewrite a paragraph using another word of the same kind for each word. A verb for a verb, an article for an article, a noun for a noun, etc. Not a single word could be the same, and it had to make logical sense. It’s a challenging exercise, but worth it when studying narrative style and voice.

If you discover that love a particular character archetype, you know you want to try using that in your own writing. If you love how a writer does scene transitions, practice writing some in that style, then find your own twist.

Keep favorites on hand: This is especially good when you find someone who is really good at something you are weak at. This particular author writes really enticing beginnings? Keep a couple handy and when you are having trouble figuring out how to start, you can read a couple of those beginnings, and analyze why they grabbed you and sucked you in. How can you do similar? Love the way one writer manages to give concise and vivid character descriptions? When it comes time to describe a character and you aren’t sure how to go about it, you know where to go.

Marketing considerations: What made you decide to pick up this book? The cover art? The blurb? A recommendation? Previous experience reading the author? Did the book fulfil its promises? Would you read more from this author? Some of those you will not have any control over for your own works, especially if you go through a traditional publisher. But some you can.  The best thing you can do is write the best book you can. Recommendations and previous experience with the author are probably the biggest consideration. So keep reading and writing, fans will come.

What do you pay attention to when reading?

Worldbuilding 101: Clothing

Worldbuilding 101: Clothing

How many people do you know define themselves by what they wear? It’s especially common in teenagers who are still discovering themselves and their personality. But to some extent, clothing matters to everyone.

This can also be a character study, especially when writing contemporary fiction. Who won’t wear anything that isn’t a designer brand? Who wouldn’t dream of touching a particular style of clothing (a dress, a suit, etc.)? Who buys almost exclusively in thrifts stores? Who manages to be appropriately or inappropriately dressed for every occasion?

But it can also go deeper than that. Especially if you aren’t writing in contemporary times. What your characters wear can define the third century shepherd or the thirtieth generation Mars Colonist. Just keep a few factors in mind.

What materials are available: A nomadic sheep-herding society is much more likely to make clothes out of wool than linen or flax which they would have to grow. Trade is definitely possible, so maybe some or even most, have one or two prized clothing items from flax, linen, or even silk.

A pre-industrial age society will probably not have synthetic fabrics. On the other hand, a space colony might have so much access to synthetic materials that natural materials are a luxury, especially if the colony has very little room for plants or livestock that aren’t for food.

This also applies to colors. In ancient Rome, Senators had a purple sash. This dye was made from a particular mollusk which only gave a single drop of dye. Needless to say, it took a lot to get a purple sash. Black also wasn’t used that often because most available dyes would fade pretty quickly.

What is the climate: People dress differently depending on climate. Is it hot? Cold? Is the sun harsh? Is it likely to rain? What if that wasn’t a factor? If your story takes place in a climate controlled bio-dome or a spaceship, maybe people don’t have to worry about the weather. How would that affect how they dress?

If you have a particular climate in mind, you should check out the traditional dress of people who live in similar climates on earth. For example, it’s easy to think that in really hot climates, people would want to wear as few clothes as possible. Yet in desserts in the Middle East and North Africa, traditional clothing is often pretty concealing. Likely to provide protection from the sun, which can be pretty brutal.

What role does religion or tradition play: Don’t wear white before Memorial Day or after Labor Day (Does anyone really care?) Wear black to funerals. Don’t wear white to weddings. Those are simple society rules. Some rules go deeper. This can be modesty rules, rules on how you groom, how many tassels to have on your shawl, etc.

Does your main character always wear red on their sleeves to symbolize the blood they must shed at the call of the goddess? Do most people make it a point to turn one sock inside out for good luck? Are certain colors, materials, or styles forbidden? Can only the priests wear green?

We have the tradition of pink for girls and blue for boys, which is much newer than most people think, what with blue traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary and femininity, and pink actually considered a manly color by the Vikings and others. Does your society have any color associations?

What does clothing say about the role in society: People who are exceptionally wealthy can afford clothes that are pretty but fragile. Or, by contrast, they may go only for the best quality which can wear well and are durable. They may also have sharper colors or be able to afford more expensive or rare dyes.

Poorer people are likely to either stick to durable materials if they can afford it. Sometimes they can’t. It’s expensive to be poor. Maybe they just have to go for the cheapest option and replace frequently.

It’s also very common for one end of society to take fashion trends from the other side of society and adapt them. High heeled shoes were originally for men. They came in useful for slipping the foot into stirrups and for those who worked in places like a butcher shop where the floor was frankly a health hazard.

You may, depending on your story, decide that the society in your story is strictly regimented. Sometimes that shows in the clothing. Both Brave New World and Divergent made the different segments of society visible by having them exclusively wear a single color. Sometimes a certain color or style may be reserved for a monarch or another elevated group.

While it wasn’t a major factor in my quest story, while in the palace, the clothing proclaimed a hierarchy and even where one was born. Lakara, the scholar, is very proud to wear the blue and red with silver embroidery that proclaims her to be an adept scholar of the king, born in the palace. This puts her above the foreign thief wearing cheap brown clothes, approximately equal to the knight who wears armor from a hundred years ago and the mark of serving the king for ten years, and below the necromancer who wears black and purple with gold and silver embroidery. Of course, she learns that one’s rank in the palace isn’t always the most important thing when outside the capital city.

Does magic or advanced technology change anything: Clothes get dirty, wear out, can be inappropriate for weather, can get lost or stolen, etc. Can you change that with any magic or technology available in your story?

In my Hyde Chronicles books, one character, Adrian, has a signature black long coat. He is more or less always wearing it, unless he puts it on Violet. It also has a few minor enchantments on it. It gives him a little bit of protection from a spell in book one and is mentioned to have temperature control in book two, preventing him from overheating in the summer, and giving him a little boost in the winter. This works because this is well in line with what we have seen magic used for in the books, and Adrian is in the position to be able to afford something like this.

I have a work in progress that is loosely based on Cinderella. In this story, rich people will sometimes have ColorChange wear, based on LED clothes that are actually possible to some extent now. I’m just extrapolating. As a minor Easter Egg, my main character, Cindy, has a ColorChange dress with a bit of a glitch. Any time she wears it as pink or blue, it will randomly switch to the other. Yes, I know that wasn’t Cinderella, but I couldn’t resist.

While they aren’t in mass development yet, I have read about cloth that can absorb either solar energy or kinetic energy. Even on a small scale, that is exciting. What if you could charge your phone by plugging it into your bracelet?

What fashion trends are around: Fashion trends move much more quickly now than they did a hundred years ago which moved faster than they did three hundred years ago, but fashion does move. They also tend to be cyclical. Trends also vary depending on location. I remember being very surprised to learn that in Japanese schools, a girl wearing a long skirt was an act of rebellion. In many Western schools, a short skirt is an act of rebellion.

Is your character trying to figure out how to update their clothes to the latest fashion? Or perhaps they have to figure out which fashion to follow. Or maybe the fashion has been pretty close to the same since their grandparents, so that isn’t a factor.

Do adaptations have to be made: I have a work in progress where the main character is a fairy. She needs special clothes because of her wings and her size. If you have non-human characters or humans that have different body types, they may need to arrange special clothes.

Liska, the Werefox main character from the Moonlit Memories series, can wear ordinary clothes, though she often has to shop in the Juniors section because of her height, but has to use special detergents, because of her sensitivity to fragrances. She also needs someone with her to go shopping as she is completely colorblind.

Basically, your characters are probably going to have to wear something. Spend a little time thinking about what they wear, what it says about them, and what it says about the world around them.

How have you used clothing to worldbuild?

Getting the First Draft Done

First of all, I would like to apologize for dropping off the face of the earth. That wasn’t my intention. There were a combination of factors in play, some of which have faded, at least for now. I’ve got a new organization system I’m experimenting with that I hope will help me stay more consistent with my blog as well as my other writing. If it helps, I’ll mention the system here.

Getting the first draft done

As any writer can tell you and I’m sure you have all experienced, one of the hardest things in writing is getting the first draft down on the page. Brainstorming can be tricky, writing second, third, or more drafts can get challenging, editing can be tedious. But all that fades in comparison to getting the idea in your head down on paper (or word processing page) for the first time. The longer the project, and incidentally, the less enthusiasm you have for the project, the harder it is.

Unfortunately, this step may also be the most vital. A draft can be edited, revised, and polished. A concept in your head, not so much. So here are a few tips to get the brilliance in your head down in actual words.

Give yourself permission to write badly: First drafts are terrible. That is true for almost every single writer ever, including the bestselling ones. Maybe one writer in a million can write a good first draft, though I bet that means they kept revising the work over and over in their heads. Orson Scott Card has a reputation for this. He is literally the only author I have heard of who is famous for this, and he is famous because it is so rare. You and I and everyone else, we can write our really bad first drafts and fix them up in the second draft. That’s what second drafts are for.

Some people will literally write something like ‘Dumbest Version’ or ‘Stupid Version’ on the top. If that helps you, go for it.

Write in Comic Sans: I’m not kidding. If you are typing up your first draft, which most readers do, then try using Comic Sans font. A lot of people hate that font, and honestly, it’s okay if you are one of them. For some reason, don’t ask me why, that font helps people relax their inhibitions and spark their inspiration. Even people who can’t stand the font. I’ve tried it, it works.

This also has an advantage later in the editing process. One trick to help you catch your mistakes is to change the format, like changing your font to another, like Times New Roman, Ariel, or Courier which are considered good professional fonts, like you should use when submitting work to an agent or editor. Don’t keep it in Comic Sans.

Turn your type color to match the background: This is particularly useful when you are trying to write a great deal quickly like for NaNoWriMo where the emphasis is speed and not editing. If you can’t see what you are typing, you can’t get too fussed over the errors. Yes, you will probably have a few more typos this way, but it’s still worth a try in small amounts.

Maintain forward momentum: One of my writing books (Book in a Month) calls this writing ‘as if’. When you are about ten chapters in and realize that your book would be much better if you made a change, do not go back and make that change!

Instead, write yourself a note. Something like: [Main Character named Suzie and has a sister. Change all previous instances of her called Tiffany and her being an only child. Insert scene of her talking about her sister being kidnapped]. Then write the rest of the book as if you had been doing that all along.

I’m currently doing that with my WIP, a new book in the Moonlit Memories series. I was struggling with the book not flowing right and realizing all the action was happening over about three weeks or so when I needed the book to cover about a year. After a little brainstorm, I decided to spread out the action, so this scene that I wrote as happening in July will now happen over Christmas break, which not only lets time pass, but dramatically adds conflict. I also now know I need to write a fun Thanksgiving scene, involving Liska, who has grown up in Japan, is pretending to be British, and has never celebrated Thanksgiving in her life. I don’t know how that will go, but I am looking forward to finding out.

It’s going to require a fair bit of revising to fix this, not least of which because I’m almost 40,000 words in. But if I go back to the beginning, I will never get anywhere. So I will make notes and trust the second draft to fix it.

Try a different method: If you are really blocked, try using a different way to get things down. If you usually type, try writing with pen or pencil on paper for a scene or two. If you usually handwrite your first draft, maybe try a computer. Make a recording or use dictation software. If you have access to a typewriter, maybe give that a try.

Reward yourself: We aren’t actually that far from the lab animal that pushes the lever to get a treat. Ideally, when we accomplish a task, our brain rewards us by releasing chemicals that make us pleased and happy. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for everyone. Sigh. If your brain is falling down on the job, you may have to reward yourself. Food based rewards can be tricky if you are trying to lose weight or have eating issues, but for some people, a usually forbidden treat works as a perfect reward. You know yourself. Other possibilities include an extra episode of a favorite show, a little more time on a game, buying something you want but have been putting off, etc.

Keep scale in mind. You shouldn’t reward yourself with an extra hour of TV because you finished a sentence. And giving yourself a sticker because you finished writing a draft of your book may be underwhelming. But a sticker for finishing the day’s writing and giving yourself a day off with some extra TV time because you finished a draft may be perfect, providing those actually motivate you. If they don’t, then use a different reward.

Know your rhythms: I consistently struggle just before I get to the climax. It’s like climbing a mountain uphill while wading in molasses, pushing at a brick wall. Every single book this happens. Once I break through the wall, I’m often done in about a week. Go figure. Many authors struggle at about the two-thirds mark. One author I read always has a problem when he reaches a certain page. If this is your first book, know this is common, and mark where the issue is. You can check if you have this problem in your next book. If you have written a few books, maybe you know where your brick wall is. Remind yourself that this is temporary, it doesn’t mean your book is bad, and that things will get easier.

There are other methods, and you may have your own tricks. Just remember, the trick is to get the draft written.

What tips do you use to write your first draft?