Of course, off course
I don't know if naming things gives other authors trouble. It's possible that I build it up too much in my mind. I feel like words, sounds and syllables create two distinct problems. The first is reference: if a sound creates a troublesome association in a reader's mind. Twilight, for instance, has been ruined for a lot of people, even though in a vacuum it's fairly evocative and pleasant to say. If a name points to a very specific memory for a very small number of people, it can't really be helped, but there is a worry with "you don't want to sound like something else." The second problem is what I can only describe as mouth feel. If a name hard to pronounce, difficult t say, or just a strange kind of word salad. It sticks in the mouth, and rather than the reader moving on the next sentence they're at home again in an armchair saying the word to themselves in slight disgust.
My original idea for Where Shadows Lie was a kind of double entendre, because the stories take place where the dark things are, it being a supernatural series of stories, but there is also a motif of truth and deception and subjective reality to the books. The 2010 me was very happy with it, but the 2011 me realized that it was possible that a lot of other authors had similar ideas. It was nice not to be alone, I guess, but it was a little sad to realize I wasn't very original. Every me since then has ruminated on what I would've called it if I had it to do all over again. And now the time is here. I've already re-writtten swaths of the first book, the worst of the series I believe, in an effort to make the entrance to the series less bumpy, and more current. But what to call it.
I also wrote a short story in an effort to set the story up, give the whole telling a longer runway to take off from. I think I had an aspiration to attempt to bring on board a newer audience that would hopefully take to the story better. Guess I'm doing that, too.
The other novel, yet to be started, is still in the planning stages. I will probably finish the outline this week with a goal to start it in early February. I'm looking forward to it after I've spent some time in the sauna of thoughts from the preceding book. I've hit upon some things I hadn't considered, and thinking about them has stirred up a whole host of notions. I will also be conducting some research to give the setting some more tact. It was my failure to more comprehensively world build that got me stuck a third of the way through the second book the first time. So I guess until I pass that specific point, I won't know if my back tracking was even worth it.
I feel like I'm using the word guess a lot, and it's only the first month of the year. Maybe that's not a bad sign, but then, perhaps bad signs are better than no signs at all?
My original idea for Where Shadows Lie was a kind of double entendre, because the stories take place where the dark things are, it being a supernatural series of stories, but there is also a motif of truth and deception and subjective reality to the books. The 2010 me was very happy with it, but the 2011 me realized that it was possible that a lot of other authors had similar ideas. It was nice not to be alone, I guess, but it was a little sad to realize I wasn't very original. Every me since then has ruminated on what I would've called it if I had it to do all over again. And now the time is here. I've already re-writtten swaths of the first book, the worst of the series I believe, in an effort to make the entrance to the series less bumpy, and more current. But what to call it.
I also wrote a short story in an effort to set the story up, give the whole telling a longer runway to take off from. I think I had an aspiration to attempt to bring on board a newer audience that would hopefully take to the story better. Guess I'm doing that, too.
The other novel, yet to be started, is still in the planning stages. I will probably finish the outline this week with a goal to start it in early February. I'm looking forward to it after I've spent some time in the sauna of thoughts from the preceding book. I've hit upon some things I hadn't considered, and thinking about them has stirred up a whole host of notions. I will also be conducting some research to give the setting some more tact. It was my failure to more comprehensively world build that got me stuck a third of the way through the second book the first time. So I guess until I pass that specific point, I won't know if my back tracking was even worth it.
I feel like I'm using the word guess a lot, and it's only the first month of the year. Maybe that's not a bad sign, but then, perhaps bad signs are better than no signs at all?
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