Q is for Quit

As some of you may recall back in February I was working on a book called Thanet's Curse. It's the sequel to my wip Blackburn's Prisoner. Well, I gave up on it. Yup. Up and quit. But then I was inspired by Falen/Sarah and decided, hey, let's try some outlining garbage first.

So I cut up pieces of paper, scribbled, and ended up with this:

Pretty colors!

Each color is for who the scene focuses on. It looks worse than it is. Hopefully.

Guess what I figured out? I have four more chapters to write. Four! SO close to the end, and I gave up. Especially because I have bits and pieces of aforementioned chapters, so it's even more ridiculously close to finish. ESPECIALLY because I can usually write a chapter a day. (Unless I'm un the midst of a week of finals. Bleh. Then I do nothing but text myself sentences here or there, or pretty much everywhere. Except when I'm driving. No texting while driving. I would hit a horse. Because I would be so off-road I would be in a state where there are lots of horses and I would hit one. And you don't want me to hit a horse do you? Didn't think so.)

Thus the moral of the story is: Don't hit horses while driving, and don't let horses drive cars.

This horse is secretly texting! *GASP!*

Wait, no, no, no. The moral is: Don't give up. Do NOT quit. Whether you want to give up on being a writer, on writing a paper, a poem, a stupid novel that will not cooperate properly, do not give up. Sometimes you just need a little time away. Sometimes you just need to do a little outlining. (Did I just say that? Me? Condoning outlining? The world has officially been turned haphazard.)

Another reason not to give up: My friends/randompeople would run at me with knives, pitchforks, and torches. I am sure of it.

So in order to not being chased by a raving mob, keep writing and don't give up. Or else.

N is for Names

I totally got the idea for this post from Cheri. Everyone needs to have names for the characters. If you have been able to write a story without the character's names I will... Oh. Wait. Okay, so I DID write a short story and the characters did not have names, but that doesn't count. The point is most of the time people in stories have got to have names.

There can be very many reasons behind the names of my peeps, and each individual story tends to have a theme behind the reason for me choosing the names. Did that make sense? Good.

In Blackburn's Prisoner and Thanet's Curse I chose names based on their meaning, and their origin. This was the first time I have ever done this (writing high fantasy I tend to make up names instead.) It was fantastic! I came across some of my favorite names, like:

Cynferth: Welsh, meaning Beautiful Chief. Wait? Really?? Snap. I thought it meant something else. Oh well. It's still a really cool name.

Cenweard: English, meaning Wise Guardian. I LOVE this name. Sadly, I could never name my child this because he would be made fun of so bad.

Nadra: Swahili, meaning Special. This fits her perfectly. I was trying to find a name that started with 'N' that had its origins in Africanishness. And it needed to be short and I wanted it to mean something like 'unusual' so I was very excited.

Then in Haunbrinth everyone is named after real-life people. Not much to tell there. And yes, I did get permission from everyone. Especially the one girl Steph, because she turned out to be a mad angry person with issues.

Cinnamon and Calamus: or Why You Shouldn't Trust Spakes I have peeps divided in two. First there are spakes, who are named after people in the Bible.

Obadiah: Hebrew, God's worker

Solomon: Hebrew, Peace

Micaiah : Hebrew, who is like God?

Sweet! I didn't know what they meant before, I just picked them 'cause they're Bible names. That's pretty cool. Everyone else has weird names that come from I don't know where. Some are middle names of the people they're based on, and some people are named things like Scotch, or Emdy, or Jacqueline, just because that's who they are.

Oy. I need to stop having so many stories that are just floating around.

Oh! My sis told me about these! They are magical.

So what about you? Is there any specific reason you pick out names for your characters, or do they just come to you? Oh, and what was the weirdest name you ever used for one of your characters?

K is for Kill, Kill, Kill! and Die! Die! Die

I have realized a recent trend through my current wip's. Violence and death. Yup. Happy, huh? In Thanet's Curse I'm having the issue with my characters killing people without regret or any serious moral "hm, maybe I shouldn't kill this guy?" It's very weird. Especially because I'm not a big fan of murder. But seriously, the one girl, Damaria, kills like it's her hobby, and Nadra has these spikes of anger that are just plain dangerous.

No, Nadra doesn't look like this.

But sometimes I do.

The reason behind this is I get very annoyed at movies/books/sandwhiches that show murder like this:

BadGuy: Go ahead, shoot me!

Heroine: I will (hands shake while holding weapon/gun/zap stick)

BadGuy: No you won't!

Heroine: I can do whatever I want! (Hands BadGuy gun.) And I want to not kill you.

BadGuy: Swell. (shoots Heroine/Hero)

This type of scene tends to get me screaming "Shoot 'em in the leg! Shoot 'em in the leg!" Seriously, their leg can heal and that way they won't continue to train monkeys to steal every can of peanut butter in the galaxy. Thus, my scenes tend to look like this:

BadGal: Go ahead, shoot me!

Hero: Sure (shoots BadGal in leg).

See? Simple, easy... But when it's the five-billionth time Hero/Heroine has given up without a fight... I worry. I do have the excuse of it being in a world of fantasy, where maybe murder isn't looked down upon with the same fervor. But. Um. No. A girl kills her father (by accident) in self-defense and she gets banished for so many years. Yup. People still take it as serious as bananas. And bananas are pretty serious.

Feel the seriousness ooze out at you. Bwoogaly-Bwoogaly!

What about you guys? Have you ever had to deal with death in books? Do you find it easy to kill? Even FUN too kill? I mean, not really kill, because than I would have to have the popo hunt yo face down. (On a side note, fortunately I haven't started basing to-be-killed characters off of real life customers. I haven't lost it too badly.)

He, on the other hand, has lost it

*shudders*

Random Words

I had an idea the other day (and yes, I know my ideas can be dangerous, but calm down, this does not involve knives or juggling) and I thought I might see how it works.

Because I am having difficulties with Thanet's Curse, I have decided to ask for your help. If any of you fine folks would like, give me a word: it can be a noun, verb, adjective, etc. (but not articles, prepostions, or most adverbs, because we want to be interesting here). Once I have collected these words I must integrate them into my manuscript, at least once, preferably twice.

Last October when I was doing Nano I had a couple of random words I found through the forums there, and I decided to find a way to incorporate them into my story (like defenestration.) Currently I am trying to find a way to use 'antipode,' and already used 'proffered,' so I would like a couple of new ones.

The novel is set in a fantasy world of little islets (think Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy). Remember, there are no such things as giraffes or wombats in this world (*tear*), and please keep it clean. I am not going to put the word 'poop' in my novel. Just not happening.

Anyway, I am going to go do homework, and if any of you would like, feel free to comment a word for me. Yay! I'm excited to see how this works out.

Oh! And because I love pictures:

He is picking out random words. See his lovely wrinkled hand.

This is SO pretty. Love, love, love.

For any of you who post a word I thank you in advance and am showering butterflies on you in my head. Though... I suppose that might be gross, but in my head it is lovely, so you'll have to take my word for it that I am not insulting you.