Thursday, March 01, 2012

A Call For Names

So I've written two and a half chapters of my book.  (Applause goes here.)  The thing is, though, that I think it's about time to stop calling things, "Small Kingdom," "Large Kingdom," "A Kingdom," "A City," "Another Kingdom," "Completely Different Kingdom,"- well, you get the idea.  And even though I've had a pretty good idea of the general location of things in my head, I also think it's time to map everything out for good. 

I had my brother-in-law, Eric, start to make a map over the weekend, but he only had about five minutes and not a lot of information to work with.  At least that was a start.  So I took what he started, and tried working on it last night, but I just didn't have the opportunity and time with having Rebecca crawl around and eat my papers, and having to put the kids to bed, then Becca to bed again and again.  (She has a pretty bad cold.)  Between times putting Becca to bed I told Brian that in order to work on my book I either need to stay up all night long, get up extremely early, or ignore the housework. 

Guess what I picked?  Option number 3!  I haven't even showered yet today (Don't worry Diane, I'll shower before the party tonight), and all I've eaten is cake, which is an entirely different story in itself that has to do with the dog diarrhea-ing twice in her kennel and me texting Brian to bring home chocolate cake.  He brought home the new tuxedo cake from Costco, and I've discovered that if you put your piece in the microwave for about 17 seconds it is just delicious.

Anyway, I downloaded AutoREALM mapping software and have been teaching myself how to use it all morning, and now I am finally putting my map together.  (I'm making mountains right now, and it's fun.)  And this is where you guys come in.  If you want to leave name ideas in a comment, it would help me out so much.  I have a few ideas for names of places, but I need a whole ton more.

First off, I guess you could say this is a fantasy book, but I don't want it to be a it's-hard-to-pronounce-anything type of book.  Whenever people ask me what type of book it is, the only real answer I can come up with is a Shannon Hale type of book.  She's her own genre for me.

What has before been referred to as "Small Kingdom" has a sort of Celtic feel to it in my mind, but I don't want to rip off Irish or Scottish words and just having them all get mad at me for butchering their language, and I also want it to have that Celtic feel, without people automatically thinking, "Ireland!"  Does that make sense?  Small Kingdom is also very farming and fishing oriented and is right by the ocean.

Large Kingdom is more military related, and it has a very Germanic feel to it.

The bad guy's kingdom I have no ideas about yet in that sort of way.

So I think I have the names for those kingdoms, but if someone comes up with something I like better, I'll replace it. I still need names for other kingdoms, cities, lakes, rivers, roads, oceans, etc.  Anything you can think of.  I'll get back to my mountains (oh, and the mountains!  And forests!) and trust everyone else's brains to help me out.  Thank you, everyone!

6 comments:

Kim-the-girl said...

I don't think I told you, but you writing your book has inspired me to start writing too! And my book is very Shannon Hale/Avatar: The Last Air Bender... but I'm no where near as dedicated to this whole process as you at this point... Anyway, thanks for the inspiration, I'm looking forward to working on when things get less crazy...

So names: How about? Feoras, Orlaith, Ownah, Ceallach, Saoirse, Lorcan, Daire, Farica, Durin, Kaethe, Ull?

I know you said you don't want to rip stuff off... but I think baby name sites are a gold mine for getting names! I won't be offended if these choices all sound ridiculous, I just thought I'd *try* to help. :) So excited to hear of the progress!

NaDell said...

I love that you heated your cake for 17 seconds. (I used to stop the microwave at 3 seconds when I was a kid because 3 was my favorite number. Silly, huh?)

For some name ideas (throwing some in there just for fun. I like making up names.)
Kanstaff, Elik, Ames, Bardsteed, Butcherfield, Kronk, Fauser, Lagens, Hunsfraker, Soaplin, Mallowgood, Roga, Stegaland, Scarsloni, Slackson, Eastenglow

Carrie said...

That's so exciting, Kim! We can go on book tours together when we're super famous!

NaDell, normally I'm a strict 25 or 30 second kind of person, but 20 seconds completely melted the frosting, and 15 just barely defrosted it, so I bumped it up to 17 and it was perfect. I think it's funny that you stopped the microwave at 3, though. Right now I usually stop it at 2 or 1 to keep it from beeping and waking up Becca.

Thanks, guys! I'll definitely use these in some form or another. Keep 'em coming!

Catherine said...

Cael or Caelbert, frolet

Brooklet said...

I am no good with names, though you can name any rivers "something Brooke", okay!!

I love hearing about the progress you made and I hope you keep leaving little snippets of it on your blog. Exciting!

Anonymous said...

You should name it "Meganland!" Just kidding.

How about "Athoria" or "Polendree" or "Excelpis"?

Hee, hee, I feel so silly making names up! This is fun!

By the way, Kim-the-girl, I LOVE Shannan Hale and Avatar, so I can't wait to read your book!

You rock, Carrie! I am so excited for you!

-Megan