What's in a name?

I've been having a devil of a time naming some of these people. Okay, naming this one character. A's love interest (A is the female main character, and Book One is written in her POV).

Way back when I came up with the concept for this (which you can now read all about here, or you can click "Debut Origins" at the top of the page, same thing), all it took was 2 minutes of research and A and D were named perfectly. I can't imagine them being anyone else, they are (I italicized and bolded, that's how much emotion you should read into that word) these people.

Their previous significant others were also fairly simple. I just looked up a few names from the time period, and I found the ones that fit each person. The antagonist was also quick to identify. I cringed and detested him as soon as I read his name, and I knew that was the one.

But when it comes to A's current love interest, I haven't a clue. Here are just some of the names he has been:

  • Keith,
  • Jeffery,
  • Michael/Mike,
  • Jared,
  • Andrew,
  • I think I even threw in a Chris or Matthew at some point.


Currently, per my sister's suggestion, his name is Jackson. I have looked up baby names popular at the time this guy was born, and I didn't see anything that stuck out. I even tried to use the name my husband and I would have chosen if we had had a son instead of a daughter, and that just made me project weird maternal instincts over the character which never would have worked in the book.

"Jackson" is a very open, honest guy. He accepts people for who they are, but if that doesn't work with him, and they don't take the many opportunities he gives them to change, then he backs off. He worries about everyone's well being, even people he just met. Sharing in joy and positive experiences is a big part of why A falls for him (also his deep brown eyes, but ya know, she's only human). He defends his feelings for her against her very protective brother, D, and eventually gains his trust.

Bughhhhhh! I figured naming a fictional character would be easier than naming my child, but that appears to be very untrue.

Why am I only venting about this now? Because I thought that Jackson would work if I just left it alone for a while. It's been three months and over 30,000 words, and I still hesitate before typing his name, because it just isn't his name.


I just want to see or hear his name and have the light shine from the heavens while angels sing. Is that really so much to ask?

not about my book, but WOW

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (her blog, and her website) came out on Tuesday. I'm ashamed to say that I worked like a good, responsible adult does all day, BUT I did finish Red Queen that night.

One: I recognized the cover from Epic Reads book shimmy awards (or maybe it was just one of those "here's what we're super stoked about for this year" articles) and it's beautiful.


Two: I was subconsciously on the prowl for a strong dystopian novel/series because I'm probably going to shelve that genre for a little while. The YA dystopian boom was a good boom, but the boom is over for me, and I'm glad that I discovered a series that will leave a nice flavor for me to come back to.

Three: I'm usually pretty incredible at seeing plot twists before they happen. I saw two or three, then I was reading along (after a big "oh nooooooo!" moment) then BAM! My head was spinning and I sat in the parking lot of my daughter's daycare to finish reading the book right then.



*Edit: I found this Moriarty gif that better describes my shock at this point in Red Queen


Four: Aveyard's description of Whitefire Palace... "My old teacher used to say it was carved from the hillside itself, a living piece of white stone." (wish I knew what page that was from in print, but on Kindle for iPhone it's location 4494 of 6034 :D ) I immediately saw the white walls of Minas Tirith, and my heart applauded another Tolkien fan from afar.

In short, Red Queen was quite lovely. Ok, it was wonderful, creative, colorful, incredible, fantastic... any and all of these things. My heart was pulled in different directions from beginning to end, and I love that Mare sees things more gray than strictly black and white. It's more realistic. Well... As realistic as a society with different colored blood and superpowers scattered through the population can get.

Victoria Aveyard, a job well done. I can't wait to see what else you conjure up in the coming years.

a cruel, cruel, capricious god

I've been doing really well at writing something every day, but I'm still struggling with the "shiny things" like overused verbs or adjectives, or typing "teh" instead of "the" (which I obviously must fix right then, it can't wait). For instance, I posted on Facebook 5 days ago that I had reached 27k. Yay for me!

I wrote maybe 700 words over the weekend, 1000 on Monday, and another 1000 on Tuesday. But my word count today was 28,888...

-_-

I have got to stop editing! Granted, the chunks I took out were probably going to be taken out at some point down the line anyway, but they apparently just had to be gone this week. At least to editor-me they did. Writer-me needs to stop reading her work and just let it come out.

Everyone is probably sick of me discussing my selves, but the struggle is real. Compartmentalizing is a lot harder when it comes to actually writing something than it is in the rest of my life. Now that I have a goal, hopefully me harping on the fact that I need to compartmentalize will help me do it.

The scene I've been working on for the past few days has taken a rather dark turn. As I see A and D go through this, I'm cringing, but also hoping that I'll make the readers cringe, too. All I can say is that if they come knocking at my door, the only think I could do is take a page from Chuck:


On a positive note, I inspired my sister to pick up her blog again (check it out! Whimsical Makes). She's super talented, and also insanely busy, but thrives that way.
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