Historical fiction and fantasy lover just trying to get all her ideas down someplace. I post resources, potentially writing advice, occasionally things for the rp I do and snippets of my own work.
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
― Anton Chekhov
Current WIP: Six Feet Under
Word Count: --
projects
Six Feet Under
Death. Trust. Decay. Family.
Dogged by his past and determined to hide from it for the rest of his days, Daniel Barrister finds himself at a crossroads when the nightmares of the frontier final catch up with him.
Seven friends, finally able to see one another after years apart, swept together by old emotions and even stronger ties of love and hardship. Paralleling the real word, their D&D campaign: an assassination attempt, a dark entity nipping at their heels, and tenuous alliances forged among a group of misfits as diverse as their races tie each character together, but for how long, and to what end?
Genre > Historical Fiction / Western & Southern Gothic
Status > First Draft | Planning Stages
Setting > America, 1875 (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona)
POV > Singular, Third Person, Limited
Synopsis > It’s 1875, Texas. Frontier life is harsh and the hand of the wilderness is cruel. Living at the heart of it is Daniel Barrister, the leader of the notorious Red River gang. Hands dirtied by a decade of crime and running from his own nightmares and a past he would rather forget, the outlaw soon realizes that he can no sooner escape his past then he can face it.
Unfortunately, this is what he must do.
It was the least of his worries.
Strange happenings across the frontier have raised alarms across the state and beyond. People missing, strange noises on the plains, tracks that no hunter can understand…it only continues to grow, and Daniel is merely one man. What good could he do? Why does a phantom from his past haunt his every step, urging him to return to the place he has run from for so long, to fix what has always been broken?
How can he do this without ending up six feet under himself?
catch of breath, choke, gulp, heave, inhale, pant, puff, snort, wheeze, huff, rasp, sharp intake of air, short of breath, struggle for breath, swallow, winded
Me, naming anythig I created: *screams in pain and despair*
Just in case this helps others I’m gonna add some methods I use to name my places and people
1. Anagrams-all the names from my first book are anagrams of different names and words. Fun fact- this is how the book started. We got bored in class and made anagrams for all our names and I wrote a story to fit them all. To this day this is my most fav naming system.
Eg-Shore-Srohe, Sirisha-Arisish(this is my name lmao)
2. Random noises- I just pick a word from my mother tongue and add noises to it until it sounds vaguely name like
Eg-Geva(means life in my language)-Gevras(the hq of the rebel group), Varanasi-Aransi
3.Building off the last one, you can pick words that mean something relevant to the place or person and twist them a bit to make them sound *magical*.
4.When in doubt split a big word and add some assorted vowels.
Eg-Daes Noc(I picked some random letters and added some vowels?)
5.You can always pick names based on cultures and characters of your world of course. This can add a lot of depth to your world building.
6.You can name one important geographical feature and name the places close or related to it based on that.
Eg-River Bell- the place where it meets the sea is called Bellmouth.
7.Random name generators-I’m not gonna add links cause you can just google them but there are so many. I suggest getting a nice sounding name and applying one of the above steps to it so it sounds unique.
8.Name the place after a striking feature in itself.(Not recommended. It sounds clunky most of the time ngl but in some cases it works beautifully so go for it.)
Eg-Forest of the Dark.
(Another fun fact-all examples I used here are stuff from my first book. I went full random on my second book lmao)
There are rules for place names in our own world that you can follow! We don’t tend to notice them because the place names are so familiar to us, but more often than not, place names are compound words that describe the area itself.
This kind of relates to the tip mentioned above re: Bellmouth for the mouth of a river. Just describe what your place is like and you’ll be fine. City founders weren’t usually the most imaginative of people and, at least in this one regard, you don’t have to be either. that new palace in the city can just be called the New Palace and that port at the bottom of the river Kern can just be called Kernport.*
For instance, I live close to Romford, which is so called because it was a ford across the river Rom. Similarly, Cambridge is named because a bridge was built across the river Cam.
There are other aspects of place names you probably haven’t even considered that mean something, but I don’t know too much about place names in general so for more information try this brief but informative article, as well as doing some general googling for place name meanings.
(Of course there are some things you may have to work around – if saxons didn’t exist in your fantasy setting it probably won’t make much sense to use ‘sex’ as a suffix for a place; but there’s a safe bet that pretty much any fantasy setting would let you use the ‘ford’ or ‘bridge’ suffix to create a place)
*There are plenty of examples like these in existing fiction. I stole the New Palace from Dragonskin Slippers by Jessica Day George. Other examples include Porthaven and Kingsbury from Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianne Wynn Jones (a haven that happens to be a port and a fortified area belonging to the king, respectively), and The Ford of Beruna and Cair Paravel from The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (a ford across the river Beruna and Paravel Fortress).
Someone asked me about how I do characterisation, and I wrote them a long, rambling response and then realised that some of you might like it.
This skips a lot of the basics (Google will help you) and while I know a lot of characterisation techniques, this is one of my old favourites. As always, don’t do it if you don’t like it! Lol.
So, without further ado, let’s say you have a character you want to get to know, and just can’t for some reason. May I present to you:
***
The Cafe Test - A Characterisation Exercise
Put
your character in a cafe. They want a drink! Even if they have
agoraphobia (hey you know something about them!), they - for some reason - have to go into this cafe. Maybe
physics broke and made them go where they wanted something.
-
Did they get a cafe they liked? What kind of cafe do they like? What does that say about their character? (Is it arty?
Sparse? Utilitarian? Hipster? Friendly? Rustic? Empty? Full?)
For example, let’s say I have a character named Felicia. She magically appears in a cafe that she doesn’t like,
because it’s full, with loud music playing, and the only table is one
right at the back near the toilets. This tell me that she doesn’t like
crowds, she doesn’t like loud music (that she can’t control anyway), and
that she cares about hygiene. These are all important things about her
character!
(Pro-tip: Make it up. Go with your instincts.)
-
Where do they sit? (Near the door because there’s an exit? Near the
back to hide? Where it’s shadowy? Where they’ll be seen by a waiter?
Lots of table space for writing/drawing/hands? Minimal space? Would they
ever sit with others? What do these things say about their character?)
-
What do they order? (Is it sweet? Is it focused on hydration only? Is
it expensive? (Can they afford it if it is?) Is it milky and warm? Is it
to wake them up? To comfort them like a hot cocoa? Does it bring back
memories? Do they get a drink connected to other people in their lives?)
Felicia
orders a hot cocoa. She’s already in a cafe she doesn’t like, and hot
cocoas remind her of her dad, who used to make them really fancy like.
She misses him. And she does little things to remind herself of him,
because she thinks it makes her stronger as a person. (So she also cares
about appearing like she’s strong).
- If they get a snack,
what do they get? (See above for similar questions to ask. Another good
one is: Are they allergic to anything? Are there health concerns? Do
they have to worry about their digestion for any reason? Or is their
stomach made of steel?)
- How do they pay? (Are they rich?
Poor? Do they count their pennies or do they throw a whole bunch of gold
on the table? Or are they rich and stingy, counting their pennies
because that’s how they got rich in the first place? Do they run out without paying? Do they not give a shit about the law? Are they desperate for a feed and want to pay but just can’t?)
- How do they interact with staff? (No eye contact? Lots of smiles? Friendly banter? Awkward conversation?)
*
Okay, so, assuming you got answers to five of those questions. Make them declarative (non-questioning) statements. Let’s say we know:
* Felicia cares about hygiene * Felicia’s Dad is dead * Felicia doesn’t like crowded spaces * Felicia doesn’t like loud music. * Felicia cares about being strong.
Now, we go deeper.
Why
does Felicia care about hygiene? Bad experience? Finicky personality?
(i.e. her parents would say ‘she was always like that’) Paranoid about
germs? Doesn’t like unpleasant smells? Thinks it’s ‘dirty’ and that has
bad assoications from her upbringing? Multiple of these? Or none?
How
did her Dad die? Did she go to the funeral? Does she have a photo of
him somewhere she can look at it? Does she ever feel like she’s
disappointing? What does she do that she thinks would make him feel this
way?
Why doesn’t she like crowded spaces? Is it the
lack of control? Is it that people are unpredictable (or even
dangerous?). Is it that she’s reclusive or not used to spaces with
people in them? Is it that she’s socially awkward or anxious?
Why
doesn’t she like loud music? Is she easily overstimulated? Does she
hate the genre? Is she enough of a control freak that if she didn’t pick
the music, she’ll hate it on principle? Woulds she: Like it if it the
volume was down? Like loud music in other circumstances?
What
does strength mean to Felicia? Is it physical strength? Is it mental
and moral strength? Does she care about philosophy? Or does she care
about never crying or reaching out for help when she’s upset? How does
her strength manifest?
*
From there. You can go deeper. Let’s assume you couldn’t answer all of those questions (about your own character, but you can answer some).
At this point, you’re making shit up based on what appeals to you or
what seems to fit your character or what feels ‘right.’ Don’t overthink
it too much. It’s meant to be fun! It’s like brainstorming, and should feel exciting!
Then you can pick five more answers say:
* Felicia had a bad experience with hygiene (what was it?) * Felicia
didn’t go to her Dad’s funeral and will never be okay with that and
can’t forgive herself over it (DING! You have found a formative trauma,
these are a goldmine, congratulations!) * Felicia doesn’t like people, they’re unpredictable (she’s a control freak!) * Felicia
doesn’t like loud music at all, her ears are sensitive (that’s going to
impact her pretty much everywhere else there’s loud sounds too) * Felicia’s
strength is moral, but also about independence (she struggles to reach
out for help or open up, and she cares about being Good. You know her
moral alignment!)
*
So there you go. The cafe
test is simple because most of us have been in one or seen a variety of
them on TV or in movies and it’s generally possible to imagine responses
to the initial rounds of questions. You don’t have to worry about the
why’s at that point. You just need to know how your character might
react in that situation. You don’t need to answer all the questions,
just some.
Then you just pick five of those answers and you go deeper.
And then you go deeper again.
And
then you have a character you can start writing about, even if you
don’t already have all the answers. You’ll get: a sense of how they
behave in public, around strangers (always useful when writing), a sense
of what they enjoy eating and how they interact with staff (useful),
and by going deeper, you’ll get a sense of the things that may have made
this character what they are today, in that cafe.
(And if
you don’t like the outcome, go back to the cafe, and change the initial
responses, until you get an outcome you want to work with)
(Remember
it’s supposed to be fun! It can be hard at first. I don’t use the cafe
test with any of my characters anymore. But it helped me in the
beginning. And I’ll still sometimes put new characters in ‘Random Situation’ and then ask a bunch of questions about it to get a better sense of who they are.)
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. God fashions Adam from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. Adam is told that he can eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Subsequently, Eve is created from one of Adam’s ribs to be Adam’s companion. They are innocent and unembarrassed about their nakedness. However, a serpent deceives Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden tree, and she gives some of the fruit to Adam. These acts give them additional knowledge, but it gives them the ability to conjure negative and destructive concepts such as shame and evil. God later curses the serpent and the ground. God prophetically tells the woman and the man what will be the consequences of their sin of disobeying God. Then he banishes them from the Garden of Eden.
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology) with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh. The history of ancient Egypt occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. [1]
