Episode #243: I'm Sorry, What Was Your Name Again?

Another lovely chalk drawing created during the annual Newington Waterfall Festival, which is the official goodbye to summer and a timid hello to autumn.

I love creating throwaway characters for my stories. You just give them a few characteristics and a reason for being in your scene, then POOF!, they're discarded like a celeb's political opinion, never to be heard from again. Usually.

However, while I love creating throwaway characters, I do have a small issue when it comes to giving them a....bleech...name. When I have to plaster their entire being with a name, it usually means that this person can't be deposed of like a celeb's political opinion, but instead you have to give them the short attention span treatment.

Which is easier said than done. But...I do have secret guilty pleasure when it comes to slapping a moniker on a throwaway: giving them the most horrendously puerile name that I have stashed in my memory.

I know you know what I'm talking about. There are names that we have heard used back in the day in books, movies, radio and t.v., that automatically makes us want to use a spoon for gagging purposes. That's right, they're the kind of names that you can instantly conjure a bad stereotype of right off the bat (think of Ralph Wiggins from the Simpsons), whether they're male or female.

I actually have a short catalog of annoying names, mostly male, that I draw from when I have a character that appears in the story just a shade longer than a "blink and you'll miss" cameo. I say 'mostly male', because the majority of my stories skewer quite heavily towards women and I cannot bring myself to write those kind of obnoxious people as female.

For example, I use the name Melvin quite a lot in my stories. Back in the day, I rank the name 'Melvin' right up there with 'Myron' and 'Eugene' for names that I instantly dislike {equivalent would be those cute kitty memes/pics that often can induce rage among the populace}. So I often use the name for very unlikable characters that need to stick around longer than a "blink and you'll miss him" cameo.

In an upcoming novella, I had a character that was key to moving a few plot points along, even though each encounter lasted less than two total paragraphs (had three appearances in total). So naturally he gained the sobriquet of 'Melvin'. 

Melvin was one of those greasy fat blobs of a human being that seemed to live in his car 24/7/365 and was one of those annoying little druggies who thought he was hot stuff with his dealer and the ladies he would come across {what we would probably call today, an 'incel'}. Melvin was easily intimidated by anyone who had displayed just a tiny whiff of intolerance to his verbal vomit, so naturally, he became a verbal/physical punching bag to those who could actually back up what they were saying to him. So he was the perfect throwaway character that showed up, drank your beer, scarfed down your nachos, insulted your female guests, then left with his tail between his legs.

In my current novella, I managed to use quite a few throwaways that lasted less than three pages for each appearance: generic wannabe tough guys, corrupt cops, various members of a large collection agency, even an atypical druggie and pimp. All nameless and all were used to simply move the story along. I believe this was the first story where I didn't need to tack on a name for a long term throwaway, as everyone who was named was an essential character to the story.

In my current project, because I had so many plotlines going, the unfortunate aspect of naming my throwaways had to be deployed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to keep the usage of each throwaway character to a manageable level, so in essence, they started drifting from throwaway to additional. But, and this is a big one, I actually had to go back in time to make sure that I wasn't repeating any of the names for those throwaways, because each and every character was injected with just enough personality to make them unique.

So the throwaways for this story with names were as follows: a Lothario teacher (Leonid), a peasant (Simon), a chatty horse who doesn't know when to stay silent (Lawrence), a well-respected teacher among his pupils (Mr. Percival), a group of humanoids (Arturo, Isiah, Louis, Anatole) and one dog (Cerberus). All of these charming people were essential to moving the various plotlines along.

Now comes the part that all writers can enjoy creating: throwaways with no names.

Those are much more fun to play with, as it's one of the few times that you can use a blatant stereotype in order to move a plot a long/showcase your protagonist/antagonist in their particular element without the reader getting too much annoyed with you. At least if you're putting that particular throwaway in their place.

Need a way to showcase a character's ability to inflict broken bones/leave a lasting impression by only touching them? Create a stereotypical brutish drunkard with more brawn than brain cells. For added hilarity, imply that the man might be from the Old West. To leave a lasting impression, create a stereotypical foppish palace courtier that is all bark and no bite. Need a way to showcase a character's acerbic wit that can cut a Sequoia down to kindling? Create a pompous Kevin/Karen who likes to name drop "important friends".

There are virtually an endless amount of opportunities to create throwaway characters that are both cannon fodder and move a particular plot point along. You don't need to pour a multitude of character development for a throwaway character. Remember, people playing a red shirt member of Star Trek or a starship trooper from Star Wars were there just to collect a paycheck. No more, no less. Your throwaway character is there to just collect a paycheck, only in the form of actual dialogue. No more, no less.

Have a fun filled happy Monday, and remember, every person deserves their moment in the sun, but not every person deserves to have multiple moments in the sun.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #242: We Haz Scribbles And Pictures!

The sun was looking especially inviting the day after the rainstorm the prior weekend to this post, so I took a few dozen steps inside for a few pics. Not quite Autumn in this part of New England yet.

This post will be a short two-fer, in that part one is a brief writing update, while part two will be linking up to my picture blog.

Here is part the 1st: the writing update.

Sometimes doing the most mundane things in life often can be the impetus to working out a satisfactory conclusion to a thorny issue. Which in this case is something that I've recently written about here a few weeks ago: a title. 

But, first things first. We are now into the home stretch of completing our four part lo-fantasy series, in that the final confrontation will be commencing very soon, which I hope will tie up at least a half dozen plot lines to a satisfactory conclusion.

We are currently sitting at 102 total chapters, of which 101 have been transcribed, totaling 494,751 words. Now before you act on the popular acronym of WTF?!, let me enlighten you on something: those chapters will be properly broken down to the appropriate volumes once I go through the initial round of edits, because there is no way that particular numbering will stay exactly like that. I may be a bit eccentric with my writing, but not that eccentric.

Now, onto the other issue, the title. As I hinted at, the mundane thing I was performing was one of my twice daily walks while listening to podcasts. Sometimes, when I'm listening to a topic that doesn't quite keep my short attention span occupied, my mind will wander about on the inside. That wandering about eventually came up with a base title for my series: Sister vs Sister.

Now I know it sounds cliche, but when you boil down all of the plotlines contained within, it basically comes out to two sisters, one that knows the other exists while the other doesn't know she has a sister, battling over the possession of one sister's husband.

So, this overall title actually completes my title search, as I had already come up with the titles for the remaining four books: The Kidnapping, The Campsite, The Retrieval I and the Retrieval II {although the last two are not quite set in stone just yet}.

And now for part the 2nd, pictures.

I've decided to make my picture blog into a bi-monthly occurrence, as it gives me something lighthearted and fun to do with all the pictures that I got hanging around on Google. This particular post deals with the theme of All Hallow's Eve, so I sincerely hope you take a short stroll over to my picture blog to check it out.

Pictures For Smarties!

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #241: Hello! And You Are...?

This is one of my newer little friends that my muse was kind enough to introduce me to, as apparently I now need someone to keep me properly motivated with my writing. I think she's trying to tell me something.

A few weeks ago, I had participated in a small conversational thread, on a favorite YouTube channel that I subscribe to, about old fashioned names {the Reddit story in question was about the poster's sister mocking him for naming his child 'Lyric', and the sister was enamored with old/classic names}. The conversation thread got me to thinking about old fashioned names in general and how they're used in today's world.

I wasn't a big fan of the old fashioned names early on, mostly due to the only exposure that I had to them was like everyone else: Hollywood {period t.v. shows, period movies and cartoons} and books. It wasn't until I had started my first state government job back in 1996, helping microfilm old CT newspapers, that I had decided to take a more serious interest in what we now consider to be old-fashioned/classic names.

Fast forward to roughly 15 years ago, when I decided to get serious about my writing. One of the first items on my list to tackle was how to properly name my characters, both male and female, so that the names would more accurately reflect the type of person I was writing them to be. Which basically meant that I didn't want to either use short versions of popular names {e.g. John, Kate, Chuck} or popular American English names {e.g. Matthew, Mel, Rich}. So this left me using other sources to come up with interesting first names that would accurately reflect the character I'm creating.

The road to interesting names is paved with pop culture, history, foreign languages and the Internet. To whit:

1} Pop culture: drawing on this particular item required me to search the memories of my life, specifically the world of Warner Brother cartoons, where all kinds of interesting names were used, abused and mocked. This went hand in hand with point #2.

2} History: I spent 1996 thru 2003 working with late 18th thru early 20th century newspapers, so this gave me a surprisingly in-depth education on the societal norms and habits of those eras, of which one was the first names of men and women. Almost to a fault, the full proper version of a name was used publicly, which I was eventually able to turn on its head once I had gotten serious about my writing.

3} Foreign languages: this basically worked hand-in-hand with the Internet, since a lot of the names I was brainstorming sounded way cooler after they were run through a foreign language {e.g. Spanish, Italian}. This led directly to #4.

4} The Internet: since going to the library nowadays, while a good place to do research, was not conducive to the almost ADHD style of research that I would typically undertake when writing a story {focus? what's that?}. Thus, the Internet was a very key tool when it came to researching character names, especially when I was struck with a whim of "hey, I wonder what this would sound like in French or what's the equivalent in Norse mythology?" {note, those were actual search terms used by me}.

So, armed with this vast not-quite-encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture/history, off I went in search of using names that were slightly different from the contemporaries but fit quite snugly in a given story. Let me give you three examples where I've successfully applied this philosophy.

A} My current novella, The Mortality of Familial Love, features an eclectic mix of character names that were chosen from all of the aforementioned points. Three of the main character names were Dmitri, Charles and Kaitlyn, while a few secondary characters had names of Amaliya, Andrik and Niles.

So I'm a big fan of using Slavic/Russian names for both good/bad/amoral characters; using alternate spellings of traditional names and using names directly inspired from t.v. shows. I'm also a major fan of using traditional names in general for some of my stronger characters, no matter where they fall on that tri-scale of good/bad/amoral.

B} Novella with a potential publishing date of 2025. This one I went a little hog wild by using all the aforementioned points, with the names falling under the entire tri-scale of good/bad/amoral. I did use a nickname or two, along with an alternative spelling for a few others. I will note that some of the following names were recycled for example C, because there are times where selective recycling of names is a good thing.

Names that I had chosen were: Jon, Alexia, Bradley (trad no nickname), Terrance (trad no nickname), Freddy/Frederick, Melvin, Claire, Virgil, and Xandra.

Again, the bulk of the names chosen were mostly old traditional names, which actually fit with the basic plotline that centers around two local criminal organizations that were vying for dominance in their home state. To me, using traditional names, no matter the gender, signifies respect, albeit 18th & 19th century style of respect, where nicknames were not really used.

C} My current lo-fantasy project. This is where I really went feral hog wild with choosing my character names, in which I had applied everything from the original four points plus others like different spellings.

I won't go into redundant detail on the names that I had actually chosen, as those could be found in this particular post from the Spring, but I will go into some of the background as to where they had originated from.

I originally wanted to say that at least five of the original character names were brought over to the new series, but after giving it some thought, only two and a half were brought over: Jhon and Adeola, with Myla's alternate name of Alicia being brought over. Everything else was created from scratch using sources as diverse as: Greek mythology; real life; a reader's poll; Spanish and Italian translation; very traditional names, with source material alternating between WB cartoons/old newspapers/classic television from the 70's/period history. We then detoured to classic literature, 19th century Europe and modern life. 

In short, we tried to select names that closely mirrored the kind of character we had in mind to create. I think the biggest mistake one can make as a writer is to choose names that are the proverbial square peg to the character's proverbial round hole. For me, it's something that I can picture quite clearly in my mind that this character needs this particular type of name attached to them.

Over the years it's been a hard struggle to choose names for my characters, and even a harder struggle not to reuse a particular name as a lead character no more than three times in consecutive stories. But I am trying my very best with my selection of names for my lead characters, whether they're male or female.

Within the next few weeks, look for a post where I talk about how I choose names for characters that are either throwaways or hang around long enough to advance a given story arc.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #240: And You Are Called?

Books By G.B. Miller

Today's pic is a 100% honest attempt at promotion. This novella is my latest release, a dark fast paced rural/urban fantasy that doesn't slow down until the end. Available at most major e-tailers in e-book and print. Click the link for further details.

There are three things that I absolutely loathe as a writer: 1} picking a title for a story; 2} writing blurbs for a completed book and 3} choosing characters names.

As much as I would love to rant about my trials and tribulations in picking character names (and there are a lot) today's post will be about my trials and tribulations in picking story titles.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've always, ALWAYS, had problems in choosing/brainstorming titles for my stories. More often than not, the titles that I pick for stories would often have absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with the story whatsoever.

One example, the original title for the novella that you see standing before you. Prior to the final title that you see, I originally went through almost seven different iterations of what this story was known, and I only remember what the previous title to this novella was, "Blackness In The White Sand". Could not remember why I came up with that title originally and it took me over 8 years to come up with the title that you see before you, and I had to use the very sound advice of a writer's group to help me come up with that.

Another good example of a very bad title was the original title of my adult fiction novel The Inner Sibling, which was Line 21. This was a title that absolutely no one understood the meaning behind it. Twelve years later, even I came to the conclusion it was a crappy title. For those who are curious, the original title refers to the old version of the 1040A form, in which line 21 is where you put the amount of miscellaneous income that you had earned for the year.

Now let me give you a couple of examples of titles that I had given to some short stories of mine. Red Stripe and The Right Thing. The former story is featured in my collection called What Is Life? and it tells the story about a day in the life of a punk rock musician. Why I titled the story after a bottle of beer is anybody's guess, because the story has absolutely nothing to do with beer. The latter story is about a day in the life of a guy who was cheated on by his girl with another girl, and it uses the backdrop of a town festival for the story to unfold. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. The latter story can be found in my collection called A Trilogy of Love, which is actually a replacement title for the same collection under the name Broken Promises.

Now to the present. When I had originally started my current project, which has the blog tag Hot Mess, it was called Dandelion Tears. Again, I have absolutely no idea as to why I had chosen that title to begin with. I mean, it's mentioned very briefly as a place of employment for one of the characters, but that's about it. I have, however, come up with a working theory as to why I choose bizarre titles for my stories: I simply latch onto a particular word, regardless whether it actually applies to a story, and viola! it becomes a title for a story.

However you want to break it down, the real challenge, at least for this series, is to come up with an overall title for the series. My saving grace this time around is that because I have the four volumes broken down by events {kidnapping, 1st recovery attempt at a campsite, 2nd recovery attempt is a pitched battle, and the final recovery attempt takes place at the place} I will have no problem it titleing those four volumes.

Literally, my entire writing journey is littered with stories that have absolute crap titles that I now have to rectify with brand new titles, and it hasn't been easy. I have succeeded in renaming a previously published story with one that actually makes sense, while another novella desperately needs one beyond the placeholder of the "Average American Novella". In addition to those messes, I have nearly three dozen short stories from my defunct short story blog that needs new titles so that I can create new collections.

Basically, I suck at picking out titles for my stories, because apparently I subscribe to the bizarre philosophy that some musicians apply to their works, which is to pick a nonsensical title for the c.d.'s, which leaves everyone collectively scratching their heads trying to decipher the reasoning {example: The Boomtown Rats, who had that cult hit "I Don't Like Mondays" titled their album "The Fine Art of Surfacing", which contains that cult hit}. I guess you can call me "The Muddler" when it comes to story titles, because my muddle choices often make no sense to anyone, including myself.

Happy Monday to one and all, and remember just because the world doesn't revolve around you, you can take comfort in the knowledge that people used to believe that the Sun revolved around the Earth.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved