tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post1530688064640369590..comments2024-03-28T01:00:29.382-07:00Comments on TalkToYoUniverse: Make your world personalJuliette Wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-41137858735953217932009-02-23T20:01:00.000-08:002009-02-23T20:01:00.000-08:00Fascinating. I'm heading to bed and don't have ti...Fascinating. I'm heading to bed and don't have time for an extended comment but just had to say- this is acting backwards! Which maybe makes sense, and maybe not, lol.Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996587091003594735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-50461981612680883472009-02-23T17:27:00.000-08:002009-02-23T17:27:00.000-08:00Hi Juliette, obviously I'm here from the Analog fo...Hi Juliette, obviously I'm here from the Analog forums as per your recommendation that I post my suggestion regarding "Naming" on your Blog. I just first want to say that I am enjoying your blog immensely, and I thank you for all of the insight you provide in your posts. Also, I want to thank all of the participants of your World building workshop as well as your Language building workshop. I've read through all of the blog posts AND comments for both of those workshops, and not only have your posts helped give me directions, but the comments from the participants have helped me as well. Seeing each of their progress has given me insight into how I can go about tackling similar issues that they have.<BR/><BR/>Now, as for my suggestion. I am suggesting this mainly for selfish reasons, it is something I personally struggle with, but I hope others can make use of it as well. Given, I'm not sure if you have tackled any or all of the issues in a past article. If so, I'll be happy to check them out.<BR/><BR/>So, basically what I'm referring to when I say "Naming" is obviously the names of characters, places, or things within a fictional world. Specifically, I'm looking at where the inspiration or conventions would come from. Some of this has been touched on, but for instance, I wouldn't give a character the name "Joe" if he comes from a different planet than Earth. But how do I establish naming conventions?<BR/><BR/>Some of what I have established in my personal project is the use of what I am calling "runes". There is a sort of sect of "Rune Scribers" that use Runes as a kind of written language. As of current, they are just general concepts kind of like Chinese. I guess it's similar to the Viking or Irish culture that used runes in ancient times (I'm not very familiar with any of that). So, the way I am using this in the story in terms of naming (various Rune Scribers also serve as plot elements and characters) is that the name of the legendary sword that the story revolves around is based on 3 runes. They are the 3 concepts or virtues that are required to wield the sword. My ideas on how to "name" the runes was that each rune would resemble a character from the latin alphabet. J, V, and L. The names of these runes should therefore either start with those letters... or something along those lines. Now, if you take those three letters and combine them, they sort of resemble an M (and this is more the case with the actual runes themselves). This combined rune based on the letter M would be the name of the sword... so again, presumably the name of the sword would start with M.<BR/><BR/>Another issue is that there is a second sword which was a sort of "place holder" for the legendary sword. The legendary sword was "put to rest" when the original owner finally died. Because none that came after him were deemed worthy to carry the legendary sword, another sword was created. This sword was inscribed with various Runes that act as a sort of map/key to attaining the power of the legendary sword so that one day someone could prove their worth... The challenge here is how these Runes will actually help the hero of the story to both locate the legendary sword and warn him of the 3 virtues that are necessary to establish before attempting to weild it.<BR/><BR/>So those are some specific written language type things that are probably beyond the scope of just Naming, but that kind of establishes where my inspiration should be coming from so as to fit with the story... But again, my problem is, how do I come up with these pronouns? I just feel like I'm horrible at it and whenever I try to make up something it is either unconciously based on some english word or some name or it just sounds ridiculous.<BR/><BR/>I want to be able to come up with plausible and unique names for characters, places, and objects that fit with my world without having them sound goofy. So any insight into that would be greatly appreciated.<BR/><BR/>And again, if you have articles that discuss this, then that works too. And I fully understand that you are probably a busy person and you may not be able to come up with articles like this on demand.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05799582651005924816noreply@blogger.com