Tonight is Supernatural. Woohoo! Last week's episode was really cool, so I'm excited about tonight's. :D I also received a rejection today, but hey, that just proves to me that I'm submitting and have my stuff out there. There's another publisher that is also interested in the story, so here's hoping that they like it enough to contract.
Anyways, recently, I've had the pleasure of naming a new kitten, so it made me think about character names as they are one of my favorite parts of writing. I use name websites a lot to help me with this task. Some of my favorites are: babynames.com, 20000-names.com, and behindthename.com. (For surnames, there is surname.behindthename.com.)
When I name my characters, I almost always choose the names first by figuring out my character's ethnicity and country of origin (or ancestor's country of origin). Then I go about finding a name that matches a certain quality or trait regarding the character. For instance, if I were to have a character that was very much into protecting others, I would go with something like Alexander/Alexandra, which means "defender of mankind."
Sometimes though, a character will emerge with a name, and I don't have to worry about picking out just the right one. I enjoy either path, though it is nice when I do get to go through the lists of names. A lot of the time it gives me ideas for secondary characters, or even ones not related to that story.
How about you? What are your methods of naming characters? I'd love to hear your opinions. =)
Thursday, March 19
Tuesday, March 17
Strange Dreams
Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've last posted, but here I am, poking my head up. And by the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Dreams... I'm pretty much known in my household for my wacky dreams. My husband and mother raise their eyebrows at me when I tell them, but I am so serious about what happened because it's beyond belief, but I really do dream crazy things. I guess I'll give you guys a couple of dreams I've had and then y'all can be the judge of what you think.
A few months ago, before I had gone to bed, I'd played peek-a-boo with one of my cats. He was sitting in the tub, and I was outside of the tub with the shower curtain partially closed. I would open the shower curtain and say "peek-a-boo!" and he would sit there and stare at me. Then I'd close the curtain, wait a few moments, and do it again with the same result. In my dream, I was in my bathroom outside of the tub, and I opened the shower curtain and there was a strange monster in the tub that would leer at me and make hissing noises. I opened and closed the shower curtain a few times and it was still there. I attacked it and then I don't really remember much after that. Weird, huh?
My other dream is one I had a few years ago, but I still remember it. I was running through a graveyard and trying to fight these obese zombies, but I didn't have anymore bullets in my gun in the dream or whatnot. I had a spoon though, which I had to use to behead them. I didn't do too bad at it, but it was odd! I was getting overwhelmed with the task and climbed onto a mausoleum, but they could get to me. I have no idea what had brought that dream on.
I don't consider those dreams nightmares. I try to think of them as inspiration and fodder for my novels. For me, a nightmare is something that invokes sadness or pain that stays with me a little when I wake up. I've had a few of those recently, too, but they weren't noteworthy or paranormal in nature.
So, leave me a comment and tell me about your strange dreams. I'd love to hear from you!
Dreams... I'm pretty much known in my household for my wacky dreams. My husband and mother raise their eyebrows at me when I tell them, but I am so serious about what happened because it's beyond belief, but I really do dream crazy things. I guess I'll give you guys a couple of dreams I've had and then y'all can be the judge of what you think.
A few months ago, before I had gone to bed, I'd played peek-a-boo with one of my cats. He was sitting in the tub, and I was outside of the tub with the shower curtain partially closed. I would open the shower curtain and say "peek-a-boo!" and he would sit there and stare at me. Then I'd close the curtain, wait a few moments, and do it again with the same result. In my dream, I was in my bathroom outside of the tub, and I opened the shower curtain and there was a strange monster in the tub that would leer at me and make hissing noises. I opened and closed the shower curtain a few times and it was still there. I attacked it and then I don't really remember much after that. Weird, huh?
My other dream is one I had a few years ago, but I still remember it. I was running through a graveyard and trying to fight these obese zombies, but I didn't have anymore bullets in my gun in the dream or whatnot. I had a spoon though, which I had to use to behead them. I didn't do too bad at it, but it was odd! I was getting overwhelmed with the task and climbed onto a mausoleum, but they could get to me. I have no idea what had brought that dream on.
I don't consider those dreams nightmares. I try to think of them as inspiration and fodder for my novels. For me, a nightmare is something that invokes sadness or pain that stays with me a little when I wake up. I've had a few of those recently, too, but they weren't noteworthy or paranormal in nature.
So, leave me a comment and tell me about your strange dreams. I'd love to hear from you!
Sunday, March 1
It's March!
Hello everyone! It's March, and that means that we're three months into the year. YIKES! It seems like just the other day we were bringing in the year on New Years. Where has time gone? I'm not sure, but with it being the beginning of a new month, I decided to look at my goals I mentioned to all of you at the beginning of the year to see how much closer I am to them.
And well, there's a couple that seem to be moving in the right direction! With my novella for instance, I've gotten a rejection letter and then sent it out again. I should be hearing something any day now on it. *huge grin* I'm actually trying to be patient, but not overly so! hehe
I've been reading more. Hooray! I know, I know... as an author, I should make sure to read a lot, and I have been reading a lot of non-fiction/writing tips, but now I'm finally starting to get back into reading novels more often. And I'm loving it!
All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about this year. How about you? =)
And well, there's a couple that seem to be moving in the right direction! With my novella for instance, I've gotten a rejection letter and then sent it out again. I should be hearing something any day now on it. *huge grin* I'm actually trying to be patient, but not overly so! hehe
I've been reading more. Hooray! I know, I know... as an author, I should make sure to read a lot, and I have been reading a lot of non-fiction/writing tips, but now I'm finally starting to get back into reading novels more often. And I'm loving it!
All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about this year. How about you? =)
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