Just a quick question for a novice creative writer...

How do you writers think up interesting names? I'm stuck with coming up with something that seems right. I can come up with okay sounding fantasy names, or ones based on Celtic, Greek or Roman culture, but the backstory seems to suggest that the environment is set in the Monogolian steppes, and I can't think of decent enough Chinese-sounding names for my character. I could consult a dictionary, I guess, or I could just set the whole thing somewhere else. But what do you usually do? It's annoying to get stuck with the first word that you need to write down!

I actually go and look up online dictionaries. It's usually very sufficient (given the number of dictionaries this particular website links to).

Otherwise you can look up name generators websites (I was just reading a book that was listing quite a few of them, for using in roleplaying games, don't have it here with me, though).

Me I prefer names that mean something, though. It's more fun that way.
For instance, I wanted to give a name to Old Man, I got this idea of "Blind Bat", or "Old Bat". So from looking at the list of words, I figured "mou" stands for "blind". Then "hori/mori" for "bat". "old" as many version, but "ou" seems to be the most appropriate.
Then I just mix them until it sounds good:
"oumoumori" ? nah, too long. "moumori" ("blind bat"). Seems OK to me. I suppose I could just take "oumori", it works too ("old blind man").
In any case it doesn't really matter, since I don't speak Japanese, I just try to find something that sounds kinda cool :-P

Looking for the koto player girl, I found some really inreresting ones, like "kou" means "female phoenix bird", so I could call her "kouko", sounds good to me.
I also liked "tsumaoto" which means "clang of hooves/sound of a koto". Kinda cool, too.

Or in your case you could look up a Mongolian glossary (not a lot of words there, unfortunately).
Anyway, I am sure you get the idea :)

Hope this helps?

Philippe

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Original post by ahw Hope this helps?

Thanks for that. I'm planning on looking up a few words in a dictionary to get a general idea of something good. Names seem to be the thing I get stuck on; even when playing RPG games, I seem to spend hours just picking a name I feel comfortable with.

Well there are less then 12 hours left for people to submit entries for round 2 so I've you haven't entered yet or you simply want enter again then you had better hurry.


The judging some people have complained about the judging and critiques of the pieces so I thought I would ask people what they want this contest to focus on. At present a score in any category of 7 means that the piece satisfied all expectations and criteria as they where laid out. Things like depth, symbolism, and selling point, where no considered in the judging. Would people prefer that they where? I could drop the base score to 5 and then have 5 marks to work with. The real question though is what people want to get out of this competition? The point in my mind is for people to practice and showcase their game writing skills in a verity of field, but perhaps people have other ideas of what this competition should be about?

I'm not too fussed about what scoring method you use. I'm really just in this as an excuse to start working on my creative writing skills. I didn't particuarly mind the scoring system you used in the first round (but then again, I didn't have a piece in last time either.)

well, personally I won't have time (Again), but I intend to post what I wrote in a separate thread, cos I'd like to hear your opinions. Anyway, I went with the Old Man story, so I guess this puts me all off topic. [embarrass]

PHilippe

Quote:

Original post by TechnoGoth Well there are less then 12 hours left for people to submit entries for round 2 so I've you haven't entered yet or you simply want enter again then you had better hurry.

I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying! o.O When is the deadline in EST?

Quote:

Original post by sunandshadow I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying! o.O When is the deadline in EST?

Try the handy world clock website. I always use it when submitting papers to international conferences to know exactly how long I have.

BTW, I think you have two more hours from the time that I posted this.

Well, I think I got it in on time, I'll cross my fingers and hope it shows up in the list of entries. [smile]

Yay it was on time. ^_^

Anyway I juat wanted to post that the round two entries are up and stickied HERE in case anyone missed that. Vote promptly because the voting period is shorter this time! [smile]