Writing Discussion

[meridian_rose]

There's a great entry by layla, Writing Your Best Ideas - it's short but thought provoking, go read it!

It got me thinking about how I do this, the holding back of certain character names or plot points – more and discussion topics under the cut.


In my comment to the aforementioned entry I said that

I strongly identify with this. Although sometimes I think it's justified - no use using a great name on a throwaway 'extra' in a scene when it might be a great primary character in a later work. Names have to be right for me which often stymies me (and makes fanfic easier to work with! I might hate the names but they're there, and that's all there is to it) so if I do love one, I might hold it 'in reserve'.
But sometimes, yes, I hoard things, worried that I'll only get to use them once

(a) have you ever done this? Held back on an idea or a name because it seemed 'too good to waste'?
If so, was it the right decision or not?
If you've never held back on using something, have you later regretted it?

(b) names. This is tough one for me, and finding the right name is a challenge. Fanfic can be easier because as I said above, even if I hate the names, they're there and have to be used (slight alterations for AU's aside).
How important is finding the right name when you create an OC for any type of fiction?
If they're a throwaway OC in a fanfic, do you spend less time choosing the name then if the character is a protagonist in an original work?

(c) names, part two. Suppose you're writing a fanfic* that's gone completely AU and you realise this would work better as an original fic since you'd have complete freedom to ignore aspects of canon and alter the characters to your liking.
How would this change the naming process? Would you try to keep the names similar in style or meaning, or try hard to make them very different?
Would the fact that in tv/movie fandoms you have a particular actor associated with the character make it easier or hard (eg I want to call him Richard but he doesn't look like a Richard to me ; I can't image her being anything but Xena).
*If you don't write fanfic/write it often, maybe you nonetheless have actors in mind when you create a character, so you probably still have insight here.

(d) themes. If we think about ideas that you hold back on, is it because you don't want to write the same thing over and over?
Is it okay for an author to revisit favourite themes? Under what circumstances? (For example most of my heroines are never going to end up in conventional marriages or have children, but given that almost Every. Single. Female Character. in mainstream media ends up Wife and Mother, I don't feel bad for repeating this characterisation.)
Is it possible to re-use ideas in new ways? (I'm leaning yes, because tropes evolve for a reason, and there's a difference between a trope and a cliché)

Discuss away, I'd love to hear any ideas, tips, or get links to other articles of interest around any of these themes!

Comments

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting topic :) I'm late, but I'll answer anyway ;)

a) I think everyone struggles with this - holding back ideas because they're too good, too complicated, too epic, etc. I can't think of a particular example, but I'm sure I've done it.

The other side of the problem would be leaving everything in, making the plot much too complex and convoluted because suddenly we have to know the entire life story of a minor character, and that brings in this new plot wrinkle, and so on.

That second one is a problem for me a lot, actually. There are several whole plotlines I had to cut from The Confessor Diaries, for example.

b) Names! I'm not sure I have a set strategy for names. Sometimes, OC or major character, the name just comes to me, and then I'm done; others I have to go through and discard dozens, listening to how they sound and writing them down and everything. I recommend Behind the Name. I often go there and just click the Random Renamer over and over until I see something I like.

c) I'm sort of in the middle or near the end of doing this, actually, and I think it depends on the character. Sometimes I want the name to sound similar, but I certainly might change the meaning, since now I'm probably changing the character's backstory too.

I actually don't often see my original characters as actors. I have sort of blurry images of them in my mind, enough to fit them in a particular physical type but not necessarily to say, 'oh, that's So-and-So!'

Back to the name thing briefly: when I first started watching LotS I knew someone named Cara, only she pronounced it Cair-a, as in Care Bear (or a less weird reference...) and it sort of colored my reaction to Cara at first, until she took over the name in my head. That's one reason I like unusual names, actually. If you know a Richard who's a real jerk, it could make it harder to like Richard the fictional character.

d) I honestly don't think you'll find a writer anywhere who's never revisited the same theme. Most likely your particular topics will always be with you, because they're why you write in the first place. I like the spiral theory: that as you learn more, you go back to the same topics but with new insight. (Or, in one of my favorite lines from Memory, by Lois McMaster Bujold: "The questions stay the same, but the answers change." Not that every answer changes, of course, but still.)

I wonder if the difference between a trope and a cliché is how often it gets used. People still like clichés sometimes, after all. 'It was a dark and stormy night' evokes something for the reader.

And back to rewriting the same story: didn't someone claim there are only 7 plots? Or something? Whatever it is, it's a finite number, so we're bound to repeat ourselves ;)

[meridian_rose]

Never too late to join the discussion, glad you stopped by :D

Between Seventh Sanctum and Behind The Name I can sometimes find a random name that works, but sometimes it doesn't work and I have to struggle to find Just The Right Name. Which is frustrating! Once the name is right, I can't imagine them being anything else though :D

Hm, yes, Ciara can be prounced more like that, as Cara is a similar/variant Irish name, but I'd usually think of Cara as in LotS while Ciara can be Care-a or Kee-ra I think. It does make a difference when you hear a name compared to reading it, especially with Celtic type names which often sound nothing like they are spelt!
Also yes, once you've seen one (or more) unlikeable people bearing a name if does tend to taint it!

Oh, I love the idea of a spiral! Like the never ending labyrinth, going around but each time with a new understanding. I'm not sure on the difference between trope and cliche; I think cliches are overused and obvious specific things whereas tropes are 'building blocks' and not always overused, sometimes subverted ideas. But it's a fine line.
Thinking on the Seven plots, yes, there are only so many stories, the difference is the telling!
I think Goodkind's making Darken Richard's father was supposed to evoke the archetype of son replacing father, but comes across as cliche, though others would disagree. Making Darken Richard's brother gives us a much richer, less explored relationship, especially when we bring in Michael and Jensenn to compare them with.

Thanks for your insight :D

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

I love Celtic names, but so many of them are hard to pronounce. The spelling looks like one thing, the pronunciation sounds completely different...

I prefer Darken and Richard as brothers. As you say, it's a richer and less often explored relationship. I feel like stories and popular media often focus on parent-child or romantic partners relationships, rather than friends or siblings. My theory is that those (parent-child, lovers) are either simpler, or else people think they are.

That's one reason I love that Richard has so many Sibling Issues ;)