r/writing

I see this come up a lot, and I get why. Naming things can be difficult - especially if you’re like me and tend to stress about finding the perfect name for everything. I’ve come up with a process that takes forever but guarantees results. If you’re able to pull a name out of thin air and move on, you probably won’t find this method helpful, but you might get a laugh out of the long and agonizing process anyway lmao

To clarify, I use this process for characters, places, book titles, and pretty much any proper noun, but I’ll just be using characters for this example.

Step 0: Pick a placeholder name. Ideally you want something ridiculous enough that you’re not attached to it but not so ridiculous that you can’t really use it. A normal earth name in a non-earth setting, or even Potato. But Travngolamenthia Blanchiestia the Third is probably less usable (unless you’re really going to commit to typing that every time). The goal is to just have a name you can write with for now. I don’t recommend names that are common words or pieces of common words, like Hat (part of that) or Ace (part of place) since you’ll be doing a find + replace later.

Important: Write your draft with your placeholder name. Don’t let your search for the perfect name interfere with your writing. The whole point of a placeholder name is to be able to write the draft and let the naming process happen when it happens. I separate my drafting time from my worldbuilding time entirely. WRITE THAT DRAFT

Step 1: Figure out what kind of name you want. I consider the following criteria:

• Earth name or made up? (Mary vs. Garniuth)
• Long or short? (Generally just how many syllables) 
• What kind of sounds? (Hard sounds like K or G? Tender sounds like TH or L? Sneaky ones like S or X?)
• Pronounceability? (Do I want to prioritize the name, whether it’s complex or not? Am I okay with sparking another Jasnah/Yasnah debate? Etc.)
• Language Rules? (Many languages don't include certain sounds. I've found using similar restrictions makes my names sound more cohesive. For example, one of my made up societies has no plosives, AKA P, B, M)
• Evocative of anything? (Such as including the syllable “mal” for a villain, or a name that reminds someone of flowers)

Step 2: Make a document or a spreadsheet and go to a baby naming website. Scroll through names starting with your sounds of choice. Any potentials go into the spreadsheet. I use two columns: Names from said website, and names inspired from the website but that I made up. That way I can consider any real names and their meanings if I end up going with one of them. 

Step 3: Over the next few days/weeks/however long you want, add any name ideas to the spreadsheet. Don’t re-read it at all, only add. (Adding duplicates is okay, even preferred) 

Step 4: After some time has elapsed, go back to your spreadsheet and read through all the names. Your writer’s gut will kick in and some names will immediately give you an ick. I usually bold my favorites/top contenders. Duplicates definitely get bolded, since that means my brain landed on the same idea multiple times.

Sometimes I’m able to land on the perfect name here, but usually I’m more indecisive than that lol so I will repeat steps 3 and 4 a few times, doing rounds of elimination until I have just a few to pick from. Since I have a placeholder name, there is zero urgency to make any final decisions whatsoever, so I can take all the time I need and not let it hinder my writing. 

Step 5: Once you land on a name, a quick find + replace in your document makes your new name good to go. No momentum lost, no stress. 

This mostly works for important characters or things. For side or one-off characters, I have a random letter generated (usually in the form of asking whoever is with me to pick a letter) and just toss a vowel or two followed by a couple consonants until I have a name, whether that turns into a real name or a made up one (Depending on the genre I’m writing in). Even I’m not dedicated enough to go through this whole process for the random street vendor getting yelled at by his wife in chapter 3. 

What about you? What are your favorite methods for naming things? Did I miss anything?

I'm not even saying this as a bad thing, like sometimes I really want to sit down with a book and it's nothing but the author explaining the deep intricacies of their world before we even get to read about the MC.

I'm weird, I usually put on a retrospective or deep lore video when I work. This year it was Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy. Last year I think it was Parasite Eve and Resident Evil. It's a niche thing but there is a genre for everything in the writing world, and I think for people like me who want to know the inner cavity of the story they're reading this could be interesting if nothing else.

One the most common forms of advice I see from editors is that every chapter and paragraphs should be doing something that advances the plot.

If it’s not doing that then it doesn’t belong. With regard to flashbacks. These by nature don’t advance the plot. Is the case that flashback can reveal elements of the plot you wouldn’t otherwise see? Or am I fundamentally missing something here?

Idk, for some reason I'm struggling to remember good examples of this. They must exist, right? When you're writing in third person, it's easier to assume that descriptions of characters' looks are objective and just giving us a prompt to imagine them... But when you apply that same logic to first person, it doesn't quite hold because you sort of assume the narrator character's subjectivity as a reader. How would you go about ensuring that your narrator character isn't necessarily judging people's looks (which becomes an even bigger problem where race is involved), but instead simply giving us a glimpse into what they noticed in the scene? I say that because sometimes, ensuring representation is important; But I'm running into this pickle now that I chose first person. Help lol

I was raised to story telling in my family. A favorite game with my mother was the "Three Thing Story": the listener gives the storyteller a list of three different things, and they make something up on the fly. Even if I'm the one coming up with everything, I build stories as a collaborative effort with receptive "listeners". I present a concept, they ask questions, and I come up with explanations. I often will do hours of research to form my initial concept, but I still have to tell someone about it to "finalize" it in my mind.

I started writing longform prose fiction in my early 20s, after doing the occasional short story in my teens, and that's been about 10 years ago now. When my brain agrees to let me work my method can produce really good results for a first draft, and I've finished drafts for several books. My specialty is Earth based alt-history fantasy, and the three main books I finished were set in medieval Korea, and two in New York City; the 1933 one was heavily alternative world, while the 1998 piece was realistic urban fantasy.

So I wonder if there's anyone else who does it this way! It'd be cool to get some tips on ways to use this method.

I've walked away from writing for a bit now. Rejection, self-doubt, all of it took a toll on me. Having written five or six books, editing, all of that stuff, without so much as a partial request from an agent had me doubting I could even do it.

It has been months and months now and I find myself missing it. And as stupid as it sounds, it was a random tiktok with a generic quote saying, "What if the only thing standing between you and all you've ever wanted was trying one more time?" that had me thinking I should try one more time to write a book. Nothing to lose, after all. Not like I've done much else with my "free time" since giving it up.

Problem is I've all kinds of hang-ups. I've two stories I'd wanna give a crack at. But they are so vastly different. One is set in the 1950s and is a real dude book. And that has me thinking the industry would toss it aside immediately. Not because it's sexist or anything like that, mind. I'm not worried about that. But with women making up a majority of readers, I can't imagine a prospective agent going, "Oh shit, this random book from this random dude about this random guy being kickass is really gonna fly off the shelves!" All things being written well, of course, it's still a simple book with a simple goal, being fun. It's something I'd love to read, but I don't see published a lot. But maybe that's for a reason, no? I'm never gonna argue with taste. Not saying women couldn't find it fun. Dungeon Crawler Carl is flying off the shelves, after all. It is nevertheless a fear and worry I have in my mind.

My second book I think is a lot more "saleable," especially as an unpublished author. It's a dual-POV fantasy-romance about a Princess and a low-born Squire, with court intrigue similar to that of Game of Thrones, only not as long and hopefully not as complicated. It's a rather clean-cut drama, but it is nevertheless a thousand times more complicated to write as opposed to my simple Jack Reacher-esque 1950s book. But it is also a thousand times more pitchable I think, to an agent, as having broad-market appeal.

I wanna write both books, but having been out of the game for months and months and being wracked with anxiety, I've no clue which to pick. The fantasy-romance book has been with me the longest, always rummaging around in the back of my mind, but I've yet to figure fully it out. Might be the case that I gotta start writing it to do that. Meanwhile, the 1950s adventure book basically came to me fully formed due to how simple it is.

I know I'm jumping the gun by thinking about pitching it and selling it and all that. But that's a part of writing, no? I don't wanna write for an audience of one forever.

This could be on a very surface level - that being the writing structure/prose itself. or on a deeper level, where things don't make sense, things that are thrown in just for more traction, things in writing you just aren't a fan of, or even very niche things.

I'll go first, I see this in lots of books and even Best selling books, where the sentences are too short and way too simplified, so like no figurative language, no deeper meaning behind stuff, no symbolism, just a bunch of 'he said' 'she said' and the other one is kinda the opposite where they force description to the point of making the reader forget what they're reading. There is absolutely no need to describe the girl/guys eye colour for 4 paragraphs. One last one is when authors swear up and down the book is enemies to lovers, and it was a minor inconvenience that happened between them at the age of 7, or now one person 'hates' the other person, and the other person is very pushy and clingy. Or even enemies-to-lovers that lasts 3 chapters and then they kiss. I hate that sm.

Forget your imagined market, don’t pimp your own heart and voice. Write first and foremost for yourself, not the market, not your readers. My favorite reads are those not written to sell. You can always tell. Don’t let your readers direct your story.
I am a writer but that is also my advice as a reader of literary fiction, historical fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, and history. Reader-driven writing is derivative and perhaps serves as entertainment for many readers but I have found it holds few surprises or new insights or perspectives.
Then again, I may stand alone in this. I read to connect with other writers, some alive and many more long dead.
Writers, why do you write? Why do you read?

Just thought I'd throw this out into the ether as I'm now in bed, very tired, but most of all mentally exhausted. I've written something like 30k words in the last 2 weeks on a run of crazy motivation and inspiration, combined with a touch of discipline, but it's so mentally draining.

I do physical sports and dance and they're also mentally taxing but nowhere near this level of concentration.

Does anyone else feel this when they write a lot in a short period? Not just writing but also planning the next volume as I go, so I'm genuinely exhausted just from thinking and typing things with a keyboard.

I need to know if other people experience this. If so, what helps you keep energised when writing a lot in a short period?

How do I do this? I have my main character find a book where he discovers his powers. My problem is how to not make it boring.

Most books I've read have their mc learn through a mentor as a kind of narrative device. I'd like to know if you have any suggestions where this has been done.

I have imagined these tiny supernatural mystery stories and mythical monsters in my head for weeks. Stuff like a creature that only comes out to hunt in 0 light, crypits that mimic family dogs in order to get inside their home, people possessing stuff etc. i decided to put them into a episodic story of a Mother and son duo responding to these creatures, but every time i try to write a story, I’m never satisfied with the result. Sure i can write about how a girl discovered a Dog smiling at her though the window at night and how police hung up on her as soon as she described what the dog looked like, and just leave it at that. But as soon as i try to add a plot and resolution to that snippet, I always end up feeling like the original snippet lost its horror/charm it had and just end up not satisfied with any result

Hey everyone! I have been writing the first draft of my epic science fantasy novel. And it's messy to say the least. My story doesn't make any sense, my characters dont seem to be doing the logical thing, or at least they dont end up where they are supposed to be through proper means. The prose is bad sometimes, but sometimes its good, I have a seventeen page outline that I refer to again and again, but its just starting to feel as if I want to achieve those plot points and not how those moments connect. In short my story does not make sense, my characters are not well fleshed out and I feel like I would have to create a new story from scratch after this draft is done, which scares me because I dont want to be stuck in forever first drafts. I have written some 58k words till now, and nothing makes sense, maybe it does but it's so so confusing. and I am losing motivation really fast, like its really frustrating to write something this bad you know.

I'm curious to see the level of outlining and planning others are doing when writing your draft. I don't really think there's a correct amount, as the level of outlining you do is probably dependent on the kind of story you write. Like a plot-heavy mystery-thriller probably needs a bit more structure and plan than something that's more literary and character/theme-forward.

But I know there are writers that plot a lot or not at all regardless of what they're writing, so how does it look for you?

Personally I find that my "ideal" outline length is around 2 pages, in a default Google Docs file. Within that space I capture the broad strokes of what I want to put in the story, as well as some specific scenes/character moments. I'll follow it as a general outline and then just pants the rest based on what feels right and how the characters evolve as I'm writing, and developing them on the fly. Anything more and the story starts to feel a bit mechanical/inorganic and anything less makes it feel rudderless and open to plot holes.

What's your process look like?

Recently I had issues getting my words on paper. I began dreading writing like I’d hate it and it would never be good enough. So I made the uke that I’m not allowed to look at what I wrote till the book is finished and aged for a few weeks. So I have a stop loss in case I hate what I wrote.

In the mean time. I go back and want to edit some of my previous chapters because I hate it. I hate typing so I switched it to voice to text so I could get my words out smoother. My question is do y’all find it easier or hard to use voice to text,and does it ever take detail away from the story that I must add back in later?

I fear that with using voice to text to make writing easier that I will loose substance and nuance but it’s better that I get it out then nothing at all.

I’d love some guidance and maybe even a little encouragement.

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I wrote a short story yesterday and have absolutely nowhere to put it because no one cares. Most writing subs are way too frantic to read other people's work for long, Only fanfiction gets attention on A03. My friends aren't readers. Etc etc

How do you deal with this issue?

I have discovered writing for me this year and am having so much FUN!!!

It is really important to me to finish a project before moving on. I am mainly writing for fun but would love to publish one day.

Currently I am working on a project, but the new ideas keep coming, and every single one catches me...

My current line-up:

- working on a duology (was meant to be standalone, took on a life of its own)

- idea for a standalone (BANGER idea, need to write before someone else does)

- idea for a trilogy (the one I have been thinking about from the beginning)

- An idea for a multiple-book series (just came over me, and I want to write it immediately)

And I NEED to write them all. My days do not have enough hours lol!

Tell me how long your TBW is. Does it haunt you like mine???

I’m currently 75% into the first draft of a (planned to be circa) 90,000 word book.

For context, the longest piece I’ve ever written before this was 5,000 words.

I spent the first 6 chapters re-reading, re-working, editing etc., then I realised I was never going to finish if I carried on at that pace!

Since then, I have written circa 3,000 per day (4 days a week) and have only very rarely looked back at what I’ve got down on the page, I’ve just stuck to my (albeit quite prescriptive) chapter/plot plan and cracked on with a bit more of it each day.

Some of it is flowing nicely, but I *know* that other chapters feel *very* place-holder-y!

I’ve been able to capture *some* of the essence of the characters and/or places, but I also know that there’s a LOT work still to do there! (cliched turns of phrase, characters not speaking in their “voice” properly, scenes not described properly, word/phrase repetition…… it goes on!)

As I approach the finale of my story (with just over 20,000 words to go,) I am wildly excited to have got so much down on paper, and to be actually approaching the finish line, but I’m also now getting anxious about the next part! 😂😂

TL;DR - please can some of you more seasoned writers reassure me that “getting the damn thing written” in the first place was/is the right way to start, and that you’ve been through similar?

Thank you 🥹

I have a running sandbox 'story' that doesn't have an end goal. Sometimes plots occur and resolve, and sometimes the story lapses into just keeping the characters in motion and the sandbox active. It's not something I would ever submit, publish or show anyone, it's just to keep creativity active as a bulwark against writers block. Like the writing version of those soups that are always being added to and never stop cooking.