“John Q. Public: Choosing Effective Names for Your Characters”

In my novel The Farpool, one of the lead characters is named Kloosee ank kel: Om’t.  So what’s in a name and why did I choose this name for this character?  I could have named him Hamlet, Popeye, Jay Gatsby or Curly. 

There are as many kinds of fictional names and reasons for fictional names as there are authors.  In my case, I chose this name for several reasons. For one, the Seomish are a marine people and their language involves a lot of hard consonants.  Just listen to dolphins sometime.  Since their language involves hard consonants, so do their names.  Kloosee ank is like a given name.  Kel means tribe, in the Seomish language.  Om’t is the name of the tribe.  That’s how I came up with the name.

Sometimes, when you’re looking for a good name for a character, the name just pops out.  Take Johnny Winger, the hero of my series Tales of the Quantum Corps.  Trust me: I didn’t deliberate on this name long.  It just came to me.  One thing to watch out for is make sure you choose character names, especially if they’re main characters, whose names don’t sound alike. 

Another technique I have used to develop names is to look at maps or atlases.  Many towns and cities, in countries all over the world, come from names of people.  Pick one, roll it around on your tongue, maybe alter it a bit and voila!  Instant name and it often sounds real too. 

I have used rosters of personnel at my workplaces to find names, sometimes changing them slightly, sometimes not.  Another good resource.  Or think of your neighbors’ names…or even their pets.

You don’t want to pick a name that just sounds funny or odd, unless that’s the effect you’re trying to achieve.  But you do want, particularly for main characters, to pick names that are distinctive in some way, memorable in some way.  In researching my later books, I have started to make a list of the major players, just to keep them straight.  Here’s one for my current work in progress The Farpool: Marauders of Seome.

1. Loptoheen tu kel: Ponk’et– celebrated tuk-master of Ponk’et and Farpool team leader for the Ponkti team that travels to mid-20^th century Earth.
2. Lektereenah kim kel: Ponk’et – the Metah of Ponk’et
3. Klindonok ka kel:Ponk’et – second in command to Loptoheen for the Ponkti test mission to Earth. 
4. Kolom le kel: Ponk’et – assistant to the Metah of Ponk’et; chief of staff of the Mek’too (Ponkti council of state)
5. Mokleeoh loh kel: Om’t – the Metah of Omt’or
6. Manklu tel kel: Om’t – Master kip’t pilot and Farpool-team leader for the Omtorish special ops team that travels through Farpool with a mission to stop the Ponkti.
7. Fregattenkapitan Werner von Kleist – commander in the Kriegsmarine OKM (Naval General Staff, an aide to Adm Doenitz) and principal contact between the Germans and the Ponkti
8. Korvettenkapitan Dirk Melkopf – commanding officer, U-boat U-376.
9. Pakto klu kel: Sk’ort – Wavemaker technician from Sk’ort who becomes one of Chase’s mission team members, but who is also a spy for Sk’ort.   Pakto has a mission from the Metah of Sk’ort to gain as much intelligence on Omtorish plans for the Great Emigration as possible, so that Sk’ort will be able to secure favorable position and influence when the kels arrive in Earth seas. 
10. Koktet lu kel: Om’t – Omtorish engineer who helps operate and maintain the new Farpool at Lik’te Island.  Koktet is the one who befriends Angie Gilliam when she comes through the Farpool (from 1943 Earth) after the wormhole is re-opened to help Chase and the special forces team defeat the Ponkti and also to begin the Great Emigration.
11. ADM Raymond Davies – U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations in 2115 AD
12. Dr. Josey Holland – Biology Dept branch chief for cetacean species, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
13. Likteek klu kel: Om’t – member of the Kelktoo (Academy) and protégé of Longsee lok, who died in The Farpool, from effects of the great ak’loosh, when the Coethi attacked. (The Farpool).

As you can see, I’ve got people from Seome, Americans, Nazis, a wide variety of names and characters.  I may even put this list into the front of the book.  I’ve even done little capsule bios to help me remember them, although some have more extensive descriptions in my Notes. 

Naming your fictional characters is a true art.  Try not to be too clever; critics and English majors look for hidden messages in books and names.  Make the names sound real and appropriate to the setting, time and story you’re writing.  You wouldn’t give some eight-legged squid from Tralfamadore a name like Jedediah.  Not if you want to be taken seriously.  And you probably wouldn’t give some Civil War soldier a name like Koktek lu kel: Om’t.

Ian Fleming gave his British secret service agent the name of James Bond.  Could he really have been named anything else?  A good character name sounds right, fits the character and the story.

Spend some time on it.

The Word Shed will take a holiday break over Labor Day, so there won’t be a post on September 4.  The next post comes September 11 and will deal with the nature of fictional dialogue.

See you then.

Phil B.

 

“Using Appendices and Supplementary Materials in Your Book”

Using appendixes and notes and other supplementary materials is normal in non-fiction, but not so much in fiction.  In general, I have shied away from this in most of my fiction, but in my sf novel The Farpool, I did include an appendix.  Why?  Here are some reasons why you might want to consider an appendix, especially if you’re writing science fiction.

1. Done properly, an appendix can explain or clarify details about the story, the characters or the setting without bogging the story down in informational details.  The great sf classic Dune had multiple appendices and for many readers, this was part of enjoying the story.  Being able to dive into such details gives the reader a real sense of being there and interacting with the characters in a more realistic way.
2. A well-done appendix can support world-building efforts of the science fiction writer.  Particularly in sf, stories often take place in exotic alien environments.  In my novel The Farpool, the alien world is an oceanic planet and the main characters (the ones that are not human) are intelligent marine creatures.  Pretty alien.  In my story, I found it advisable to include an appendix to explain details of their history, culture, language, politics, time-keeping and myriad other details.  One of the main human characters is named Angie and she keeps a journal of her experiences through the story.  In deciding to add an appendix, I hit on the idea of making the appendix a longer version of her personal journal.  It seemed to work pretty well.
3. An appendix can expand a reader’s understanding of your fictional universe.  This is related to number 1 above but note that doing this well can help keep the reader in the story, connected with the characters and the details. 
4. As a parallel to number 3 above, adding an appendix can add realism to your fictional universe.  Every story is a peek through a window into a larger fictional universe.  For stories set in the here and now, sustaining the reader’s interest and suspension of disbelief comes fairly easily.  When you write that a character landed at New York’s JFK airport, that doesn’t need a lot of explanation.  The reader can imagine what that might be like.  But when you write that “Kloosee pulsed happy bubbles inside Angie and led her quickly to the kip’t,” that needs some explanation.  You do a simple explanation in the story, so as not to bog down the story, then add more details as needed in the appendix for those who are interested.  Some will be.  Some won’t. 
    
   There are other ways to supplement your story with items other than just straight text and dialogue.  In The Farpool, I wanted in the worst way to add a map to the story file, but most ebook retailers and readers don’t have software or devices that will support map-like graphics, so I had to put that off.  I still think it’s a good idea; many print sf novels do this.  Perhaps later.
   And in my series Tales of the Quantum Corps, I’ve included things like reports, memos, orders and directives, even letters and news reports right in the body of the story text.  A little of this goes a long way, but done right, it can enhance the realism of the story and support the reader’s desire to suspend his disbelief and get into the story (the word for this is verisimilitude…resemblance to the truth).  Also it gives you a way of taking a slightly different perspective on the story or some action or development in the story. 
    
   Some authors like Brad Thor and Stephen Coonts even add lists of characters at the beginning, with little bio notes to help the reader keep track of everybody.  I may do that in my current work, a sequel to The Farpool.
    
   As an example, here’s one of Angie Gilliam’s journal entries from my novel The Farpool:

Angie’s Journal: Echopod 1

“Well, so here I am, dictating this journal.  I hope I’ve got the thing working right…Pakma showed me how it works.  This is really crazy, you know.  Here I am, dressed up, changed somehow, so I look like a circus freak from Sea World and we’re traveling halfway across this ocean world called Seome to speak with some more humans who are somehow destroying this  very world.  I can’t even come close to understanding it.  And, really, I’m not sure I want to go on this little adventure…I’m kind of homesick.  I miss Mom.  I miss Dr. Wright and the Clinic and working with all the patients.  Most of all, I miss my bestest friend Gwen…so this is for you, girl.

“At least, Chase is here.  He seems to be really into all this, but then I always said he’s part fish anyway.  That’s what the Seomish are…really intelligent fish.  Oh, Gwen, you wouldn’t believe what we’ve seen…whole underwater cities, ships, submarines, glowing coral…they really are intelligent and clever people…fish…amphibians…whatever they are….

“We seem to be getting mixed up in their politics as well…they have tribes, or clans.  They’re called kels.  And they don’t get along that well…they have conflict on how to deal with these other humans.  By the way, these other humans…the Seomish call them Tailless People of the Notwater—isn’t that a hoot?—are up on some island way up north.  We’re heading there now.  These guys are operating some kind of machine that makes an awful racket in the ocean.  A weapon, I think.  They’re fighting a war with another race…another planet, I guess.  The Seomish don’t seem to understand all that, or they don’t care.  They just want this noise and vibration to stop…it’s really hurting them.  The Seomish want us to talk with the humans and make them shutdown the machine.

“I don’t know how well that will go but I do know one thing: after we make this trip, I want to go home.  Back through the Farpool…boy, is that a ride!  And I want to get changed back too…I don’t like looking like some kind of giant frog.  I miss checking out my cute little butt in the mirror and my long legs…these scales are the worst.  They hurt when you touch them.

“I asked Pakma and Kloosee about all this…going back, getting unmodified and so forth.  They haven’t answered me straight so far…I think they’re more worried about this little mission.

“But first chance we have, I’m going back…even if I have to go by myself.  That worries me a little.  I don’t think Chase wants to leave just yet.  This was supposed to be a short trip, just to help out Kloosee and Pakma.  Deep down inside, I think Chase would like to stay here, become one of them.

“Not me.  I guess we’ll deal with that when we have to.  But I’m worried about it, Gwen.  I really am.

“That’s it for now.  I’ll try to keep this journal going…get some other sounds.  Pakma said there’s a way to record visual and scent impressions too.  I have to record this.  You’d never believe it, Gwen, if I didn’t.

“Until next time…Angie, out.”

End Recording….

 

Use appendixes and other supplementary materials in your story carefully.  Don’t overdo it. But do it when it adds to the story or to the reader’s enjoyment of your fictional universe.

The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 28.  In this post, we’ll take a look at something every writer of fiction has to deal with: choosing and using effective names for your characters.

See you then.

Phil B.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You Can and Should Judge a Book by its Cover.”

Recently, I upgraded my series Tales of the Quantum Corps with all new covers.  Smashwords (my ebook distributor) recommends doing this on a regular basis as a way to pump up your downloads.  To date, I’ve seen some spikes, not huge, but there has been some increased activity in downloads since I started uploading new covers.

There is an old saying: don’t judge a book by its cover.  Baloney.  We all judge books by their covers.  We have to and we should.  A good book cover captures not only the reader’s attention and interest, but when done well, captures the essence of the story itself.  A really good cover pops and can’t be ignored.  How readers respond to covers varies with each reader but there are some good practices that should be followed in designing a book cover.

Before I get into these practices, I’ll show you how the cover of one of my books has evolved.  The book is Johnny Winger and the Serengeti Factor, book one in my series Tales of the Quantum Corps.  Here’s the original cover…

    

It’s got the basics: the title and my name.  The image is some kind of virus particle….on a black background.  Looks ominous, befitting the story in many ways.  I liked it because it’s simple, it was easy to create, and it sort of implies something we don’t see all the time…a virus particle magnified a few hundred thousand times.  The story involves a nanoscale robot called ANAD, which is able to function at the same size scale as a virus…in fact, in the book I imply that ANAD is derived from and functions as a programmable virus.  So the image fits the story.

I recently upgraded the cover to the following…

The new cover is richer visually, more stimulating.  We’re still at the level of atoms and molecules (remember the story hasn’t changed) but now it looks like some kind of vortex or whirlpool has trapped all the atoms.  There’s still the title and author’s name, but now I’ve added the fact that it’s part of the Tales of the Quantum Corps, implying the existence of other stories. 

Only time will tell if the new cover stimulates more downloads.  Or whether it’s really an improvement at all.  With that, let’s look at some good practices in book (especially ebook) cover design.

Digital Publishing 101 has a web site that offers some well-thought out tips and techniques for cover design.  In particular, the authors speak of 3 critical elements of book covers:

Background

Image

Type

 

Background:

Your cover should have a background color, texture or image rather than being plain white. Plain colors can be a bit dull so consider using a graduated color background or a background image. A good quality image will add a professional look provided it doesn’t conflict with other elements and provides strong contrast for the typographical elements.

 

Image:

Some book covers can work well without an image if the other elements work together. But a strong image can lift your cover design, give it a focus and convey something important about the book’s subject or style. As with background images, make sure this image is of high quality and consider using a stock photo library if you don’t have anything suitable. The image must work with both the background and, importantly, the type. If you need to use an amateur image, you can often improve it with smart cropping or special effects such as fading but don’t overdo these: Like the use of too many fancy fonts, it can end up looking, well, amateurish.

 

Type:

Typography is a real art and sets the best book designers apart from the rest. On covers, effective typography is perhaps the single biggest success factor. It must suit the book’s genre and, most importantly, be clear and readable at the smallest scale.

The top half of the cover is prime real estate so, as a general rule, use it for your main type area. You’re unlikely to be able to fit in much more than the title and author, with perhaps a short subtitle or series cover line visible in the larger images. Non-fiction titles might be better to drop the author to free up space for a subtitle unless the author is well-known.

Covers are the one place you can forget about working with the narrow range of e-reader- and web-friendly type styles because the cover type will only appear in an image. The sorts of fonts that work for covers are quite different from the fonts that work best for body type. For instance, readable body type is fairly open while strong headline types are tighter with less white space and, often, more height. You should only use one or two fonts on a cover and they need good size and contrast against the background and images.

There are lots of great sites for fonts on the internet. One which specializes in good quality free fonts is Font Squirrel (www.fontsquirrel.com).

 

Spend some time on your book covers.  Or engage the services of a professional.  Smashwords highly recommends using the services of a pro.  I’ve elected to do my own covers for the main reason that I know the story better than anyone.  But probably, I’d benefit from a professional approach as well.

 

The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 21.  In this post, I’ll cover using appendices and other supplementary materials in your book…what to do and what not to do.

 

See you then.

Phil B.

Novels, Novellas and Novelettes: What’s the Difference?

Every writer of fiction has to answer one important question about his work: how long should it be?  Am I writing a short story?  Am I writing a novel?  Or am I writing something in between?

The website Letterpile.com and author Syed Meer offer some ideas on how to clarify these questions.  To amplify what Meer says, I’ve identified four dimensions of prose fiction that should be considered before the questions above can be answered.  And they should be answered  before the writer ever puts down the first word.

1. Word count
    
   One way of determining what level of writing is required is simply by word count.  According to Meer, a novelette should run about 7500 to 17000 words.  A novella is longer, allows more room and should run about 17000 to 40,000 words.  And a novel ideally is any work over 40,000 words.
   Obviously, these aren’t hard and fast rules.  Meer mentions A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) and The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka) as examples of shorter fiction.  These works are usually published as (short) novels, but really should be considered as novellas instead.  And in today’s world of commercial publishing, you’ll seldom find anything called a novel for less than about 80,000 to 100,000 words.  Indeed, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix weighs in at over 250,000 words.  I’ve done works like this myself.
   Word count isn’t everything, but it is one easily understood dimension of modern prose fiction.
    
2. The Nature of the Plot

A novelette doesn’t have the room to have a lot of plot twists and turns.  A novella could accommodate a few.  Only in the novel can you engage in subplots and languid expositions of settings and philosophy. 

According to Meer, a novella or a novelette should deal with one or at most two characters and there isn’t room for detailed conflict or character development.  The shorter forms typically explore a single incident though with more nuance and complications than a true short story.  By contrast, a novel-length work has room for characters to change and grow (or not), subplots and threads to develop and be weaved together and a more leisurely approach to details of setting. 

 

1. How Many Characters?
    
   In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka describes the ordeal of a single person, one poor fellow named Gregor, who is transformed into an insect.  Presumably allegorical, this novella deals only with Gregor, his thoughts, actions, reactions.  There are no subplots, extra characters, or extraneous details.  Contrast this with some of my novel-length works, where my List of Major Players runs to several pages. 
   Novellas and novelettes deal with only a few characters and explore what happens to them, how they react and change or grow in relation to a single incident.  Novels can encompass entire lives, with all the complications that involves.  My general rule for novels is to limit the main characters to about three and go from there.
    
2. Shorter works are often read as a single story
    
   My current science fiction novel has twenty chapters.  Many chapters have multiple changes of scene, just to vary the pace and move the various plot threads along, more or less simultaneously.  A novelette and to a lesser extent a novella are often written without any breaks at all, no chapters, etc.  Stories like these are meant to be read straight through, often at one sitting.  By contrast, a novel is often an investment of several days, sometimes several weeks.  Pick it up, read a chapter or two, put it down. 
   Shorter works have a different rhythm in reading than novels.  Novels are sometimes like navigating a maze (often this is intentional; sometimes it isn’t).   Meers says, “The reader often feels that the story deviates and is affected by the involvement of different sub-stories and sub-plots, by the passage of time, or by the involvement of new important characters– this is considered the real beauty of a novel.  Novels wander.  They meander.  They should keep your interest when they do this.  And each meander should contribute in some way to the total story.
   Novellas and novelettes are more focused, more single-minded in their approach.  You go from point A to B to C in a more or less straight line. 
    
   When developing and planning your story, give some thought to what length and type of form will work best.  Often the idea may even develop itself; you may see an idea as purely novel length.  Or you may see it as somewhat shorter.  It may be plainly evident what length works for the idea.
    
   Each type of story form has strengths and weaknesses.  Nothing is harder than trying to force fit a story idea into a form and a length that doesn’t fit.  You don’t do this with shoes or clothes.  Don’t do it with story ideas either.
    
   Give your story idea room to breathe and grow. 
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 14.  In this post, I’ll look at book covers, including some of my own.  My contention is that you can and should judge a book by its cover.  We’ll look at what makes good…and bad covers.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.