Express Yourself: Naming

Okay guys, I know I don't normally post on Thursdays, but I'm in the midst of revising my blogging schedule.  I plan to reveal my new schedule on Monday. As it is, since I'm changing things up some, I figured there was no harm in posting on an odd day.  For those who may be curious, I'm not changing things drastically by any means.  I'm just adjusting for memes that I've gotten involved with.

One of those new memes is the inspiration for today's post.  Maybe I was simply captivated by the badge because it reminded me of Wordle.  Or maybe I thought it sounded like a good way to get involved in something new.  Either way, here I am!

Thanks to Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests for starting this.  Seriously guys, how do you come up with so many great ideas?  It baffles me.  I'm slightly jealous of your collective genius, but not too jealous to jump into the fun!

This is a weekly meme, and a monthly schedule of topics will be posted.  This week's topic piqued my interest immediately.  The task is to pick a name from my current WIP, and to then describe my process of acquiring it.

Naming has always been an important process for me.  The name you choose for a character can say a lot about them.  In the real world, names don't always mesh with someone's personality, though a bold name that stands out can certainly influence someone a lot.  However, in the realm of fiction where there's a crazy writer behind the wheel, a carefully chosen name can say everything about someone.

I chose the serial that I've been writing for my Friday posts.  It's called Memoirs From the End of the World.  One character in that story is named Alyx.  He's able to survive in a world where reproduction is forced upon people by alien overlords because he is naturally sterile.  He is therefore useless to the overlords that seek to control everyone else.

Just to be clear, the rest of what I'm about to say hasn't been addressed in my story yet, so if any of you have been reading it and don't want to risk reading any spoilers about the character, then you shouldn't read past this point.  However, I personally don't think I'm giving away anything too crucial to the overall story.

Though Alyx identifies as male, at birth it was obvious that his reproductive system hadn't fully developed inside or outside.  Growing up, he worried that no girl would be able to understand his condition or would be willing to deal with it. After all, he isn't what many would consider a "real man" given his condition. That's why I gave him a name that could be used either as male or female.  That is also the reason I used the unusual spelling.  Given that the sexes are defined by the chromosomal pairings of XX and XY, I couldn't resist the opportunity to play off of that.  Therefore, as Alyx identifies as male but doesn't possess the typical physical attributes that most males have, the X and the Y in his name are in reverse order to show that difference.

Fortunately for him, when the alien overlords came and realized this his infertility couldn't be easily rectified by noninvasive means, they decided it would be a waste of resources to try to do anything with him.  That which isolated him, making him the subject of ridicule among his peers, became an asset the day of the invasion.

That's something I like to do in my stories.  I enjoy taking characters who have been marginalized or simply feel isolated and putting them in a situation where their difference becomes an advantage.

Word Games in the World

The world is full of word games.  Even our lives in the world can be one big word game.  Though we may have the 1st Amendment and are technically free to speak, there are all kinds of societal rules governing what is appropriate and inappropriate for any given situation.

Political correctness, which is a societal judgment of which words are appropriate to use to describe people, professions, or things, has been a divisive issue.  Should we make an effort not to offend  people when we speak, or have these restrictions trampled our rights of free speech?  This is a question you have to answer for yourself.  For me personally, I have no problem with sexist, racist, and other terms used to demean people being frowned upon.  You're technically still free to say them, as you should be, but the shift has made some areas of civil discourse more, well, civilized.  Of course, from the way the political arena looks as of late, people are still bashing each other just as thoroughly as ever.  Politicians are adept at using word play, a type of word game, to spin the argument against their opponent and paint themselves in a more favorable light.  Gotta love rhetoric.  I discussed this once in a previous post, so I won't go into too much detail about that here.

I can think of a couple high profile examples of language controversy.  Less than a month ago, actress Gwyneth Paltrow stirred up controversy when she tweeted a picture of Kanye West, Jay-Z, and herself.  In her description, she used the "N" word.  I don't think I need to spell it out for all of you to know what I mean by that.  And as much as I enjoy controversy, I don't want to be accused of being racist.  I will, however, offer my take on the situation.  She was tweeting the name of the song that they were singing at the time.  Saying a word offensively is one thing.  However, since she was quoting the name of the song, why should anyone be angry?  The use of these offensive terms is generally accepted in music and novels.  After all, it can often be used as political commentary, and is also used as a form of empowerment.  As for novels, how can you write a historical piece focused on racism in America without using such a term?  It would certainly be difficult.  I think we sometimes need to look at the intended meaning behind the use of a typically offensive word before we get angry.


Then, even more recently, Michigan Representative Lisa Brown was silenced after saying the dreaded "V" word, which is the clinical term for a part of the female body, during an abortion debate.   Apparently using the name of a body part offended several people in the assembly, though I'm kind of stunned as to why.  Well, I'm actually not stunned.  It's a body part that can be used for sexual purposes, so I guess it's considered "offensive by association."  Now, I'm not going to go into her subsequent actions and whether they were appropriate or not (that is a whole new can of worms and would dominate the rest of this post).  You can read more HERE and decide for yourselves.  However, I will say this.  She said the actual name of a body part that half the people in this country have.  I can think of several slang terms she could have used that would have been far more inflammatory and would have justified action against her.  However, she used the clinical term of a body part that is inevitably involved in an abortion debate.  Maybe people need to get over it.  It's a word we had to say aloud in a high school anatomy class, for crying out loud.  These were full grown adults who were complaining.  Something seems off there.  And I know I didn't write out the "V" word either, which makes me seem hypocritical, but I think the absurdity of me not saying it helps me make my point.


Anyway, the point I'm trying to make in all this ranting is that language comes with all sorts of rules, both written and unwritten.  Language belongs to society and is constantly under construction.  It's political, it's tricky, and malleable.  Anyone who understands it well enough can use it to make any point they want.  It's all about the words you use.  The world is one large word game.


I want to say now that I never intended to offend anyone with the content of this long rant.  I was trying to make some serious points and offer my own opinions.  Think what you will of what I believe.  For any of you who I may have offended and still decided to stick with it this far, or for any of you who simply love word games, here's a little fun for you.  Follow the links to play some free, and fun, word games.  These sites have a ton to choose from.  Or just do your own search for "word games."  If you can't find anything to your liking from that long list of results, well, then I certainly can't help you.


http://www.wordgames.com/
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/game/index.htm

Have a good day everyone!

Blogspiration 2: Interconnectedness

I don't want to sound corny, but since I was a small child and learned that everyone and everything that we've ever known is composed of elements forged in the massive hearts of dying stars, I've always seen that kind of connection wherever I look.  Not only are we all made from the same kind of thing, that fact also connects birth and death in a fascinating way.


That's why this affected me so much when I saw it on Facebook.

Those networks of connections in the picture also remind me of the way we network socially.  Even when we don't fully understand the way we're attached to the others around us, the influence flows along that attachment all the same.

This also means we have a much greater responsibility than we know.  Our actions often have consequences we never would have anticipated.

The Name Game

What’s in a name, really?  These days a name can easily mean the world, or in many cases, absolutely nothing at all.  Some people name their children after family members, or people who were otherwise influential in their lives.  Or perhaps parents, through research, discovered a name that had a meaning behind it that resonated with them.  And, of course, there’s always the equally viable “I liked the way it sounded.”  I, for example, have the middle name Gene.  Yes, I am female, and I know that my name is therefore supposed to be spelled J-E-A-N.  I get that, and I endured a lot of teachers misspelling it over the years.  Yet, my parents’ use of the male version of the name was quite deliberate.  First of all, I had an aunt named Gene.  And second, my parents loved Star Trek, so it seemed that having the same name as Gene Roddenberry would be a desirable thing.  This is just fine with me.  It proves that, from the very beginning of my life, I was always going to be a geek.

Anyway, getting to my main point, though our names may, or may not, have special meaning behind them, our culture accepts that titles generally convey a lot.  If they don’t, they fail.  The title of a book is an opportunity for the writer to connect with potential readers.  Now, I realize I am essentially unpublished (I’m not sure how much the occasional published poem and single essay in a small magazine over a decade ago count), but I have enough knowledge to say this with confidence.  And as I know that the titling process is important, I figured I would share a little of my process with the world.

First of all, I never start with a title.  I’ve tried to start with a title and work from there, and the title certainly gave me a launching point, but by the end, the story had outgrown the original title I’d chosen.  These things happen.  That’s why the concept of “working titles” is so prevalent.  And while I may use a working title along the way, I still go through a final naming process at the end.

The process begins with me making a small list of important themes and objects/places/events present in the story.  Sometimes it’s as easy as choosing an important object or event to double as the title, but in my case, it usually doesn’t.  I’m much too hard on myself for that.  I usually end up traveling the thematic route, though on occasion I’ve combined the two methods. 

When traveling the thematic path, I select a handful of words that go along with the themes I’ve identified.  For example, a theme might be death, so I might choose the word “darkness” to symbolize nightfall.  Yes, not original, but it’s just an example.  Once I’ve picked out a few I like, I compose a long list of variations that I think would accurately portray that mood of the story I’ve told.  Going with darkness, I could call it “Darkness Descending” or “Walking into Darkness.”  With the final list of options in hand, I read them out loud so I can get a sense of how they sound.  I may share them with others to get feedback.

Obviously this is a task I take quite seriously.  Sometime in the near future I’ll post a written example of how this process goes down.  The example will be given in precise detail.  I tried to explain it clearly here, but it can get quite complicated, and I know making sense of my ramblings can be challenging for anyone, even on the best of days.