The naming of beings
Apr. 23rd, 2011 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI sat down to write and discovered a need to give a character a surname. So, okay, thought I, I'll go on the random name generator and keep pushing the button until a Ben name comes up. So I got:
BEN Penaloza
BEN Glowacki
BEN Hunger
BEN Holeman
and then I gave up on that tactic.
... Wing Commander Glowacki somehow doesn't have the ring to it, not to mention the thing where looking at too many names they started to look like porn names...
I was going to name him after some place in Colorado but I think several writers already did that. There's Jackson and Wiggins on there. And Lafayette and Parker. There's also Boulder, Gypsum, Basalt, Leadville and Castle Rock, which somehow don't scream aviator. And then there's Fairplay, which is not a name you can land a character with and keep a straight face. So, maps, less helpful than I'd hoped.
I wandered around Greek surname lists and am currently thinking Soterakis is nice.
Wing Commander Ben Soterakis, Combat Search and Rescue.
Of course then I have to figure out what exactly he's the boss of. I designed (in Gurps in a little grid) his ship (ship don't feel like the right word, ship that mostly lives inside a ship and can fly up and down to planets, but a lot more kick arse than a shuttle) and there's only room for four crew, a couple of med beds, some freezers, and a lot of passenger seats. I can invent four people and know what their jobs are on the little ship. And I designed the fleet ship the little ships land in to drop off all those passengers. The big ones can fit three like Ben's in one hangar bay and at least six per ship, the little ones only two per ship. I haven't yet designed the great big medical carrier that's the heart of the story cause I was going to write some first to know what needs to go in it. But it could fit really a lot that size in it. So how many is a wing for him to be in command of? And is he the boss of the little flyers or is there a bigger boss on board? I'm not writing about him doing his job right now, but he'd know what his job usually entails, so I should.
... why did I decide to go all military anyway?
... because he looked hot in the uniform. :eyeroll:
So, anyway, I have now been at my computer an hour and a half, I have nine sentences done, and I just realised, if I assume everyone's uniform has their surname written on the chest then they're only going to introduce themselves by their first names anyways. Which I already knew. Ben.
This is why my word count.
:eyeroll:
BEN Penaloza
BEN Glowacki
BEN Hunger
BEN Holeman
and then I gave up on that tactic.
... Wing Commander Glowacki somehow doesn't have the ring to it, not to mention the thing where looking at too many names they started to look like porn names...
I was going to name him after some place in Colorado but I think several writers already did that. There's Jackson and Wiggins on there. And Lafayette and Parker. There's also Boulder, Gypsum, Basalt, Leadville and Castle Rock, which somehow don't scream aviator. And then there's Fairplay, which is not a name you can land a character with and keep a straight face. So, maps, less helpful than I'd hoped.
I wandered around Greek surname lists and am currently thinking Soterakis is nice.
Wing Commander Ben Soterakis, Combat Search and Rescue.
Of course then I have to figure out what exactly he's the boss of. I designed (in Gurps in a little grid) his ship (ship don't feel like the right word, ship that mostly lives inside a ship and can fly up and down to planets, but a lot more kick arse than a shuttle) and there's only room for four crew, a couple of med beds, some freezers, and a lot of passenger seats. I can invent four people and know what their jobs are on the little ship. And I designed the fleet ship the little ships land in to drop off all those passengers. The big ones can fit three like Ben's in one hangar bay and at least six per ship, the little ones only two per ship. I haven't yet designed the great big medical carrier that's the heart of the story cause I was going to write some first to know what needs to go in it. But it could fit really a lot that size in it. So how many is a wing for him to be in command of? And is he the boss of the little flyers or is there a bigger boss on board? I'm not writing about him doing his job right now, but he'd know what his job usually entails, so I should.
... why did I decide to go all military anyway?
... because he looked hot in the uniform. :eyeroll:
So, anyway, I have now been at my computer an hour and a half, I have nine sentences done, and I just realised, if I assume everyone's uniform has their surname written on the chest then they're only going to introduce themselves by their first names anyways. Which I already knew. Ben.
This is why my word count.
:eyeroll:
no subject
Date: 2011-04-23 09:31 am (UTC)