Jeffe's Top Three Resources for Names

    

ROGUE'S POSSESSION, Book #2 in my Covenant of Thorns Dark Fantasy Romance trilogy, is out in a week! It's been so fun to see readers rediscover this first series of mine.

This week at the SFF Seven, we're talking Naming Resources: Your top 3 sources for choosing names of characters, places, etc. Here are mine:

1. Jeffe's Big List of Names

I keep a list. A spreadsheet (of course! for those who know me) that I add to any time I encounter a name I really like. I save them for important characters. One #protip: there are few disappointments greater than discovering you squandered a really good name on a throwaway secondary character. Save those names for someday!

 

2. Behind the Name

 

BehindtheName.com is a great resource that lets you search for names in all sorts of ways. There's also a surname version, for those tricksy family names. 

3. Relevant Dictionaries

I also use archaic language dictionaries for whatever language family I'm using for a given world or realm within a world. These are easy to search for online, then look up word meanings and cobble together names from there.

 

Names are always important in my books - it's one of my themes - so I'm almost always choosing them for their underlying meaning. Something to look for!

 

Top 5 Writing Resources

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. This week's topic at the SFF Seven is our Top 5 Writing Resources. I have so many websites, books, and software programs that I love, so it was hard to choose just 5, but I did and I'll tell you why each one made the cut.

1. KM Weiland's Helping Writers Become Authors website. I've linked to KM's story structure series which is one of the very best I've come across. I've read KM's books too, but I refer back to her story structure series any time I get stuck or feel like I need a refresher. Even for those writers who don't plot, understanding story structure can help build much stronger fundamental skills and aid in creating cleaner drafts. There's a ton of other info for writers on this site as well, and I recommend reading as much as possible. Helping Writers Become Authors is truly a one-stop-shop.
2. Jane Friedman's Writing Advice Archive. We won't talk about how long I've followed Jane, but I can tell you that her publishing industry and writing advice is always on point. If you aren't sure how to navigate the publishing world, I highly recommend perusing her Writing Advice Archive. She covers everything from getting started as a writer to rights and legal issues. Most importantly, she's been in this business for 20 years with a vast range of experience, so she knows what she's talking about.
3. Writer Beware. I've had several inquiries lately from new writers about publishing routes, and I was sad to learn that most every person who reached out to me had experienced bad dealings with vanity presses or scams. I was also surprised how many new writers don't realize that you do NOT pay for a literary agent. To make certain you're dealing with a reputable publisher, I advise researching agents, publishers, and editors thoroughly. Writer Beware can help with some of this.
4. Hiveword. Man, how I used Elizabeth Spann Craig's Knowledge Base when I was a newbie writer tiptoeing into this writing world. I can't begin to tell you how beneficial this website (now Hiveword) was for me when I was starting out. I'm pretty sure there isn't anything you won't find here in your writing quest, so if you have a question, hit up this amazing search engine and delve into thousands of writerly articles.
5. Writer Unboxed. This site is excellent for the technical parts of the writing journey, but it also has posts from veteran authors who make you feel far less alone on this journey. They share their insight and struggles, and the community is strong here. I see this site as 'nourishment' for the writer's soul, a very important and often overlooked part of a writer's life.

That's it!! Now go read, research, and write, write, write! 

XOXO,

Where I Go to Know

The single writing-related resource I use is a search engine. It's because I don't really have one go-to. Most of the time, I want to know what the psychological drive is that transforms hate into love. I want to know how survivor's guilt manifests. How fast is acceleration of a craft in a solar system if you deploy a solar sail of x size. How does the brain respond to foreign objects and where can I place something like that without killing someone outright? 

Huh. It's possible I'm on a couple of FBI watch lists.

Perhaps I land a little more frequently on Jeffe's side of the internet with Thesaurus.com but if I do, it isn't by much. I'm one of those writers who finds a word image or gesture and I make sure I get my money's worth out of it in a draft. It's in rewrites that I realize I've used the same thing sixty-some-odd times and then I break out the synonyms. 

But for most things, it's my trusty search engine. It may take me far afield, but serendipity is a thing and occasionally the rabbit holes pay off, too. Most of the time, I get right where I need to go, grab my info and I'm back in the race. Though, in this race it should be noted that I'm the tortoise. And I stopped for snacks. And a nap. And . . .

This is Perceval (the silver tabby) and her mini-me Peseshet (the brown tabby and white in shadow here) above. Even though they were rescued a year apart, we're pretty certain they are related. Perceval certainly treats Peseshet as if they are. I figured we could all use a little cute on a Friday morning.

Alexia's Go-To Writing Resource

 

Grammar Girl website

As a writer I’ve got pages and pages of bookmarked websites and a few writer groups I can go to with questions. I’ve also got a couple of books that get pulled off the shelf depending on what stage of creating I’m in. 

But the one reference I consult the most? I wish it were something cooler, like Vivien’s popular science works she uses, or KAK’s Deviant Art obsession (which is totally valid). But for me, it’s a basic:

Grammar Girl’s ‘Lay’ Versus ‘Lie’ post.

Go ahead. Laugh. I know I sure do.

It never fails, I'll be cruising through my WIP and someone or something has to put someone or something down. And then my brain goes into second-guessing mode. I try to rely on my gut and keep going, but inevitably I’ll end up clicking on my bookmarks folder to re-read through Grammar Girl’s tips. 

Which, I believe, brings about a good point. As all of us SFF Seven-ers have pointed out—there are GOBS of writing resources out there! You can find a book or post on every topic I can think of and then some! You can throw yourself into research and never surface. 

if you don’t have the basics—

your writing will never accomplish what you want it to

But if you don’t have the basics, like knowing when to use lay and lie, your writing will never accomplish what you want it to and all of the time, effort, and sometimes money, you sink into the other resources is worthless. It’s like, if you want to be able to do a handstand you can’t just jump right to Adho Mukha Vrksasana. First you need balance, strength, endurance, flexibility, concentration and then you’ll be able to nail a handstand during your yoga practice. 

Back to the writing angle though, there’s a lot of aspects I want to get better at, and thankfully I’ve got Grammar Girl to help. So tell me, what basics do you struggle with? Comma use? Past and present tense switches? Go ahead, lay it on me!