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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Naming Geography

Wow. Naming stuff sucks.

I’m letting myself play around with maps and geography for the next book—something to do in between revisions. (First Vi Lar chapter! I’ll probably write it tomorrow.) But I’m looking at this map and thinking, “I have to name these ranges. And all these mountains, individually. And this river. And this continent, and this country, and this city, and this city-state.”

So I stopped doodling to post something, because for some reason naming everything does not sound tasty right now.

Of course, I have a huge list of names that I keep on the jump drive, but most of those are people names, not mountain names. (Not that I won’t still use them as such.) Hurray….

So yeah, going for an overly-mountained setting with zero travel possibilities. In TOS they traveled everywhere. There’s a bit of travel in TR too, from the tundra to the cultivated desert. CSH takes place in a tropical climate. Wanting to avoid the standard forest, I’m sticking my next story in the middle of mountain mania. We’ll see how that works out.

P.S. I’m officially registered for WorldCon! One year to prep. :D

Excerpt of the day:
“I still remember the first time I came here, when I got this mark,” Lialis said, opening his palm and staring at the protective glove that hid it. “Everyone in town gossiped about how the recruiters were coming to Sydus. All the boys were excited. We dreamed of adventures in the Magiarmy. Our mothers were terrified, of course.”

“You’re Sytian?” Pasha asked. “I didn’t know that.”

He nodded. “Sydus is as much a part of Sollaris as the other islands, even if it’s overrun by rebels and terrorists.”

CSH, chapter 8

2 comments:

  1. Oh, man... but naming things is so fun! World-building is like having a million babies.

    A million babies.

    I guess I probably wouldn't be a good father, judging by my baby-spawning intentions. They'd all end up with names like The Tantarkialian Spire... Godby.

    -bn

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  2. I love naming people. I hate naming towns/landmarks. The worst part is when I tell myself it's a "placeholder," and then it makes it to the end. Like "Lavender House" in PS. Wtf happened there.

    I prefer other aspects of world building, particularly religion. I also like the nit-picky things, like how they'd swear or what the titles for various classes would be or the names of constellations.

    That stuff's fun. Naming cities and people irritates me.

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