Top Blog Posts of 2012

The year 2012 is almost at an end--and what a year it has been! As we think over what this year has brought us, let's also look back at some of the highlights of the blog this past year. So, without further ado, here are the top 15 blog posts of 2012! (Posts are listed in chronological order.)

The Hows and Whys of Naming God in Your Fantasy Story

The Weapons in Fantasy Series -- Swords, Bows, Armor

The Fashion in Fantasy Series -- Females, Males, Shoes

The Villain Series -- 5 Ways to Kill Your Villain, Recipe for a Dark Lord

Easter and Fantasy

The Names Series -- Names in the Bible, How to Name Your Characters

Costs and Benefits of Self-Publishing

The Colors in Fantasy Series -- Tools, Opposites

So go ahead and click those links to read any posts you missed! And if you liked other posts from the blog, be sure to comment and let me know. I look forward to an even better 2013!

It's All in the Details

The details you use in your story could be the most important part of your writing, because they are what brings your story alive to the reader. Without physical details, we wouldn’t know that Harry wears round spectacles or that Mr. Tumnus carries an umbrella.

To illustrate my point, let me show you a few examples. Which of the following makes the scene come to life in your mind’s eye?

A girl and a man walked down the street.

Or:

Two people walked down the sidewalk along Main Street: a little girl with serious brown bangs over her eyes and a middle-aged man, his charcoal suit hanging on him lopsidedly.

Or:

A 5-year-old girl wearing a floaty pink dress, her blue eyes wide, held her father’s hand as he led her down the cobblestone street of Paris, past Nicholas Flamel’s house.

In both of these latter versions, we can see the people and the place much more clearly. It would be even more clear if we could add another sentence describing the sensations of taste or sound or touch or smell that the two were feeling. In other words, the subtle placement of physical details in all five senses is the key to bringing your writing to life.

Easier said than done, right? Wrong! Here are some obvious places to inject more details into your writing:

1. In Names

We’ve been talking a lot about names the past few weeks (here, here, and here). Well, that’s because they’re so important—in real life, when we meet someone new, we typically learn their name. It should be the same in writing. Names are the one universal part of human experience. So use them!

2. In Character Descriptions

Introduce new characters by giving us more than just hair color/eye color. Sure, their physical appearance is important, but as someone once told me, “You don’t choose to be pretty. You’re born that way. It’s what you do with your looks that counts.”

So, in the same way, go beyond a character’s looks and focus on a key detail like a favorite concert t-shirt or the Beats headphones and pink iPod a character incessantly uses. Doing so makes that character come to life as a multidimensional person. For fantasy, use the wooden carved necklace a hunter never takes off or the moon-white earring of an assassin or the curved scars on a princess’ cheek. All of these little details can cut to the core of the personality of your character in seconds.

3. In Setting

Introduce each new setting using a minimum of two senses (usually sight would be essential). That means every time you have a new scene or your characters go to a new place or even enter a car, you should take a few seconds to describe the white leather lining of the seats, the peeling aqua paint, the smell of Chinese takeout lingering in the baby’s car seat. Let the place become real in your mind’s eye, then describe it so your readers can be engulfed by your story.

4. In Dialogue

Pepper your dialogue with gestures and descriptions. Make your characters interact with the setting: have your cleanliness-obsessed astronomer fiddle with her bottle of sanitation gel. Let your Rangers move around, checking that the horses are saddled properly, that the sentries are distracted.

Also, give your characters habitual gestures and hand motions to illustrate their speech—make your evil villain’s sidekick have a nervous habit of nodding, or maybe have your drama queen fiddle with her eyebrows when she’s nervous.

Whatever you do, add detail. Go back to each page of your writing and make sure you’ve added the necessary physical details so that, to your readers, your writing happens in a real place with real people. I guarantee you that you’ll learn a lot more about your story and your characters than you expect.

Can you think of any details you’ve read in stories lately that really stood out to you? Or what about in your own writing—written any cool details you’d like to share?

All photos courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.

How to Name your Characters

This baby is adorable! publicdomainpictures.net

“Mary—watch out! There’s a candy-spitting dragon coming in at twelve o’clock!”

“Aw, John, another dragon? Weren’t the fire-breathing-unicorns bad enough?”

That little snippet of dialogue could probably be turned into an interesting story—except for one major problem: the characters’ names. I mean, really, a fantasy story featuring dragon with main characters called Mary and John? That’s almost as bad as calling them Jane and Tarzan!

No doubt, as you’ve already learned from our little mini-series on names (see here and here), the names we bear and the names we give characters have extraordinary power. So as authors it’s important to focus on giving our characters the best names we can.

To do that, here’s a few tips.

1. Keep a name collection. 

• List all your old favorites, your fabulous invented names, those book characters that you can’t get out of your head—last names, first names, place names. List normal names like Jason but don’t be afraid to go wild with names like Leopold Vincent Williams III. Whatever you do, keep it so that you can have a handy reference for later use whenever you’re stuck and need a name in a hurry.

2. Think about the time and place of your story.

• If you’re writing historical fiction (or any story set in the past), be sure to research popular names at the time. Not taking the time to research a name can be disastrous: think, for example, of the Disney flop movie The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, where medieval characters had names like Veronica and Belthazar. No wonder no one liked the movie!

• If you’re writing fantasy, try to come up with different “sound systems” for each of your people groups. A sound system is basically a set of sounds used by that language, some similar to English, others different. Then select particular sounds out of the whole system to use for names. For example, maybe female names start with the sounds “Uu” or “Lo” whereas male names start with “Ma” or “Ki.” If you have multiple languages/people groups, make sure the names of each people group sound different enough to tell them apart.

• If you’re writing science fiction, the same tips apply as for fantasy, above. However, you may also want to consider names with symbols or numbers. Plus, if you’ve got aliens with different vocal organs from humans, you could try to come up with a way to represent those languages on paper. It’d be a challenge, certainly, but it could take your writing from forgettable to memorable.

• If you’re writing contemporary (on-earth-now) fiction, make sure the names are believable. If you still chose to use an outlandish name like “Dremnei,” have an explanation ready or else your readers won’t believe it. Also, be sure to consider the character’s ethnicity: you wouldn’t have a Japanese character named “Jane,” or an Indian character named “Will.” A great place to look for contemporary (modern) names is in movie credits, especially for the non-famous people like the crew members.

3. For unique names:

• Scramble the letters in a normal name to get a new name. For example, Ethan could become Tehan or Nateh or Ehnat or any number of other possibilities.

• Combine two common names into one. For example, Sarah and Janelle could combine to make a name like Saranelle or Janarah.

• Type a sentence, phrase, the lyrics of a song, or even a random string of words together without spaces. Look for possible combinations of letters to use as names. For example: asyoulikeit (as you like it) could be a name like Asy, Olik, or Keit.

• Use a common word and make it a name. Fiddle around with various spellings if you want to be a bit more subtle. For example, you could use the names Lavendyr, Thyme, Rust, or Rain for potentially strong, meaning-packed names.

4. Warnings

• Make the name pronounceable. When we read, we hear the words in our head, and every time we read a word we can’t pronounce, our mind slows down until it comes up with a pronunciation for the word. The harder a name is to pronounce, the more your reader has to slow down and the more distracted they can get from the story.

• Be aware of the associations with the names you chose. This is especially true if you use a famous name like Elvis. No matter how good your writing may be, it’ll be pretty hard to convince a reader to take a coldblooded assassin seriously if his name is Elvis. If you do use a famous name—the benefits being it could add great backstory to your characters—try to make it subtle. For example, instead of naming a character Audrey Hepburn, name her Audrey H. Lake.

• Be sure to consider what nickname(s) the name would give your character. People tend to use nicknames with people they know well, so using a nickname is a great writing strategy to add realism to your story. However, if your character’s name is “Imortelle,” she might be stuck with a nickname like “Tell” or even “Telly.”

• Think about the meaning of whatever name you choose. Sure, maybe the meaning won’t come up in the story, but it can add depth to a character nonetheless. Plus, you never know—the character’s name meaning might end up being an important factor in the story.

• Consider the sounds of the name: soft, gentle sounds like “f,” “b,” “sh,” or “l” might give a character a different feel than a name with hard, clipped sounds like “k,” “t,” “v,” or “r.”

• Don’t give multiple characters in your story similar-sounding names. For example, Billy and Bonnie will just confuse your readers. So will Jack and George and Jake and Jason. Make them distinct and memorable.

And that’s it—your simple guide for choosing the perfect name for your characters. Speaking of which, I think the names “Liddy” and “Dar” would be great for the fire-breathing-unicorn story.

Names in the Bible

Last week we discussed the power of names in a human sense: a rose by any other name might not smell as sweet. The names we bear are packed with emotion and meaning.

However, one aspect of names we didn’t cover is perhaps the most important one: the role of names in the Bible.

The first instance of proper names in the Bible is Adam’s name, meaning “man” or “mankind”—fair enough, since he was the first man and the representative of humanity. Next, Adam named Eve, for she was “the mother of all mankind.” Also, Adam’s primary work in the Garden of Eden was to name the animals that God brought before him. So we see that even in the beginning, names were part of a being’s identity and defined who he or she was.

Later on in the Bible, names are again used for important moments in Biblical history. Abram becomes Abraham, the father of many nations; Sarai becomes Sarah, princess. Jacob becomes Israel, who “wrestles with God.” Naomi changes her name from pleasant to bitter (Mara), after suffering widowhood and the death of her sons. Biblical names, then, can change to reflect changes in the person’s role, circumstances, or purpose in life.

God can also use names to speak to His people. God told Hosea what to name his children (Lo-ruhamah, for example, means “not pitied”). These names serve as walking prophesies and messages to Israel.

The name of our Savior, too, abounds with meaning. The angel Gabriel told Mary to name her son Jesus, a transliteration of “Yeshua,” meaning God saves or God delivers. Christ is also called Immanuel, God with us. What greater, clearer message of salvation can there be?

Finally, God revealed to us His own Name. In Exodus 3:14, God declares His Name to Moses: “I am who I am.” God also says to Moses in verse 15, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” God’s Name is the most powerful name of them all.

So what about in your own stories—do your characters’ names have a meaning or significance in defining their identity? Do they perhaps incorporate a Biblical element or meaning? If they don’t have a special meaning (or if your character doesn’t have any name at all), is there a purpose in that decision, too?

What's in a Name?

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Sorry, Shakespeare, but in reality, names do matter. A name is not just a jumble of meaningless letters. Names are important.

Why? Names have power: they identify us, not just on the outside, but in our whole being. Names are linked with whatever attributes others call us: "Jane, you're beautiful!" "Kirk, you're smart." "Lily, stop being so stupid." All these attributes link our name to a mass of emotions, both positive and negative.

Think about it: you've done something wrong, how does your mother call you? That's right. By your full name. Try saying your name out loud--your full name. Even just saying it should give you a sense of some of the emotions and connections you have with your name.

In legends old and new, knowing a person's true name gave you power over that person (you can see this idea in Christopher Paolini's Eragon, the Earthsea Cycle of Ursula K. Le Guin, and others). Even way back in the Odyssey, Odysseus hid his true name from the Cyclops and called himself "Nobody." Clearly, almost everyone recognizes the power that a name can hold.

I've been pondering the idea of a name for a while now. First, it was the question of my own name: to use a pen name or not to. Here are the reasons I had for choosing to use my pen name, "Sienna North."

1. My real last name is a negative term, something that I don't want associated with my writing. The name "North" is fairly neutral in association. Plus, I've always thought the north was my favorite direction geographically (it's a romantic notion, I know).

2. My real first name is difficult to pronounce or spell (it's unique, though, which is always special). I needed something that people could recognize, pronounce, and spell at first glance -- and there, as we know, "Sienna" does the job perfectly. What's more, it's a bit unusual, and I love the sound and shape of the name.

3. Finally, I used a pen name for privacy. It's not that I'm antisocial and want to live the life of a hermit writer, but, like many workers, I want to preserve the distinction between my private and public/work "appearance."

Next, with the change in focus of the blog, I've been thinking a lot about what to do for a blog name. When I polled you, here's what you said:

• 14 said keep it "Of Faerie & Faith"
• 7 said change it to "Of Fiction & Faith"
• 3 said change it to "Sienna North ---"
• 3 said change it to something else
• 1 said change it to "Whispers of a Dreamer"/some related name

So, it looks like the general consensus is to keep the name as it is. Thus, for the time being at least, my blog will remain the dear old name "Of Faerie & Faith."

And that brings us to the end of this somewhat disjointed post on names. Now for you: what's the story behind your name or blog name? Any tips on choosing (or not using) pen names that you want to share?

And the Winner Is...

Last month, I asked everyone whether they would like this blog to stay just a fantasy blog or expand it into something more, something deeper, something grander, something--okay, don't let me get carried away here!

Well, the overwhelming conclusion is that people want a blog with more than just fantasy (in fact, I think that was the only poll choice that had zero votes!). Thus, I am proud to announce that Of Faerie & Faith will no longer be simply a fantasy blog.

Now, that said, we come to an even more significant question: what shall I name this expanded and (hopefully) wonderful new era of blog-ship? Whether or not I change the blog name, the url will remain the same (siennanorth.blogspot.com). Again, here's a poll to help you decide. Please do add your comments below!

What shall the blog name be?

The Hows and Whys of Naming God in Your Fantasy Story

As Christians, God plays the major role in most aspects of our lives. We may go to church, pray, and serve for God, but we should also extend our faith to our writing.

There are many ways to incorporate faith into writing. An allegory, like the Chronicles of Narnia (especially The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), entails an analogy or metaphor for Scripture. Pilgrim’s Progress also demonstrates this approach to writing. It’s very blatantly Christian, so in this style, God's name and presence will almost certainly be incorporated.

Another method of writing is much more subtle. As Christians, we incorporate our worldview into everything that we write. In this second method, the themes our work espouses are Biblical themes—loving our neighbor, sacrifice, service. This is the method J. R. R. Tolkien used in The Lord of the Rings. In this second method, God may or may not be mentioned, but either way, Christianity is upheld.

If God does come up in your book, then He must have a name.  Here are a few thoughts on the subject.

1. God

• Pros: straight and to-the-point. There’s no confusion here about whether you’re really referring to the Christian God or not.
• Cons: it’s very obvious and pushy if you’re writing for non-Christian market 

2. Biblical Name (e.g. Jehovah)

• Pros: Not quite so obvious as saying “God.” Still incorporates God as He chooses to be called.
• Cons: Again, can still be rather pushy. Non-Christians may be dissuaded by an overly “religious” tone.

3. An attribute (e.g. the One, Guide, Voice, Protector, etc.)

• Pros: Not so obvious and definitely not so pushy as a direct Biblical name.
• Cons: Often overused. More importantly, it’s impossible to sum up all that God is with only one word or one attribute. 

4. A made-up name (e.g. Illuvatar from Tolkien’s works, or Aslan in Narnia)

• Pros: The least pushy of the lot. Creative and different. Can work better in the context of a different world.
• Cons: Difficult to “create” a unique, powerful-sounding, beautiful name that is worthy of God’s majesty. Also, may or may not be associated with the Christian God.

Be sure to give this topic a whole lot of thought and prayer. One of our most important responsibilities as writers is to represent God as He is.  God bless as you embark on this most important decision!