I do love Smarties candy

[lar_laughs]

I changed my layout tonight! It's customizable even though I can't put my pics on until this weekend when I'm on my parents computer. I hate that I can't edit pictures together! It's just irritating! Check out what I have so far here.

I'm leaving for the theater in 15 minutes. Randye and I are going to see Red tonight. It feels like it's been forever since I've seen a movie but I know that's not true cause I just went and saw Eat, Pray, Love when it was in the theaters.

New girl lasted all week and sounds like she's ready for more next week. It's just really hard for new people because I can't teach her the hands-on stuff until she gets her license. For now, she shadows me (and oh, how I hate to be shadowed) and does a lot of cleaning. She's very easy to ask to do things which I'm thankful for so very much! We have a lot in common, which is nice. Here's hoping that things keep going well!

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I shall be revising some of the older stuff I've worked on and plotting for my NaNo stuff. I'm still stuck on names. That's soooo strange! I usually come up with names WHILE I'm plotting the initial ideas. Does that bode well for this story? Could this difference be what makes this story works? Should I NOT know the names yet?

Comments

[hhhellcat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the reason the names haven't come to you yet is because they're not ready to be revealed. Does it hamper your plotting without them? When I have issues like that, I just substitute very generic names for each one like "Fred" or "Robert" and go from there until I have what I need and the actual character's name comes to me. Then I do a replace all and go on my merry way.

Today is hopefully my very big plotty day. I haven't had an uninterrupted Saturday in far too long, but the house is silent, no one is home, and I am looking forward to some progress!

[lar_laughs.livejournal.com]

Usually I know my names as I find my characters. They're part of the process. Some of my minor characters may not be named until they're part in the story but I've never had a main character that goes into a story not named. While I've gone through a couple different names for each character, none of them have stuck. It's strange. I don't know what to do about it.

I'm going to try doing some plotting using this (http://i56.tinypic.com/1z4z60g.jpg) idea. I knew that JKR used notebooks but it's interesting to see some of the actual charts!

[hhhellcat.livejournal.com]

That is a very interesting thing to see!

Yes, I can see where it would be disconcerting about the naming issue. When you name your characters, do you find names that simply suit them or do you opt for names that have semi-hidden meanings like JKR did with Remus, for instance? I do a little of both, though it depends on the 'verse I'm working on.

[lar_laughs.livejournal.com]

I haven't done a ton of meaning names lately but I used to. Maybe I need to start researching.

Part of my problem is that most of the names are people in one clan & part of me wants to have them all be named something similar or of similar origin because they're all intermingled but the other part of me is fighting that idea.

But maybe I do need to do name research. I bet I'll find interesting names (always a plus for me because, hey, I still need to use TIS somewhere and that is the most interesting name I've come up with lately) that might spur on some of my plotting ideas.

Did you get any good plotting done today? All I really got done was eat some pizza. *grins*

[hhhellcat.livejournal.com]

Alas, my dad decided that today we should talk about everything under the sun and I got nada accomplished. Unless you count sharing a bowl of vanilla ice cream, caramel and peanuts with him. LOL. Now the family is home and being distracting, so plotting is once again, thwarted. If I can stay awake late enough, I may try again closer to midnight when it is silent once more.

I see about the theme. Yes, perhaps that is the hold up in your case. I once modeled all of the characters' names in a family based off of a plant. Of course, the family was Hawaiian, so since that is my second language, it was very easy for me to name them all. Getting to that particular idea, however, took me awhile. LOL