Changing Names Around

      Thanks to this page, I was started changing the names around for my current ebook named Golden Sharks.  The world building page guide gives detail on mood and culture.  I originally gave my characters all Greek names, then I only gave the mermaids Greek names.  When the setting was no longer in modern day Earth, I felt I needed to change the names again.

    The humans were given, hopefully easy to pronounce, fantasy names and the merpeople were given ancient real life names that I feel were uncommon in our present day society.  

  

 For example...

1. "John" (human) became "Joht" and then became "Raziel".

2. Apollo (merman) became "Parazifel", then "Halvor".

3. (Some fantasy names for some humans) "Tizmer" and "Cancor"

    

 These are just examples from Golden Sharks.

World Building and Researching Part 1

Researching 

In addition to finishing my first rough draft for my story, I have started world building.  One of my first posts on this website discussed that the setting of my story will be in Virginia Beach, Virginia in the United States.  Although I have lived near that area since 1993, there is still a lot to learn about the city's beach, events, and even its history.

Through writing my first draft, I ended up adding a fantasy realm for my merpeople to in habit.  The setting in my fantasy realm takes place at a village near a beach.  Due to taking Marine Biology in 2006, I forgot a lot of information I learned about the ocean.

These are what I am using to regain that knowledge of the ocean.  

This book is not just filled with pretty pictures but also a ton of information about the ocean.  I plan on reading this book fully; front and back.  My story has a ton of sea travel and I better know the ocean like the back of my hand.

 

Videos on Youtube and Animal Planet

There are a ton of playlists and channels dedicated to oceanography on youtube.  One of the most interesting sources was Mermaids: The Body Found.   This creative documentary has some people believing that merpeople exist with various stories of mermaid bodies found or encounters with mermaids.  I never knew about the Aquatic Ape Theory until I saw this documentary.  

This post was originally on Indie Author Tiffany.

Winning National Novel Writing Month

Last month was the ever so popular National Novel Writing Month.  Each participant had the chance to reach the goal of writing 50,000 words.  I started participating in National Novel Writing Month  around the second week of November.  There was a lot of time sitting at home, turning down friends who wanted to hang out, or leaving parties early to return to my novel.

I'm not sure how I would have felt if I did not reach my goal.  There was a ton of sadness I felt at the idea of not reaching my goal.  I guess that sadness was the competitive side of me who did not want to tell my friends that I did not reach my 50,000 words goal; especially after turning down so many chances to hang out with them.

Last month I believe I spent the most time in years typing my story down.  There is a good feeling in no longer having my story exist in my head.  In other words, National Novel Writing Month was fun.  I hope to participate in the event again next year.