I've been spending a lot of brainpower lately trying to figure out two story-related things.
1.) I'm trying to narrow-down how I want to organize content in a public setting. In a private setting online I have everything from a wiki, blogs, and galleries through to shared Google-docs. I think in terms of a long-term plan, I'd like to house all the stuff for public consumption on one main site so that people would be able to go there for both the stories and art, as well as a blog with relevant discussions. I would certainly prefer to post in one location and then populate and broadcast to other locations rather than having to update a bunch of different sites, but I'm not sure I have the bandwidth right now to work on a new site. In some ways, it almost feels like doing that is simply procrastinating on working-on and posting the actual writing itself.
2.) I've also been trying to figure out some prominent place names relating to the story. In some cases, I've spent over a dozen years using placeholder names, in others, I simply didn't dig the names to begin with, but for whatever reason, I couldn't come up with something better. As such, I'm trying to figure out if I can find those "perfect" names, of if I should work on moving forward using what I have and simply accept that I can still choose to change it later.
In some way, it sort of reminds me of when I start a new sketchbook. I always want that very first page to have this really awesome sketch that sort of sets the tone of the rest of the sketches to come. And I really do want to start off on the right foot when I put my story writing up online, but I"ll be damned if it isn't more than a bit intimidating.
About the names, I would recommend using the place holder names and not get too hung up on the 'perfect' ones. I've done the mistake and went crazy, and finally tried to be okay with the names. Then few years down the road, the REAL name popped in my head and I ended up changing.
ReplyDeleteThese worlds we create are very organic and they evolve, well, until we carve them in stone (until publishing). But even then, things that are not mentioned or published will still be organic. So let those 'vines' grow and see where they go ;)
I'm writing this because I'm pretty much on the same boat as you and I know how much it helps to have people give their thoughts :D
I think this is really great advice! If I'm spending too much time worrying about names, it also means I'm not spending time writing or world-building. I think I (incorrectly) made the distinction that now is the time to carve everything in stone, when the reality is that's only needed once I'm at the finished publishing stage.
DeleteThanks so much for sharing your thoughts, and I wish you luck on your own writing as well! :D