Ask for Simmers:

What is your Go To Baby Name page?

For the longest i have been using Behind the Name, which also has a Behind The Surname sister page. But what do you all use?

I like Behind the name too. But for a lot of things I use Fantasy Name Generators

Don't let the name put you off, it is so much more than fantasy names. Names from different countries, names for neighbourhoods, names for pubs, names for pets, names for just about anything you might need a name for, basically.

I primarily use this:

My game isn't set in the Regency period, but my first generation was intended to be a recreation of characters created by the author Jane Austen, so I have continued the naming trend with their descendants. Occasionally I throw in a random name that I just happen to like, or from my own family history (lots of Keziahs in my family tree) - although nothing too contemporary - and I might with later generations move to names that started to become more common in later (Victorian, Edwardian) eras, to indicate the passage of time.

suspicious

[twitter]

★ 【.】 「 FE3H 」 ☆ ✔ republished w/permission ⊳ ⊳ follow me on twitter

I just think they’re neat

Somebody help her.

All thanks to the commissioner 🙏

A hundred years from now the world is being conquered by aliens due to humans losing the war. The only way to avoid them now is to hide in plain sight. Currently, there is a rebellion rising up. It’s led by a man named General Steve Burns. He and his team of blue skidooers are experts at hiding in plain sight and have vanquished several alien squads. They are your last hope.

Dialogue 47

“Ah yes. My favorite Greek philosopher. Play-dough.”

Lazy Writing Prompt #346

Your lover has passed away. At their funeral, a man you’ve never met before silently hands you a box with a letter taped to it. The letter reads, “If you’re receiving this box, it means my death was staged. Meet me in the basement after the funeral. Bring this box. I’ll explain everything.”

Some animals don’t know others exist. Like a lion doesn’t know a squid is a thing.

Using the appropriate vocabulary in your novel

It is very important that the language in your novel reflects the time and place in which the story is set.

For example, my story is set in Italy. My characters would never “ride shotgun”, a term coined in US in the early 1900s referring to riding alongside the driver with a shotgun to gun bandits. 

Do your research! A free tool that I found to be very useful is Ngram Viewer. 

You can type any word and see when it started appearing in books. For example…one of my characters was going to say “gazillion” (I write YA) in 1994. Was “gazillion” used back then?

And the answer is…YES! It started trending in 1988 and was quite popular in 1994.

Enjoy ^_^

This is really important, especially because language can change in very unexpected ways. 

For example, did you know that before 1986 people never said “I need to”?Instead, they were far more likely to say “I ought to”, “I have to”, “I must”, or “I should”.

Don’t believe me?

Anyway, most people won’t notice subtle changes like that. But your reader will notice and be confused when characters in your medieval world use metaphors involving railroads and rockets.

One of the things you can do besides use Google Ngrams is to read books or watch movies written in the time period you want to set your story. The key here is that they can’t just be set in that time period, they have to have been made in that time period.

Also, there’s a Lexicon Valley episode on this very topic which I highly recommend. It’s called Capturing the Past. 

SEE ALSO Etymonline.  Word origins and when they’re first recorded. So, say I wanted to find out when a “coffee break” became a thing – around the 1950s, as seen in magazine adverts – or characters might talk about more genrallly “taking a break” from the 1860s…

Writing Prompt #223

He’d been patient with the boy—the adoption agency had been clear about the nature of the things he’d endured in his old home— but it was still difficult for him. It broke his heart the way he shuffled around meekly, and flinched at certain tones and gestures. The progress was slow at best, but he knew things were starting to change when he woke him up to ask for breakfast. He even called him “Dad.”

“You intrigue me.”

They swallowed, mouth gone dry. “I’m not that interesting.”

“Funny.” A flicker of a smile, and a gaze that never wavered. “Uninteresting people generally don’t have to say that.”

They had to get out - right now. A step closer, and they were mesmerized.

“What are you trying so hard to hide?” The other murmured.