Not words. Sheesh. Get your mind out of the gutter. No, I mean names. I discovered something about myself this year. Every time I go to name someone, when I get to their last name, I instinctively type, “F.”
No, really. I do. It goes something like this.
From a battered purse that had seen better decades, Margot F–
And then I pause. I go back and start thinking of my other characters in the book. Nine times out of ten, I have either
- Already given someone a last name with an F or,
- Started to and stopped because I realized that it’s my first line of characterization attack!
I feel like I’m sitting at the table at Sir John Middleton’s house and they’re all talking about “Mr. F.” “Foster, Fortescue, Fondant!”
I wonder why this is. After all, I never did name any of my children anything starting with “F.” I loved Fiona, but honestly? Chautona and Fiona in one house? Nightmare. Challice and Kaylene was bad enough. No, really. I would call one, and both would come running.
So what quirks do you have in your writing? Do you always put a sneeze in somewhere, or are movies a big part of your characters’ lives?
I am fascinated by these things. Oh, look. Another “F” word. Just tell the world that Chautona is obsessed with “F” words. 😉
My tendency is to use “majorly”, or “very”, or “pretty”, or “really” WAY too often. I’ve had to go back & do a [[[ *control-F* / delete ]]] combo because it skews my word count, plus makes it “majorly” annoying to read. I mean, it is “really” frustrating, & “pretty” irritating, ” “very” immature for this aspiring author. Hopefully I kill it before it kills me. ;p
Andi-Roo /// @theworld4realz
http://www.theworld4realz.com/
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If it makes you feel any better, I had to cut no less than 188 uses of “so” in my last novel. That left another 188 by the way. 188!!!
I usually have a hard time finding words that start with “F”. It’s interesting that your character’s last names always start off with “F”. What do you think that’s about?
I wish I knew. I don’t even know that many people IRL that have “F” last names. It’s quite bizarre. Maybe it’s left over from searching the Bible for “F” names after seeing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. There are at LEAST 2 F names… Felix and Festus. But it’s not nearly as fun as “Frankincense.”
well, i think i have all of your books, so… 😉
i also think you are too well acquainted with my writing quirks, lol…like name tags…how many times can we use Sunnie and Sammie in the same paragraph???