Saturday, April 12, 2014

A to Z: K

The A to Z Challenge is underway this year, thanks to the awesome hosts and minions. Special thanks to Arlee Bird for starting this amazing blogging challenge!!! For more information about this challenge, go to the website!

Primary theme: World of Aramatir (Setting for The Champion Trilogy) Glossary
Secondary Theme: World-Building Questions and Thoughts

K
Kalidess – the lead sorceress of the Dark Sisterhood

Kassa – First Princess of Rrysorria, sister to King Stephen and Princess Tessa

Kestran – a Wylandrian Prince, brother to Liam

Klyan – a griffin of Aerland, and Kryssander’s twin (also, the name of their father, Klyan the Bold)

Kryssander – a griffin of Aerland, member of the 12th Wing, and partner to Prince Adrian, twin of Klyan

Krysta – wife of Klyan the Bold, and mother to the twins Klyan and Kryssander, a griffin of Aerland
 
World Building Thought: Similar-sounding names for twins or family groups can be a killer to manage.
 
I know I'm stretching the "K" letter here, but I just have to say it, especially when I look at this list.  
I have Klyan, Kryssander, and Krysta here - three family members with K names. I managed to swap Klyan and Kryssander's names around for an entire chapter during my second draft of Champion in Flight - and it was painful to fix. To make mattes worse, Klyan is named after his father . . . which makes it a killer to keep them separate.
 
So, from me to you, I urge you, encourage you, plead with you - don't do family names that all start with the same letter. And the junior and senior thing should be avoided at all costs, unless there is a point to be made with it.
 
 

10 comments:

Laura Clipson said...

I can see how that would be confusing! I try to make my names as different as possible to avoid that.

randi lee said...

Yes--having names so similar can be a difficult thing to put together! It looks like you have yourself sorted out, though--so I wouldn't worry about it tripping you up. Love the name Kryssander by the way!!

Also, Tyrean--I just wanted to say thank you for all of the comments and support you've given me. I've been bad about responding to blog comments lately and just wanted to tell you that your words mean the world to me! Thank you so much :)

Tyrean Martinson said...

You're a far step ahead from me - I thought it would be really cool .. . and now I'm struggling with it.

Tyrean Martinson said...

You are very welcome!!!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That's why in my third book, I altered the name of Byron's son to Bassan to keep him separate from his namesake, Bassa. (And it helped that Bassa was only in the first book.)

Tyrean Martinson said...

That definitely worked - it showed how Byron honored his late friend, and gave Bassan a unique name. :)

Frankie Miller said...

I have 'The Oxford Minidictionary of First Names' which can be helpful (for me, at times) and there is always the Bible. I can still manage to have characters with the same initials and have to change them. Thankfully we have Word - although I did get into a fix with this once, when it changed the letters in thousands of word - arrrrrrrrgh!
It's perhaps more exciting to be creative with strange and wonderful names when writing sci-fi and fantasy.

Unknown said...

Good post! Names are an often overlooked yet critical component of writing. They are often symbolic but can also be distracting. I enjoyed reading this and have followed! rsmccoy.blogspot.com

Trisha said...

That is a lot of Ks!

I find that I tend to name too many characters "J" names. I wonder why that is.

SK Anthony said...

Kool names! I'll keep your advice in mind...though in real life I did give my twins names starting with N lol