{"id":1036,"date":"2019-07-30T16:46:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T16:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2022-05-30T15:41:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T15:41:19","slug":"naming-places","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/articles\/naming-places","title":{"rendered":"The Name of the Prose, Part 2: Naming Places and Objects"},"content":{"rendered":"
Welcome to Part 2 of this series. In Part 1, we considered the primal importance of\u00a0naming your story and the characters in it<\/a>\u00a0in ways that invited readers in, helped set and maintain the tone of your story, and reinforced the various characters\u2019 qualities. In this article, we\u2019ll take an in-depth look into other issues related to names in fiction, such as naming places and objects, choosing the best spelling for a name, and maintaining ease of reading.<\/p>\n A sense of place plays a critical role in determining whether a reader \u201cgets into\u201d a story or not.\u00a0Good place names can lend an aura of reality to even the most fictional of places<\/strong>. Conversely, when an author inserts an obviously made-up place name into a realistic story, the name alone can make the whole setting seem ridiculous to the reader.<\/p>\n A number of writers set stories in California\u2019s Gold Country, where I resided for thirty-five years. They often name their fictional towns Pickaxe, Gold Pan, or Mother Lode. When I read these sort of names in a tale, I find my suspension of disbelief dwindling every time I collide with one of them. In reality, the area is referred to as Mother Lode Country, but the towns have much less \u201cfolksy\u201d names like Grass Valley, Colfax and North Bloomfield.<\/p>\n As a reader, I have a strong personal preference for real place names. If a story is set in Grass Valley, or Chicago, or San Francisco, why not say so?\u00a0It pays to use landmarks your reader might recognize.\u00a0<\/strong>This requires some research, but the payoff in terms of bringing reality to a story is invaluable. Not only can the reader recognize and relate to the surroundings, but\u00a0selecting a real location allows the writer to describe more with fewer words<\/strong>.<\/p>\n If a real place is unsuitable for some reason, try setting your action\u00a0<\/strong>near<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0a real place.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n My mystery\/detective novel,\u00a0The Antiquities Hunter<\/em>, required that part of the action take place at an unknown archaeological dig. The well-known digs were… well, too well-known and too well-exploited to be appropriate, so I made one up. But I set it near enough to a known site that my readers, if they wanted, could look up the neighboring dig on the Web or in National Geographic and satisfy themselves that they knew the terrain\u2014and that I knew it and had described it accurately.<\/p>\n A story may work whether the writer uses a real or fictional setting, but I get downright grumpy when a writer has clearly made up a fictional place out of laziness and whole cloth.\u00a0If the best setting for a story is a real town, then\u00a0<\/strong>use a real town<\/strong><\/a>. Bite the bullet. Do the research.<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n A side benefit to using, and therefore having to research, a real locale is the frequency with which I find new stories lurking in the scenery and history of an area.<\/p>\n Many science fiction and fantasy works explore places that are entirely in our heads. I mentioned Tolkien because he\u2019s the undisputed master of evocative place names and has inspired several generations of fantasy writers.<\/p>\n Tolkien gave us books full of names that are delightful to read, to hear spoken, and to speak. I sometimes say \u201cBarad-d\u00fbr\u201d just because I love the feel of the name on my tongue. It seems to say what it is\u2014the Tower that holds the malevolent Mayar spirit of Sauron. Similarly, names like Minas Tirith, Cirith Ungol, and Lothlorien are delicious delicacies, every one. With brilliant subtlety, Tolkien changes our perception of Saruman\u2019s capital, Isengard, by having Saruman more often refer to the\u00a0tower, Orthanc.<\/p>\n There is a downside to this. It\u2019s tempting for writers following in Tolkien\u2019s masterful footsteps to simply copy the sounds or to use his names as jumping-off points for their own.\u00a0They copy his work instead of his methodology<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n The movie\u00a0Willow<\/em>\u00a0does this in a rather tongue-in-cheek (or cheeky) way when it tosses out character names like Bavmorda, Elora Danan and Fin Raziel and place names like Nockmaar and Galladoorn. The names are a mish-mosh of different cultural contexts from the real world (“Elora Danan” has Celtic roots and “Raziel” is Hebrew for \u201cthe mystery of God\u201d).<\/p>\n As a reader, I like it when a writer has clearly borrowed Tolkien\u2019s attention to research rather than his syllables, and found real-world rootstock that creates an endless supply of appropriate linguistic material.<\/p>\n As a writer, I try to do exactly that, which is why in the Mer Cycle trilogy\u2014which was my first experience writing anything that took place entirely in\u00a0a made-up world<\/a>\u2014I identified language groups to use for my cultures, then invented character, object, and place names that had meaning in those borrowed and modified languages.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Hence, the heroine of\u00a0The Meri<\/em>\u00a0(Mer Cycle, Book One) is named Meredydd (pronounced Mer-e-dith\u00a0with hard\u00a0th<\/em>\u00a0as in \u201cthe\u201d). The place of her schooling is Halig-liath (“Holy Fortress”), and this fortress overlooks the Halig-tyne (“Holy River”), and is in the shadow of the lofty peaks of the Gyldan Baenn (“Golden Mountains”).<\/p>\n By\u00a0pegging my made-up language to real ones (Old English and Gaelic),\u00a0I was able to avoid floating or changing meanings<\/strong>. \u201cLiath\u201d always means \u201cfortress,\u201d \u201cbaenn\u201d always means \u201cmountain,\u201d and “tyne” is “river” throughout. This gave me ready components for naming places with consistency.<\/p>\nYou Are Here: Place Names<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Naming Places in a Fictional Setting<\/strong><\/h2>\n