Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The Dangers of Changing Story Details

Anyone who follows me on Twitter is likely already aware of my little probem with The Summoner's Fallen Guardian.  I threw a tiny fit the other night because of one tiny detail that unexpectedly started a changing chain of events through the entire story. 

I started writing with a name I borrowed from one of my other WIPs.  I wanted to get some plotting and outlining done while also working on word count.  Well, almost ten thousand words later, I replaced the hero's borrowed name with Naberius. 

I can hear you all groan. 

Of course the name change changed everything.  My hero's crazed orange eyes darkened to an intense cobalt.  His entire appearance altered, his attitude, his mood--even how he talks and acts with my heroine.  My original hero, a creature of hot and cold mood swings, angry eyes, and ferocity became a rigid, and grim being.  The sparking chemisty between my heroine and hero mellowed.  Desperation flowed between them where before their goals and personalities had clashed like fireworks. 

This is the first story I've tried writing by the seat of my pants.  I'm working with a very loose outline, trying to define it more as I go, and the name change threw the story out of its orbit.  My loose outline was ruined because my hero underwent a complete personality change between introduction and conclusion.  Aside from the sex, the starting hero and the conluding hero had nothing in common--they might as well have been two different characters. 

I can't use the first name for this story because it belongs to a dark fantasy romance I've been thinking about for over a year.  The name is claimed.  And I can't possibly replace it because the character is fully defined and the story is titled with the name.  In fact, I got the idea for the story from the name.  But Naberius isn't working in The Summoner's Fallen Guardian.  I'm storing Naberius' character away for possible later use, but that still leaves me stranded and without my hero. 

Unless you're a writer you probably won't understand, but I really needed a name beginning with "E".  My original hero's originally borrowed name started with "E" and the letter just has the right feel for what I need.  There's a site I use when I'm in such circumstances and it's great for generating names for fantasy, scifi, or paranormal stories.  Check this out: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php.  Thanks to this site, my list of possible permanent names are down to fifteen.  I'd love some help narrowing it down to one. 

3 comments:

  1. I bet you'll figure out how to work everything out :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seventh Sanctum is a great resource. Are you still struggling on the name?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, I gave you the Best Blog Award on my blog today! Check it out: http://marywjensen.blogspot.com/2009/12/tuesday-tally-and-best-blog-award.html

    ReplyDelete