Monday morning, June 22nd.
I woke that morning, thinking maybe there's a bear outside.
I looked out my window and ... nothing.
A few minutes later, the same thought.
This time, when I looked out my window there was a bear. IN THE TREE.
I spent almost an hour watching the bear, who proceeded to climb down and then lumber around the yard looking for tasty treats. Apparently my landlord had left out one tiny dish from a Father's Day cookout.
I named the bear Bruno. I've since had two more encounters with her/him. Once while out on a mindfulness walk and the other driving home. I will never get tired of seeing a bear in the wild!
I find it interesting how we have the almost primal urge to name things.
One of the most fun things about writing a novel is all the naming that must occur.
Do you have a system for naming characters? Do you change names of characters?
And what have you named that isn't alive?
My mum, whilst being wooed by my dad, took one look at his rather forlorn auto and promptly named it Puget, the sound car.
Of course they lived in Seattle.
22 comments:
Names are important because in any society people have mental reactions to names. You, usually, want names of characters, businesses, and locations that helps the reader to visualize them. I've made a list of names for such and described the image they provoke.
A couple of weeks ago we had a bear roaming the neighborhood. Via a local FB page I warned neighbors to be on the lookout for Smokey. He was a tagged-big-boy who shook up a lot of stay-at-home-because-of-covid folks. Other people jumped on and we tracked him from road to road, neighborhood to neighborhood. Eventually he headed up the high lines to another town. Considering how thick the news had been lately regarding the conditions under which we live, Smokey was a great distraction.
UM...I still get a little nervous when I go out for my daily walk. I don't want to become a distraction because of a confrontation with that big boy.
Oh, I love the bear pics! Alas, we don't have bears in Delaware. Though we do have a town named "Bear." Well, now just a sec--I suppose a bear could find its way here from neighboring Pennsylvania. Wait, does New Jersey have bears? Jersey has the Pine Barrens. Seems it should also have bears. Just checked--yep, Jersey does have bears. How about Maryland? Checked. Yep, Maryland, too. So, I suppose a bear with no respect for state lines and the "fact" that there are no bears in Delaware might prove that "fact" to be not a fact. There have been a couplefew mountain lion sightings here over the years, despite our not having mountain lions. And no mountains. I'm not disputing that. Wait, why did I get on here to comment? Besides the wonderful bear pics? Oh, yeah, my phone.
I named my first cell phone Peter Petrelli, after the character on Heroes, which I was really into watching at the time. It was the right thing to do, and I stand by my decision.
Tbh, I enjoy naming rats more than naming characters. Rats are easy - currently Terry Pratchett characters (in my rescue litter all the girls were obscure witches and the boys wizards). When I start breeding next year my own litters are going to be elements (transition metals to start with - lots of options), but rats not bred here will still be Pratchett.
Characters I don't have a system - I just make a big list of names found in records from the relevant time period and fiddle about until I get something that sounds right. I change them if they stop working for me.
Love this, and yes we name everything don't we? Our cars, our backyards, our writing desks/offices...
Corning, NY, gets quite a few bear sightings roaming the streets. Sometimes just one bear and sometimes a mother and her cubs. I can't ever recall an incident with a bear.
Btw, Janet, I've been polishing a story in which I used the word woo.
"I want romance. I want to be wooed.”
“Wooed?”
“Yes, wooed. You’re old enough to know what that means”
Woah, bear!!
Definitely don't get those where I live (maybe in the zoo?)
Talking about naming things, my daughter has taken to naming everyone in her stories (which she tells for endless rambling hours) either Jonny or Tom. It has a certain efficiency to it. Especially when the characters are female. The other day, she told me a story about a 100-year old shark who was too old to swim. My favourite lines were a photo finish between, "The baddie came. The baddie wasn't good" (we cried laughing) and "he thumped his neezes and bopped his noozes" (ditto, plus rolling on the floor).
Anyway, Janet, I hope no-one is thumping your neezes or bopping your noozes, especially the bear. Stay safe!
Ah, the bear is beautiful! I'm not sure I'd want one hanging out outside my window, though! I can handle coyotes all right.
I named my first car Natty Dread, after a racehorse. It was a huge clunker, I can't even remember the make. I'm guessing the horse was too, with a name like that.
Most of the horses in my life have multiple names. My only homebred is registered as Entertainingangels. It took me six months to come up with a barn name for her – Java, short for Javelin (there's a story there). Java became Javamonster, which eventually became just Monster. I was planning on calling her Bossa Nova when I showed her, but when the time came, she was Happy Little Trees, because, what better name for an artist's horse when she doesn't want to take herself too seriously? Then she went and won both her classes (and two bottles of wine). Such was Monster's fifteen minute show career.
I've spent my adult life in Alaska, which is to say, bear country. Both black and brown bears roam through our town. Browns are grizzly bears that have access to salmon and as such get enormous. What I'd offer fellow reef dwellers is this: Keep your trash and dog food secured so town bears don't get labeled as problem bears, document for social media without bearanoina and don't worry, you aren't that delicious.
Haha, shanepatrick! In other words, to a bear, you're not as good looking as you think you are. Love it.
I saw a bear run through our property one winter say during a snow fall. It was heading for the nearby mountains and didn't slow for a moment.
As we live on the Edge of Nowhere, we probably have had various animals go through that I never saw. Mostly I've seen elk (plus, jackrabbits, coyotes, cottontails, squirrels, lizards, snakes, etc.).
Lots of Black Bear in Florida, I have seen a few when kayaking wild rivers.
There are none in my immediate area, though we have several coyotes around. I think I can live with that.
Puget, the sound car! No wonder he was wooing her. Shes brilliant!
I watched the link in the comments yesterday, to Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant encountering a bear. So funny, and so wrong, especially when they both finally get into their cabin and then feel perfectly safe behind a flimsy screen door. Here, every year at least one homeowner finds their car destroyed because they left a tiny bit of food (or a food wrapper) inside. Bears can't see worth a darn, but they can smell mere molecules of food from quite a ways away.
Re naming things - I've never had any urge to do it. Even in childhood, my dolls were just dolls, and they only got a name if some fussy adult insisted that they had to have one. "What's your dolly's name, dear?" Cornered, I'd panic and say the first name I thought of, and then spend the rest of my time with that doll feeling guilty because the doll totally did not go with that name. Childhood is complicated.
When I'm writing, my main characters often change names during the story, and again in editing, as I feel around for the right one. Sometimes I have a nickname for them that I'll use until I'm almost done. I once wrote a romance called "What's Her Face and The Tall Guy" right up until I was ready (well, nearly ready) to submit.
The only bear we have in Michigan is the Black Bear, both in the northern lower peninsula and also in the UP. Or rather, we did only have them there until one was spotted NW of Grand Rapids. They're shy by nature and it didn't surprise me when that news story broke a couple years ago. Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there...
I can't remember naming any inanimate objects. I name pets, plants and sometimes, something rather unflattering to my husband, but nothing else.
My system is to write 2/3rds of the book before realizing every character's name starts with L. Then I go to the baby name websites to fix it. Bless "find and replace." I wish I could see a bear in the wild! I'm guessing my toddler playing outside is a close approximation at least. Both climb, try to eat trash, growl...
I dunno shanepatrickwrites I've always found writers QUITE tasty.
Nom de plume, I do the same, but here's a lesson I learned the hard way. Don't name a character Will if there's a chance you'll want to change it later with find and replace.
OMG, BEAR. NONONONONO. Sorry, if I saw a bear hanging out in a tree that close to my house, I'd call the movers and start packing. :shudder:
I hate naming characters, the worst part of writing any story, and don't think I've ever named anything inanimate. I'm sure there's something wrong with me.
I once sent the first three chapters of The Manuscript That Will Never Resurface to beta readers and one of them asked, "So, is XX Johnson related to YY Johnson? Because I can imagine all sorts of interesting complications, if so." I replied, "What? I named two characters Johnson?! No, they're not related. I'm just SUCH an unimaginative Minnesotan, I didn't even notice." And I did this in the FIRST THREE CHAPTERS, you guys. UGH. I hate names.
Although, I have to say, my daughter is due to give birth to my second grandchild in two weeks and I can't wait to discover what they will name him/her. Obviously, we're all quite fortunate it's not up to me.
There is such a cultural difference between us Canucks and folks in the USA, and it seems as though that difference extends to our respective bears. I have a scene in my interminably revised ms in which a character is mauled by a black bear. I personally know two men who’ve been mauled. One of them lost a chunk of buttcheek, which lets him in for a lot of good natured ribbing (more room for a wallet etc).
Long story longer, I’ve had more than one American beta reader object, telling me bears don’t act that way. One woman from Florida told me that the bears where she lives fight with raccoons over the garbage. That’s one tough raccoon, I figure. I’m pretty late to the comments here, but can anyone explain?
As to names, I have a Fictional dog named Askem.
My first car was Louie, but other than that I don't tend to name inanimate objects - but I do name all sorts of living things.
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