Writing ahead a bit, maybe I'll get in a few sections on, Friday? Saturday? Saturday sounds good. Didn't get as much writing in in the car as I'd hoped; just forcing it like that made me kind of sick of writing, and I'm working hard to reverse that. It's clear that I can't force myself, or even force the story; trying to write ahead, sections I've outlined but haven't written the section preceding, I just can't write. Not even like writer's block can't write, just like, seriously, cannot write. So yeah like writer's block.
One week left of NaNoWriMo and I'm about 30,000 words in. That's a little over 28,000 words needing written per day to get my 50,000 in by the end of the month. Don't think I'll get in any writing on Thanksgiving, which leaves 6 days to write 20,000 words, or about 33,333 words a day, which divides a lot more evenly into, about 2 days' worth of output per day. Doable.
But really I'm writing this post because,
I have written ahead a couple of sections, just need to spit polish and buff out the wordcount of in order for them to be postable, and... Himsters Keepses, his name is now Hesketh Unwin, and the Keepses name is going to a villain coming up in a couple of sections. I needed a name that immediately sounded villainous, and the other name I had in my go-to bag for this book was Hesketh Unwin, which has "Hesketh" in it with some nice harsh consonants, but isn't really that frightening. Himsters Keepses, though, as it flowed, really just fit the character better, and having the Unwin name in a more prominent role feels better to. So. Character formerly called Himsters Keepses = now Hesketh Unwin. I've made the changes in my combined Google Doc of all the progress so far, and am referring to the character that way from here on out, so just thought I'd heads-up you so you aren't confused by the transition or anything.
Hesketh Unwin as a name, perhaps I should tell you a bit more about its inception. It's the name of a minor character in the book The Prestige by Christopher Priest, going by a different name in the movie (I think his role evolved into becoming Michael Caine's character, who serves a completely different role as the relationship between Angier and Borden was changed in the adaptation;) this name I read and processed, and it stuck in my subconscious until it spat it back out in a dream. Hearing that name in a dream, and thinking I'd come up with it-- but also thinking it sounded familiar-- I looked up that name, or those names at least.
Hesketh is the surname of a minor villain in the film Kingsman: the Secret Service, and Unwin is the real name of the main character, who is only ever referred to by his nickname "Eggsy" in the film-- which makes it doubly curious, because his surname is London in the comics, and his name was changed to Unwin for seemingly no reason for the adaptation. Once again, a name that is never at any point mentioned.
Looking back in the book The Prestige I of course realized where I'd gotten the name, but such a minor character given such a distinctive name struck me as really weird.
So Hesketh Unwin as a name
has roots in both fictional magician-manship and fictional tradecraft-manship, getting changed in adaptations even if going without a real namedrop. Perfect for the themes and setting of the TTDECBA trilogy. As far as it going to the Mothman now, it deals with not only the name deserving more prominence than previously given, but also how these names sound. "Hesketh Unwin" has some, I guess I could look up the words for the sounds, the double trochee for one, HESketh UNwin, but, the softness of the aspiration of the "he" and "th" sandwiching the hardness of the "sk," the nasality of the "n"s sandwiching the "nw..." It makes the character's allegiance very, I mean, if we announce someone named Himsters Keepses as a villain, you're going to believe it, but Hesketh Unwin...? That's a lot more up in the air. The character's alignment, it could go any way. Maybe even change halfway through, or multiple times. Perfect for, the Mothman's character.
A large portion of these names may come to me from the random firing of synapses as I sleep, but just because the names themselves are random doesn't mean I apply them randomly. My characters' names are as meticulously planted as the plots I outline, building up for years or leaping across from what you'd thought were two completely different ideas. Characters having the right name is important to me.
Lovecraft?
Lovecraft is named that in spite of the fact that that's Howard Phillips's last name, because Lovecraft is the perfect name for the character. I'd been leery at first because I was worried people would just take it as homage to the horror fiction writer- but I had no choice but to press forward anyway, because Lovecraft is the most Lovecrafty Lovecraft to ever Lovecraft, and her name literally needs to be that. Also, it doubles as homage to the horror fiction writer- but I don't want that to overshadow the fact that, Lovecraft is named that out of necessity.
So yeah it may be confusing for a bit, but, Mothman's true identity, Hesketh Unwin from now on.
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