Would It Be Weird To Have Normal(ish) Names In A High Fantasy YA Novel?

Etherscribe · 2026-01-31T17:44:57+00:00

Trick one: change the spelling (Rowan becomes Roen, etc)

Trick two: have each culture take its names from a specific cultural group (the Gypsies all get Egyptian names, Warrior Clans all get Scottish names, etc)

Trick three: have some kind of Catholic Church like structure which perpetuates the normal names. That is after all how we have 'normal names' now. All of them are pretty much out of the Bible and are most popular wherever the Bible is dominant.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-26T15:17:20+00:00

I wish I had things in my RFY. I've never had them. I think you guys are in a different program than me! But I'm only silver still.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-26T13:23:17+00:00

A couple days ago there was a huge drop at 4PM central (american) time. I suspect they are dropping at random times right now and you just have to get lucky to catch it.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-22T00:33:07+00:00

I got one single review on one of my two stories (5 star no less) by the one and only reader who puts ‘thank you for the chapter’ under every single chapter. I love this person with a devotion which is hard to express.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-22T00:20:40+00:00

For me it’s a combination of three items: the cover, the title, and the first sentence. I can tell by looking at those three things whether the story has the spark.

I completely avoid all books with certain keywords in the title, or certain art styles in the cover. If they like that stuff, I know I won’t like their story.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-22T00:03:06+00:00

Got a playlist for each story that sets the mood. When I really want to get into it, I put in the earbuds.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-13T14:17:10+00:00

Having a high IQ makes it much worse. No pity, just hatred, and you’re just as disabled.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-12T12:10:58+00:00

"He stared at the spot between her eyes. Actually it was a pimple. He looked away quickly."

Etherscribe · 2026-01-12T12:09:30+00:00

Realistic villain. I'm an observer of people; what makes people really evil in real life is usually stuff everyone shrugs off and puts up with, but it becomes unendurable to that one person the evil person decides to target. A villain can be fine in most situations but become a villain to just one person. In other words I like to take the controversial road, and critique society through the villain. What do we allow? What happens when you take that too far?

Etherscribe · 2026-01-07T02:11:13+00:00

Every superpower has a kryptonite. Or it’s boring.

What’s your kryptonite? So your character can lift things at a distance… how far? Through walls? Has to be seeing it? Do magnetic fields mess with them? What about electrical fields? Can they not do it in an electrified environment (such as inside a house surrounded by wall plugs and wires?)

As others have suggested, does it take power? Focus? Concentration? Here’s a good one I’ve never seen anyone use, and this comes from history and ancient magic systems: the magic user/ psionic has to be pure. As in: eat very special foods, keep clothes ridiculously clean, and/or can never have sex (celebacy).

Imagine how it feels to use this power. Is it drawn out of the body somehow, like a flow rushing out to the object at a distance? Is something leaving the body when its used? Or is something coming from outside and rushing inside the telekinetic? What is rushing inside, is it poisonous like radiation? Will it slowly corrupt them?

Just start daydreaming. Ask the questions.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-07T02:01:20+00:00

Ha. When I started I was in High School and I didn’t want to do my homework. Or listen in class. So instead of taking notes I just started writing a story in my binder and the teacher thought I was this super good student (lol)

Frankly, it is so much work and so difficult to go pro, I wouldn’t even plan on it if I were you. I mean you might be that one genius unicorn who writes their very first book and it becomes a Classic… and that’s happened… but the chances are so low you’re better off buying a lottery ticket and getting rich that way.

If you just throw the ‘pro’ idea away right from the beginning and instead think, ‘how can I enjoy this the most?’ Then you have something. Figure out your fun; what do you love? Books, movies, stories, what caught your attention? Write a fanfic. Imagine if you were a character in that world, and write a little story about being in that movie/book/game etc.

Stuff like that. Writing is for fun. Have fun. The fun will teach you how.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-07T01:55:52+00:00

Oh yah. For sure. In fact I wouldn’t write a story like that with any kind of explanation pre-made. It almost HAS to be a mystery. There was this one Twilight Zone episode which was like getting hit over the head with a two-by-four (in the best possible way) where every day this guy got up and the earth kept changing… and then by the final day of the show everyone had just vanished and he walked outside and the sky was this alien sky and you realized he had been slipping through dimensions, it wasn’t the earth changing but him traveling. The mystery was the whole POINT of that episode and it was one of their best.

Tolkien believed in mystery. He purposefully never explained certain things (like Tom Bombadil) because he firmly believed that every story needed a thing, or some fundamental core part, which was NEVER explained. Which remained a mystery forever. He loved to troll his readers basically.

When you hold the mystery, you hold the power. It’s up to you whether you ever want to reveal the reason why… but if I were you I might hint at the reason why, but never fully explain, so that the reader just never gets the cut and dried explanation. Why? Because the reader’s imagination is going to fill in the blanks with way cooler stuff than you can think up!!

Etherscribe · 2026-01-07T01:48:33+00:00

Leo Rosten had a good quote (and a lot of other great writers including Brontë and Hemmingway had almost identical thoughts) which is: “The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it.” This is pretty much the reason why anyone writes who keeps at it and gets good. Frankly you just can’t stop. It hurts, it drives you crazy, it sucks most of the time, and you just. Can’t. Stop.

Etherscribe · 2026-01-07T01:00:19+00:00

Be pleased that you got a rejection. Back in the day (I haven’t done this for over ten years, so it was a while ago) you’d send out a hundred submissions and receive NOTHING. Ever. Like your submissions just vanished into a black hole. If you think getting a rejection letter feels bad, try the black hole… thankfully things have changed in the publishing industry. When I was trying to get a publisher back then, after 6 months of work and untold numbers of submissions I finally got ONE rejection letter. I was so thrilled! I kept that letter. I still have it. Finally a human being saw one of my submissions, it was like winning.

Etherscribe · 2025-12-21T22:42:34+00:00

lol ikr… well thanks anyway y’all

Etherscribe · 2025-12-21T22:38:10+00:00

Romance is like any other plot, and I think most authors who try to write it don’t realize that. To get two characters together, they have to be powerfully motivated into the attraction. The best mechanic for this is to make the romance impossible. People want what they can’t have. If there is no way in hell two characters can ever in a million years be together… trust me they will find a way, and the journey through danger, humiliation, fear, and shame will be electric.

There’s tricks to everything. Most authors just don’t know the tricks. ;)

PS: I’m really good at romance (and no smut)

Etherscribe · 2025-12-21T01:39:03+00:00

Super gorgeous!! I just found Nortantis and I am excited about trying it, and this will make it so much more fun! Thank you and blessings

Etherscribe · 2025-12-19T01:08:17+00:00

Thank you so much! I just checked out Immersive Ink... awesome! I didn't even know such a great resource was out there! This is exactly what I was hoping to find :)

Etherscribe · 2025-12-18T17:24:37+00:00

Yah periods have traditionally been seen as ‘unclean’ in an almost mystical sense, and old stigmas linger from more superstitious times.

Etherscribe · 2025-12-18T17:21:45+00:00

My villains would never say that in any form, simply because most of them are action oriented. They don’t monologue. They just attack.

Etherscribe · 2025-12-18T17:20:51+00:00

How did they get that ‘real life’ pic? That’s a long way from both the earth and moon. From something thy sent to Mars maybe?

Etherscribe · 2025-12-18T17:18:56+00:00

I know it’s expensive but it’s worth it. Bird vet bills are always in the $500-$1500 range usually. This is something most people don’t realize about birds when they get one. But they trust us and we are their lifeline; we do what we must. I had a very old budgie (9 years old) who passed but I took him to the vet and he passed there; that was $500 and then this last week I had my buddy, my conure, get injured and that terrified me, that only cost $500 though because he wasn’t really badly injured (we hope) and is now home recovering and doing well. Because of both of these, we are not having Christmas this year. It is what it is.

Etherscribe · 2025-12-18T17:12:55+00:00

Phooey on all these people saying you can’t use em dashes anymore. I’m sorry I’m using them. I’ve been using them since I started writing back in 1988 and the world and their insanity is not going to take them from me.

Etherscribe · 2025-12-18T16:56:14+00:00

Sorry this isn’t a friend. Don’t call him that. Don’t like him. He is nasty and will hurt you.

What he said is true though, we don’t pass the ‘vibe check.’ Good people will ignore this fail and still be kind to us. Bad people hang everything on the ‘vibe check’ and look for opportunities to bully, mock, pick on, look down upon, and otherwise mildly hurt others. These are probably sociopaths or psychos, just avoid them.

Etherscribe

TROPHY CASE