What I'd been up to all this time.

[MetaBob]

I started writing a medieval-fantasy smut story. It would be a novel-length one. I didn't know what I'd do with it when I finished it (post it here or self-publish it), but I had panned a wonderful story, and I was progressing with no major problems.

Until someone pointed out that the names I used were not medieval enough and sounded anachronistic. So I searched among medieval names, but they all sounded bland and forgettable (Henry, Edward, Richard, Mary, Elizabeth etc.)

So, unable to find proper names for the characters of my novel, I gave up. Oh well.

This should not be a difficult problem to resolve. From an article:

the most popular medieval names were classic, familiar choices including Alice, Isabella, and Emma for girls, and William, John, and Henry for boys.
...
these names were so common that creative nicknames had to evolve to distinguish one from another. Many traditional nicknames and derivatives emerged in the Middle Ages, including Bess, Hal, and Ellen. Others survive today only in surnames, such as Jenkins — Jenkin was a nickname for John— and Perrin, a variation of Peter.
Along with Alice and William, other medieval names that currently rank in the US Top 1000 include Amira, Beatrice, Dante, Ellis, Emmeline, Lucia, Roger, and Walter. Rare and intriguing medieval names worth reviving include Amabel, Cyprian, Isabeau, and Lucan.

Explore s'more!

 

[JohnSm123]

This should not be a difficult problem to resolve. From an article:



Explore s'more!

Can I use John? Can I give one of my characters the same name as my pen name? I've heard that should be avoided?

 

[MetaBob]

Can I use John? Can I give one of my characters the same name as my pen name? I've heard that should be avoided?

Why ever not? The main character of my first three works is named Bob. I write as MɛtaBob.

Medieval variations of John include Jack, the aforementioned Jenkin, Jankin, the Scottish Ian or Iain, Welsh Evan, Ioan or Jevon, Russian Ivan, Irish Sean or Shane, Jens, Jean, Jan, Janos, Janusz, Yann, Juan, Hans, Johan, Johann, Johannes or Hannes, Giovanni, Yannis, and many more.

Endless possibility!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Can I use John? Can I give one of my characters the same name as my pen name? I've heard that should be avoided?

Mate, you're being absurd. You can use any name you want. Jon, Johnny, Johno, JoJo, Jon Jon, John. Just write the damn story!

 

[Rob_Royale]

Just write the damn story!

 

[ElectricBlue]

View attachment 2282980

Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?

 

[SimonDoom]

Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?

Who said that? Who's the little slimy communist shit twinkle toed cocksucker down here who just signed his own death warrant?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Who said that? Who's the little slimy communist shit twinkle toed cocksucker down here who just signed his own death warrant?

Good man!

It'll be interesting to find out how many know the reference, and how many scratch their heads, huh?

 

[SimonDoom]

Good man!

It'll be interesting to find out how many know the reference, and how many scratch their heads, huh?

It's one of the most compulsively re-watchable four minutes of film. Just an amazing performance.

 

[Djmac1031]

Good man!

It'll be interesting to find out how many know the reference, and how many scratch their heads, huh?

It sounds familiar but I can't quite place it.

I suppose instead of spoilers I'll just Google it and see if I recognize it.

EDIT: Duh. Of course. I feel silly for not getting it immediately.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It sounds familiar but I can't quite place it.

I suppose instead of spoilers I'll just Google it and see if I recognize it.

EDIT: Duh. Of course. I feel silly for not getting it immediately.

To be fair, it's getting on a bit now. The young-uns wouldn't have been a twinkle in their father's eye (let alone a reach around).

 

[SimonDoom]

To be fair, it's getting on a bit now. The young-uns wouldn't have been a twinkle in their father's eye (let alone a reach around).

I'm ashamed to say there are Kubrick movies I have not seen. Never seen Barry Lyndon or Paths of Glory.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm ashamed to say there are Kubrick movies I have not seen. Never seen Barry Lyndon or Paths of Glory.

Barry Lyndon is stately and slow. Marisa Berenson looks exquisite but says very little, because she couldn't shed her American accent. Using Ryan O'Neal was obviously a ploy to get studio money, but he didn't do too bad a job. The film is best known for its natural candle light filming, using one of only two NASA ultra-fast lenses, which Kubrick adapted for a 35mm camera.

Paths of Glory is excellent, very powerful. It really established the Kubrick trademarks - long tracking shots, long circular tracking shots like a waltz, extreme close ups. The Kubrick stare.

Kubrick met Christianne, who plays a singer in the film's finale, who he subsequently married. Kirk Douglas, who starred, engaged SK to direct Spartacus, and later said of him, "He's a little shit. But a talented little shit."

 

[gunhilltrain]

It's one of the most compulsively re-watchable four minutes of film. Just an amazing performance.

It was released in 1987, so some time has gone by. Kubrick originally hired Ermey as a technical advisor, but he knew a good thing when he saw it. He even let Ermey improvise most of his lines, which was a rarity for Kubrick.

The ironic ending of the movie, the battle with the sniper, turns the entire film - I don't know how to describe it. I won't spoil it, so just see it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Barry Lyndon is stately and slow. Marisa Berenson looks exquisite but says very little, because she couldn't shed her American accent. Using Ryan O'Neal was obviously a ploy to get studio money, but he didn't do too bad a job. The film is best known for its natural candle light filming, using one of only two NASA ultra-fast lenses, which Kubrick adapted for a 35mm camera.

Paths of Glory is excellent, very powerful. It really established the Kubrick trademarks - long tracking shots, long circular tracking shots like a waltz, extreme close ups. The Kubrick stare.

Kubrick met Christianne, who plays a singer in the film's finale, who he subsequently married. Kirk Douglas, who starred, engaged SK to direct Spartacus, and later said of him, "He's a little shit. But a talented little shit."

He grew up in The Bronx, went to Taft High School, and dropped out of City College. At one point he was living about three blocks from where my dad (who was the same age) grew up.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Mate, you're being absurd. You can use any name you want. Jon, Johnny, Johno, JoJo, Jon Jon, John. Just write the damn story!

John, back to you. If you feel ambitious enough to start off with a novel - well, that's your choice. I think I recommended once that you should also write something shorter just for practice. Write a piece of non-fiction about something that happened to you. I have essays on Lit about the first time I saw a movie in a theater, about my weirdly pornographic college newspaper (couldn't happen nowadays), and various other topics. Just describe something you saw or did. Everybody has stories in their lives. Even you.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Barry Lyndon is stately and slow. Marisa Berenson looks exquisite but says very little, because she couldn't shed her American accent. Using Ryan O'Neal was obviously a ploy to get studio money, but he didn't do too bad a job. The film is best known for its natural candle light filming, using one of only two NASA ultra-fast lenses, which Kubrick adapted for a 35mm camera.

Paths of Glory is excellent, very powerful. It really established the Kubrick trademarks - long tracking shots, long circular tracking shots like a waltz, extreme close ups. The Kubrick stare.

Kubrick met Christianne, who plays a singer in the film's finale, who he subsequently married. Kirk Douglas, who starred, engaged SK to direct Spartacus, and later said of him, "He's a little shit. But a talented little shit."

In Paths of Glory the German enemy is never seen, except for the German civilian at the end. Interesting that she speaks in German, while the rest of the cast speaks in English. (If Mel Gibson had been directing, they would have been speaking in French, probably.) Thus an American or British audience probably can't understand what she's saying, putting us in the position of the French soldiers watching her. "Speak a civilized language," one of them says.

 

[ElectricBlue]

John, back to you. If you feel ambitious enough to start off with a novel - well, that's your choice. I think I recommended once that you should also write something shorter just for practice. Write a piece of non-fiction about something that happened to you. I have essays on Lit about the first time I saw a movie in a theater, about my weirdly pornographic college newspaper (couldn't happen nowadays), and various other topics. Just describe something you saw or did. Everybody has stories in their lives. Even you.

I don't think he's here to write, frankly.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't think he's here to write, frankly.

If so, he would not be the first to fit that description.

 

[HordHolm]

It's not a slight problem. It's an impenetrable wall. I tried for days to find proper names, and I couldn't.

I won't post the names here, because in the unlikely case it turns out they're good and you tell me to use them and go on, I won't be able to delete them from here, because there is no thread-deleting option. And then if I self-publish my novel, everybody will think I plagiarized all those names one by one from here.

Use nicknames. They were all over the place back in the day and were often used more than someone's real name.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Use nicknames. They were all over the place back in the day and were often used more than someone's real name.

We've already seen that whatever advice is given to him is ignored.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Holy shit, first names aren't plagiarism, their names.

It's not a slight problem. It's an impenetrable wall. I tried for days to find proper names, and I couldn't.

I won't post the names here, because in the unlikely case it turns out they're good and you tell me to use them and go on, I won't be able to delete them from here, because there is no thread-deleting option. And then if I self-publish my novel, everybody will think I plagiarized all those names one by one from here.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Holy shit, first names aren't plagiarism, their names.

It's hard to pick first and last names that aren't used by somebody in America or Britain. I even had one that I found out later was the name of the main protagonist in a novel.

Look at the various people named Dolores Haze (a.k.a. Lolita). I don't think Nabokov worried about it much

 

[MillieDynamite]

So, there's a Western series of novels and short stories featuring a woman in the old West named Michell Tanner. My father is a friend of the writer; the woman is named after his daughter for the first name, and the last name was the first name of a childhood friend. He didn't even make the connection to Full House, and no one has ever said anything in the comments.

It's hard to pick first and last names that aren't used by somebody in America or Britain. I even had one that I found out later was the name of the main protagonist in a novel.

Look at the various people named Dolores Haze (a.k.a. Lolita). I don't think Nabokov worried about it much

 

[samhasstories]

Read Wolf Hall recently. At least half the characters are named Thomas. Loved it.

But there are always plenty of reasons not to write.