The Co-Writing Diaries #3
Say my name, say my name...
Welcome to my blog series chronicling the wild, wonderful journey of co-writing the romantasy series, The Department of Dark Errands—London’s most elite (and most dangerous) magical intelligence agency. From brainstorming the magical underbelly of London and morally gray love interests to navigating the (occasionally stormy) waters of collaboration, I’m unlocking the bedroom door to share the real behind-the-scenes story of crafting a fantasy romance series with .
This series is for PAID MEMBERS ONLY, so if you want special access, you’re gonna need to pull a Beyonce and upgrade.
Let the adventure begin.
One of the many things I loved about writing as a pantser was writing a story based on an idea, a title, and the names of my characters. Sometimes there was no title. I started out writing YA, and one of the Corporate Hell jobs I had was medical data entry. I worked the graveyard shift, 4 pm-2 am Mon-Thurs, entering line after line of medical information from a HFCA sheet (IYKYK). It was a mindless job, but it was perfect for me for two reasons:
No phones (unlike my current Corp Hell job)
I was able to grow my character name list
When I wrote my stories, my main characters were required to have unique names (secondary characters got the boring common names. Sometimes). It was one of the writing rules I came up with because I was so tired—still tired—of reading books with characters who had the plainest, common names known to man.
I mean, I get it. During sex, it’s much easier to shout, “Oh, fuck, Emily,” vs “Oh, fuck, Lavender.” But that’s where nicknames come in, ya’ll.
So, you can imagine all the inspo that came across my desk when I was entering those claims. I honestly do miss that binder full of book info, including character names for both boys and girls. I think it got lost or thrown away during one of my many moves.
Alisa clearly understood the assignment when coming up with the names of our characters. Even when we had to change things up.