The trouble with originality

When it comes to naming the characters, creatures, and objects of my fiction I think very carefully about what name would best reflect the function or personality of what I'm naming. I think that these subtle references help reinforce the imagery behind images as well as subconsciously helping a reader to remember what the thing is upon just hearing the name, even if they arn't aware of the meaning of the name.

J.K.Rowling employs this tactic with her characters name and particularly with the spell names, its something that I personally really appreciate. A lot of people would understand that in Harry Potter when a wizard wants to 'remove something from the hand' they can cast Expelliarmus, but especially the younger reader would not appreciate that the charm is the command of 'expell the arm(ed)'. Just like how Lumos relates to 'illuminate' as Protego does to 'protect'. These little subtle references are what impress the older reader, its almost like a reward to find these things. The characters are much more interesting, such as with Bellatrix Lestrange; roughly translating as a definition of her character, as being a once beautiful female agent who is strange and odd.

With my own writing I try to do the same to hint to character behavior and also to underlying themes of the book *This is not a spoiler*

For example,
Mercurius, a hybrid character in my sequel is in two minds as to who to fight for, and his allegiance is fluid and shifting depending on the situation. Referencing the physical behaviour of Mercury

Seraph, the highest rank of warrior of the Hierarchy who carry out the physical will of the Vanguard and protect their people from the Fallen. They are ascended warriors who stand with six wings, command the lesser ranks and guard the Vanguard. Links to christian views of the 'seraphim'. Think 'Seraph' from The Matrix for an idea of how the beings are said to protect the higher beings.

There are many more but I do not want to just explain every reference because if you happened to ever read any of the stories it would be like opening a crossword to find it was already half finished. Oh the horror.

In a day of madness I created a new creature for my book which would be a giant animated draconic skeleton that served the Fallen. I didn't feel up for searching through synonyms for the characteristics of the beast so I took the lazy option and went for the next random thing that popped out of my head.

I went for 'tetrax'. Random, right? well I was just writing a section of a chapter where a tetrax makes an appearance and thought I would google the word. amusingly it actually came up with a little bird! I was impressed by that, seeings as both of the creatures are kind of bird-like, they fly fly fly. Most of the other results were pretty random to be fair, seems that some foreign companies like to call themselves or their products 'Tetrax'. But what really made me rethink the entire name choice was the next little image that popped up under this name.

Ben 10... really, really not what I had in mind when I was concepting the creature. It just shows how trying to be 'original' is really a challenge these days, even the most random of thoughts appears to have happened before! I have learnt from this little exercise to stick to having some form of witty reference behind all of my names, so I do not get my Omniels mixed up with any Omnitrixes. For now, I will leave the name as it is, it can be our secret ;)

Much Love!
Hoping You Are Well ;D
L.H