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Post by readilygrey on Jul 31, 2012 15:05:46 GMT -5
I'm writing a short story for class that has at least 3-4 alien names mentioned. It's a comedy and the aliens are talking to each other so I can't get away with Lovecraftian things like "that which cannot be pronounced by the human tongue." It's third person with the main character being a low level supervisor alien talking to his supervisor about one of his underlings. They then listen to a recording by the underling.
I keep thinking up stuff like from Calvin and Hobbes, like "Zurk," "Murk," or "Churr-ip." Or bureaucracy-gone-wild like "SP45-Div7," "Greymatte4," or "20578.09." And so on.
I don't want this to be too cliched. I need help brainstorming, I would be grateful for any!
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Post by Freedom on Jul 31, 2012 15:15:30 GMT -5
I like to gather a bunch of syllables and then randomly put them together until they stick...
er
fo
ak
mu
Ermu
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Post by readilygrey on Jul 31, 2012 20:55:51 GMT -5
I like to gather a bunch of syllables and then randomly put them together until they stick... er fo ak mu Ermu Thank you for this tip. I came up with several interesting names that I am going to use for a different story with it. Somehow while doing this I decided to use the word "no" translated into different languages. I now have: Nyet and Klek. I also came up with the name Chirr for no apparent reason. Hopefully this story will work. It's rewriting itself a lot in the second draft  We will see. |
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Post by Freedom on Jul 31, 2012 21:00:12 GMT -5
Nyet, Klek and Chirr -- like 'em, two similar and one ... completely different. This is always unnerving: It's rewriting itself a lot in the second draft -- but often good, too  |
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Post by readilygrey on Jul 31, 2012 21:27:26 GMT -5
Nyet, Klek and Chirr -- like 'em, two similar and one ... completely different. This is always unnerving: It's rewriting itself a lot in the second draft -- but often good, too It's frustrating because the class has a length restriction of 5 double-spaced pages with the first starting a third of the way down. I always end up with about 6 pages and have to go back and reword everything until it's short enough. Don't they understand that awesomeness should not be restricted like this??? I guess if I had to grade a billion stories I would be more concerned with length than awesomeness too  Still it would be nice if it was a word count limit and not a page count because I have a lot of dialogue and tiny paragraphs. It's so not fair. Grrr. *forces self to stop being childish* |
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Post by Freedom on Jul 31, 2012 21:34:24 GMT -5
Don't they understand that awesomeness should not be restricted like this... Still it would be nice if it was a word count limit and not a page count because I have a lot of dialogue and tiny paragraphs. It's so not fair. I totally concur. I run into this kind of thing all the time. *editedtoadd* Lovecraftian things like "that which cannot be pronounced by the human tongue." ROFL |
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We will see.
