Writing isn't as simple as sitting down and writing... Pt. 1

I realized once I decided to sit down and write a story that it wasn't going to be quite that simple. So much goes into writing a book. Sweet Burden started out as a simple story of a simple girl who meets a complicated guy and the rest is kind of history. But first, I had to come up with characters. And not just characters that I liked or wanted to kill off, but ones that everyone would like or despise according to the direction of the story. So the simple likeable girl next needed a name. Hmm... So the search started on the internet. I really wanted a unique name that didn't start with my first initial (like a lot of writers do). My main character was definitely not me! My concept entire story concept started with Japanese manga, so I went with a Japanese name- Hitomi. In the beginning I thought it was an okay name. I could change it later, right? Then as the character developed there was no other name that would fit her. One of the meanings of Hitomi is " beautiful virtue". It just seemed to fit her perfectly. So there was Hitomi, but what about the guy? Then the next search started. I knew what I wanted him to look like, so thanks to good old thesaurus.com Obsidian was born. Obsidian seemed to fit him well, but it was kind of a bit of a mouthful. Obsidian was quickly shortened to Obi as his nickname- and no, it was not because of Obi-Wan Kenobi (although, I do love Star Wars). Okay, task accomplished! Two characters! Two names! Now what??

(to be continued)

Check out Sweet Burden at Amazon to read to finished product.