Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Trols, Imps, and Pixes (Perhaps)

As part of my revisions for THINKING OF YOU, I have decided to rename the Waves. The reason being the fact that Waves give off waves. It's confusing, don't you think? Yeah, me too.

I've thought long and hard about what the new name should be. At first I liked Quakes, because don't earthquakes send out waves? I crossed that off the list when I determined it was too much like Quakers. Next, I researched the source of molecular waves. It's light, but that wouldn't work either, so I turned to my thesaurus for synonyms. I found a few. None were quite right. My next idea came from what the waves do - manipulate. Looked up synonyms for that. Didn't lead to anything. Then it clicked.

Control. Another word for manipulate is control. And if you chop off the first syllable, you're left with Trol. I loved it (though I do think Trols looks a little funny).

As often happens, one thought led to another. If I was renaming the Waves, especially something like that, should I rename the Prisms and Shimmers to match? I tried and it actually worked. Prisms simply glimpse waves. I cut off the first two and the last two letters, leaving myself with Imp. Shimmers turn light into pixels in order to see visions. Drop the last two letters, you have Pixe.

I realize those names don't sound very sci-fi or "techy," but I thought perhaps they could be used as slang terms with the scientists using more official terms (ie. Controller instead of Trol).

There is one more option. A friend pointed out that I could research the wave spectrum to find a new name. That idea also sounds appealing (I'm kind of liking the sound of Ultras).


What's your opinion? Do you like these names, agree with the slang idea? Or should I try the spectrum? Please be honest.

16 comments:

  1. You could always name them after Maxwell who was the first person to calculate the speed of light based off of light waves. See Maxwell's equations for a reading of this. Or even "C" as C is the letter used to describe the speed of light in a vacuum.

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    1. Those are interesting ideas. I knew I should have researched waves and light more (but I'm lazy).

      So, I'm taking this as you do not like the Trol, Pixe, Imp idea?

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  2. Wow! That's interesting and definitely sounds techy. I'd say go with it if it matches your story. Great thinking :)

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    1. See, that was my problem, I wasn't entirely sure if it did match. I think the fact that I had to change all the names supported that. I'm liking the spectrum idea more and more.

      Thank you very much for your feedback. ^^

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  3. I think you should go with them, they match the edgy techno feel of the book.

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    1. Do you get that feel just from the way I talk about it?

      Thank you for the feedback. ^^ I'm getting more confidence in this idea.

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  4. I immediately thought of Trolls, Imps and Pixies, but that's just how my mind is working right now.

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    1. Explain a little more please. I'm slightly confused as to what you mean. Do you mean that's what you pictured?

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  5. I like the slang idea--different fields usually have their own jargon, so I think it would add realism.

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    1. I thought that too and I felt like it incorporated into the story better that way. ^^ Thanks for the commenting and for subscribing to my channel on YouTube.

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  6. I have no idea what this WIP is about, but prisms, shimmers, imps, pixes, trols... they all sound fascinating! And very creative!

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    1. Thank you. http://brookerbusse.blogspot.com/p/wips.html If you go to that link, you can find a short summary under the header THINKING OF YOU. ^^

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  7. I love your slang terms! Totally creative.

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    1. Thank you. ^^ Now, I just have to think of the real terms to go with them. XD

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  8. I too thought of Trolls, Imps and Pixies. Could work for you or against you, I suppose, depending on the nature of the piece. I read the selection on the WIP page...on the one hand, those words translate easily into jargon, but on the other, I wonder if the title would have slightly fairy tale/magical connotations. So...err...lol...guess I wasn't much help--eek!

    Story sounds great btw; fab synopsis.

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    1. Thanks, Jes. ^^ I'm glad you thought the synopsis was good, because I'm usually pretty bad at them. XD

      I really think I could have fun with these terms. I'll just have to be careful with them.

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