Working on the Weekend

 

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.

Confucius

Hey! Happy Saturday! Today, I'm thinking of something I said yesterday about names. So... I thought today, I'd talk about naming characters.

You know, sometimes, it's kind of tough picking the name to saddle your character with. Especially when you've written almost 180 books. I mean that's a lot of people populating books. Main characters, side characters, incidental character. People dead. People alive. The ones my main characters have known and been influenced by.

Dear God, give me grace to accept the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Am I right?

Thing is...what's done is done. So I'm accepting it. And I work really hard not to repeat names. I used to even keep a log, but back when I was writing super menage (now called reverse harem) that just became way too cumbersome. So honestly, I just do a search for a particular name and make sure to repeat names in the same series (and never last names unless they're in the same family).

Side note: did you know that you can go to your writing folder and search a name and your computer will look at the interior of files and pull up ones that have it? It's not foolproof but then again, not much is.

I also keep a notebook filled with name ideas. And I make up names. Or think I do.

Funny story, on my last book, I named a primary side character Jenxon. And I thought super cool. Maybe, someone will love it and use it in the future. Then I did an internet search. I am not as original as I think, LOL. There weren't a lot of entries but there were a couple people with that name.

Oh well.

But here are some fun names I've used lately:

Fray, Jynxie, Jenxon, Raiden, Lukja, Pax, Adler, Linzey, Haisley, Penny.

(I know Penny isn't unusual or anything. It's just the sweetest little name)

Here's a secret: I spend about two hours a month filling my name notebooks with names for heroes, heroines and surnames. Just a name can spark idea.

What's a fantastic name you love?

Today, January 11, 2025

This, I'm still working on Billionaire Bodyguard plotting. I should be done with the plotting this weekend. I'll also be working through the rest of my Billionaire's Surprise revision. Billionaire's Surprise will be fully complete today.

Thought of the day: Be a rebel. No matter what you do, not everyone will love you, so why not forge your own path?

Quote of the day: Don't let yesterday take up too much of today — Will Rogers

What I learned today: The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

Have a great day!

~ Brynn

Probably Need Coffee

 

Hey hey hey, it's Fri-yay!!

That means nothing to me. I'll still work on the weekend. No matter. I love working with my characters. Next week, I'll have my favorite toddler here all week, so my blog posts probably won't come out until sometime during his naptime, but I'm still going to do my best to get chatty every day.

(Hey! I just had to pop back into this post for an update: Today's post is the 200th blog post on my website. Whoot! Okay. Back to the regularly schedule program.)

So today's dilemma... This year, 2025, I decided to go all in on my Billionaire Club books. Don't you know it, of course, my brain is over here going: Okay, hear me out... A zombie book. How about a zombie book?

Me: No brain. We're writing billionaires.

Brain: But zombies and adventure and saving the world...

Me: Brain, you can't save the world from a zombie apocalypse.

Brain: Did I say apocalypse? See you're onboard already.

Me: No.

Brain: But zombie squirrels.

Me: screams

So... It's going to be a challenge to work on the Billionaire Club books today. I'm revising one and plotting one. And my updates (below) will look like I did NOTHING yesterday. I did. I promise, I did. I spent a whole lot of time updating my Billionaire Club book bible. That sounds like procrastinating. I mean...maybe, it was procrastinating. A little. But it was very necessary. I'm tired of having to flip through the older books to make sure I don't mess things up.

Such as...naming the hero in Billionaire's Surprise the same first name as Blind Date With The Billionaire.

Rookie mistake. (And yes, I did that.)

So... A book bible. I've had the template set up on Notion for a while, but I started hardcore filling it in.

Here's a little peak at one section:

As you can see, I didn't fill in the "Summaries". I mean that would be HARDCORE procrastination. I'll save that for another day. This is just one part of the Billionaire Club book bible. It has a TON of pages and sub-pages in it.

But enough of that. It's time to get down to work -- NOT on zombies.

Today, January 10 2025

It's my brother's birthday! I've already wished him happy birthday like a good older sister. I did not tease him about being old because he'd remind me that, yeah, I'm older. But I did send him a dog gif. Good trade.

For writing, I'm working on Billionaire Bodyguard brainstorming and plotting. I'll also be working through 23 pages of the Billionaire's Surprise revision.

See. It looks like no work. Anyway. Plowing forward for the win today!

Thought of the day: Every step counts even if you need to step backward and regroup.

Quote of the day: The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty — Winston Churchill

What I learned today: A skunk's smell can be detected by a human a mile away. (that skunk might not be as close as you think)

Have a great day!

~ Brynn

Thoughts and Updates

Once upon a time, I used to blog every single day. I really wish I had access to my Blogger blog because there were some great posts. They were just about life as it was going on. Nothing too fancy just what was happening with the writing, my rando thoughts, the world, my kids, occasional guest posts. A hodgepodge of everything, really.

Then when I started blogging here, after not blogging for a long time, I always tried to make things fancy. Fancy being a word that covers many thoughts about the space: informative, researched, generic but with a look at my thoughts on whatever subject I picked/researched, oh-so-vanilla and "professional".

That made it hard.

Difficult.

Unsustainable.

Every post took a long time to construct, and really, that's not what blogging is about. At least not to me.

So now, I'm back with day to day. That's the plan.

Currently, (SUDDEN TOPIC SWITCH ALERT!!!!) I've been very stuck on the next Billionaire Club book I'm writing. I'm thinking of moving it back a month. I have another Billionaire Club book that's done that I can put in its place. In fact, at the moment, I have three completed Billionaire Club books. So I could just move them forward in my schedule. I don't want to half-ass the current WIP because of rushing. I never want that. Ever. So...I guess I might move up the other books.

But why come back to blogging? (2nd SUDDEN TOPIC SWITCH ALERT!!!!)

Well, because.

Ooooooh enlightening, Brynn.

No, really, I'm not going to get political, but I think social media is on its way out. I think that it's possible that blogs will make a return. I also like sharing my thoughts like this. So here I am. People can see what's up with me (and writing), the comments are open, and I'll respond back. It's a place where we won't get lost in the shuffle of disinformation and memes.

If you're here with me, THANK YOU!

Okay, one element I am keeping from before is Writing Update, but with some updated flair. Here we go...

Today, January 9, 2025

I'm working on plotting and revising. I am...way behind. I did some journaling in my writing notebook. I broke that thing outta the cellophane after it's been sitting on my shelf for a few months. My goodness! With just three pages it seemed to break through my block like the Kool-aid Man. OH YEAH, HERE I AM. THANKS FOR INVITING ME!!!!

It solved part of my block anyway. I have viable ideas, and that's a huge plus. They're all marked down now, and the topic is indexed in the front of my notebook. This is the one I use. NOT an affiliate link. I'm just sharing because I love these notebooks. I use the A5 size and they're hardcover.

Writing status:

Tip of the Day: Start where you are.

Quote of the Day: Overthinking is the art of creating problems that aren't even there.

( Anonymous)

What I Learned Today: There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long (eye, hip, arm, leg, ear, toe, jaw, rib, lip, and gum)

Have a great day!

~ Brynn