Ghost-of-a-Chance

My rule is usually pretty simple – is it a fucking stupid name? If so, I’ll probably use it.

My process varies depending on what exactly I’m writing. For some of my original fiction, I tend to use a blend of “words from nature,” “elaborated words from nature,” and “take parts of actual words or names, mash them together with other syllables from other words and names, and boom, insta-name.” It’s gotten some pretty interesting results like Anabreth, Kessenjer, and Benekeed. It fits for a fantasy-setting culture in another world but it would not fit for most stories.
Fanfiction and other fiction? That process is more...complicated. Sometimes with some characters, a name for them literally just pops up as I’m building the character and sticks. Other times I scour baby name directories, popular media, and websites, and choose what works best for the time. Usually I follow a precedent my family (unintentionally?) set: “Every girl needs an adult name and an old lady name, and one of those names needs to be adaptable into a cute nickname for when they’re kids.” Some fandoms (or families) also have trends for naming – characters in a lot of anime have names based in nature, especially food, and sometimes families follow naming customs passed down. Heck, I know of a person who has several kids, all of whom have an X or Y somewhere in their name. (Yes, he’s white.)
Overall, I think, if you’re worried your OC name will sound Sue-ish or too unusual, there’s an easy way to figure it out. Imagine you just met a new friend and you’re introducing them to someone. Could be your parents, your Nana, or even just that fusty granny who lives next door and always gets up in your business. Imagine yourself saying the character’s name to this person. Did they cringe? Did their eyebrows disappear into their hair? Did they snort under their breath, imitate a codfish, or otherwise react impolitely? If so, the name’s probably going to stand out and maybe too much. Sometimes having an outlandish name can be a good thing – ie, recurring jokes or character reactions to their names – and likewise for excessively bland names.
Whatever you choose, just be sure you make it work.

There’s only so much an automated spelling and grammar checker can accomplish; sometimes their ones and zeroes get crossed and they suggest incorrect corrections. If you know already that your work is correct in that instance, it’s easy enough to just delete the flag and move on, but what about when you’re not sure? What about when you actually start questioning whether the checker’s suggestion, wrong as it sounds, might be right?
I give you the “am I wrong or is my grammar checker an idiot?” thread. Here you can post your spelling and grammar questions and – I hope! – get answers. For clarity’s sake, try to follow this form:
The sentence: Write out your sentence in its entirety.
The problem: Describe what part of that sentence has caught your checker’s attention, the proposed correction, why you think the checker might be wrong, and if possible, why it might be right.
 
Good luck, and I hope this thread becomes a valuable resource for those of us about to go round an’ round with our grammar checkers!
 

There’s only so much an automated spelling and grammar checker can accomplish; sometimes their ones and zeroes get crossed and they suggest incorrect corrections. If you know already that your work is correct in that instance, it’s easy enough to just delete the flag and move on, but what about when you’re not sure? What about when you actually start questioning whether the checker’s suggestion, wrong as it sounds, might be right?
I give you the “am I wrong or is my grammar checker an idiot?” thread. Here you can post your spelling and grammar questions and – I hope! – get answers. For clarity’s sake, try to follow this form:
The sentence: Write out your sentence in its entirety.
The problem: Describe what part of that sentence has caught your checker’s attention, the proposed correction, why you think the checker might be wrong, and if possible, why it might be right.
 
Good luck, and I hope this thread becomes a valuable resource for those of us about to go round an’ round with our grammar checkers!
 

If your gonna us it in another book, don't explain it at all, other than he knows her somehow, let people wonder why she crumbled so easily until your ready to tell them - it'll drive people nuts hehehe

Bruce Springsteen?

Surely I’m not the only one who wonders “is this medically possible or am I exposing my n00bitude?” Alas, I couldn’t find a thread devoted to such a thing! So...uh...I guess if you find yourself with questions regarding injuries, illnesses, and other such junk...ask here?

Ladies, it looks like this thread needs some Troll-Away.tm

Ignore the fine print. Can I interest you in a case?

Ladies, it looks like this thread needs some Troll-Away.tm

Ignore the fine print. Can I interest you in a case?

Ladies, it looks like this thread needs some Troll-Away.tm

Ignore the fine print. Can I interest you in a case?

Ladies, it looks like this thread needs some Troll-Away.tm

Ignore the fine print. Can I interest you in a case?

But what if I have a hungry heart? During my glory days people said not to feed me all the time. In the end I came up with a Brilliant Disguise.
...oh, right the other troll. Well, I was born to run so I’ll get outa here.

Honestly, at this point, I’m thinking that you’re just a little troll. 

Don’t feed the troll

Dear gods, child… 

Bronx is the boss.  

Sounds interesting.

I now have a mental image of the Diablo 2 Sorceress’s lightning powers being harnessed towards charging a smartphone.
*Hits chain lightning*
*Phone explodes Samsung style.*
“Whoops! Too much juice there….”
 

It’s been a good minute since I’ve had a chance to pop on here to reply, but your suggestion hit the mark! I wound up going with “Forgiveness Goes Both Ways.” Thanks, everyone, for your advice and time. Until next time!

It’s been a good minute since I’ve had a chance to pop on here to reply, but your suggestion hit the mark! I wound up going with “Forgiveness Goes Both Ways.” Thanks, everyone, for your advice and time. Until next time!

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation! I’ll try to keep that in mind from now on, WillowDarkling. Thanks again for your advice!
 
 Y’all are a blast! 
 

Nothing to worry about! Willow is our forum moderator, and we have a rule about not allowing stories to be published in the forum—we’ve had people post stories here instead of the archive. So, our forum admin and Willow established a rule about no more than 10 sentences of story text being allowed. However, that really applies mainly to our challenge threads, where people tend to post whole chapters of what they’ve written in response to a challenge, to make sure the person making the challenge is pleased. That’s the sort of excess we try to avoid.
In this case, and particularly given the way Japanese works (especially those dratted honorifics), giving a bigger chunk of text was more helpful. The whole idea of this thread is to let writers work out questions relating to language, or terminology. Fortunately, we have Willow, who studies Japanese and keeps me fairly honest when it comes to proper terminology.  In return, I’m teaching her to curse in Sindarin.  

…? I take it I missed something? Was this flagged, or reported, or did I unintentionally bugger something up? I’ve been down with a migraine all day (it’s still trying to bounce back up from headache to pickaxe pulverizing my frontal lobe) so this is the first I’ve heard or seen about anything. I’m confused...
I’m still new to this forum so apologies if I misstep. The one I used to work with is...let’s just say less than reasonable, entirely unhelpful, and crawling with irrational kidults looking for a punching bag. (...stay away from FFnet’s “Writers Anonymous.” Just stay away.) When posting a question I always try to include the relevant information and keep it brief – or at least summarized and formatted for easy reading – but different opinions on relevance are a hurdle. Every attempt on W.A. got answers of TLDR, try Google and not enough info I must know everything about your story and characters including each protagonist’s blood type and pet’s maiden name or I absolutely cannot help you with anything on the exact same post. Once in a while I was lucky enough to merit a dunno, ask Jeeves. When hours and even days of searching and reading didn’t get me the answers I needed, the only way I ever managed to keep the too much and not enough repliers happy was by including snippets for context...or offering cookies and begging for intruding upon their space. 
 
The character Saschelle is being abusive and antagonistic to character Rowan so the slur is very much intended as a slur there; at least in my previous experiences, bullies don’t generally pull their punches. Glad I was able to get the attitude across there. I recalled reading that the polite term was gaikokujin, hence the exaggerated pause between syllables – a sudden and emphasized jump from feigning manners to blatant insult to throw the recipient off-kilter.
I’ve gone through the lists of sites and article links in my fan-writing Notebook (thank goodness for OneNote!) but for the life of me, I can’t find the article I got my G-word info from.  If this instance follows other recent ones, it means I bookmarked the article on my old computer and forgot to add a link in my Notebook. My dear old Betsy effectively went battery-up recently and has been replaced. I can’t access my bookmarks until I get Firefox working and updated on the replacement computer…or until I can manage to get Betsy working again long enough to save my research bookmarks. I’ve searched the internet but haven’t found the article again, only other sites and articles referencing similar answers. (“It’s horribly offensive and considered a slur” and “It’s not always used as a slur, it’s just a word meaning foreigner. Even sports leagues use it for foreign teams.”) No idea of how to determine which sources are accurate besides good ol’ “avoid wikis, Wikipedia, and social media sites.”
Without the article I referenced I have no way to be sure but I feel like I remember something about the writer being affiliated with a college or university perhaps, maybe connected to a language or cultural arts program…? 
So basically using -san would be the way to go? Basically, Saschelle is using the word with a title to compound the insult - like a certain relation of mine who calls people “Mister Jackwad” and “Little Miss Bitchfest” when he’s offended by their very presence. ...crud. Now I’m not sure if the word we’re talking about is a noun or adjective. My head hurts and I need some wine.

Actually, in this instance, because the OP is looking for language guidance and not looking to publish a story on the forum, in whole or in part, I think the extra content was needed to get the correct guidance, especially in the murky world of Japanese honorifics (which still elude me after all these years of you trying to teach me).
Now, the idiot who keeps trying to publish stories in the Adopt a Story forum definitely needs to be smacked with a very large thesaurus. Repeatedly.

Gaijin is considered quite rude in most social situations regarding non-Japanese (especially white) people today, and especially if it’s said in a rude or taunting tone. 
The polite way of saying “foreigner” is Gaikokujin. 
Also for the honorifics, -kun and -chan are used when you are familiar with someone, so anyone trying to keep a “social distance” of any kind, would just use familyname-san, I think. Of course the tone of voice can always be used to convey condescension etc.
-kun and -chan are also used for boys younger than you and girls, respectively, so adding the suffix -kun to the name of someone your own age, either means you are quite close, or implies that you view that person as someone below you in age and “status”, but I don’t think Japanese teens would actually use it that way. 
After conferring with our head archive mod, the story content is allowed in this instance as per the post below mine. The extra content is needed for context.  
Willow Darkling, forum moderator.