la_marquise: (Marquise)
la_marquise ([personal profile] la_marquise) wrote2011-03-18 06:31 pm

Revisions, revisions

Still trotting on with the revisions on Grass King. I'm a little in love with it again, a year or more after the final lines were written. We'll see how long that lasts: I've passed the big revision of the start but have yet to hit the next major rewrites, which begin from the chapter after the one I'm currently working through. But mostly I like to rewrite. It's soothing, I have a map, I can see the other shore.
One casualty of this current process is in the names, though. I'm pretty good, usually, about letting go of character names when I have to. Gracielis, Thiercelin, Yvelliane -- all are renamed from the early drafts. This time, it's the turn of my five cadre, the elemental warriors. Sujhien, Hsirei, Lienye, Qiaqia, Tsai, as currently written.
Hard to read, harder to pronounce, said Nice Editor, and she has a point. I've seen people struggle with them. I know how they're said, of course I do, but they aren't spelled to fit standard English pronunciation and that really is a bit much of me. (For anyone who wonders, it's Soo-gee-en, Shear-ay, Lee-en-ee, Chee-a Chee-a, Tsigh.) A couple of them are hard to respell by English rules, annoyingly, and so there are changes on hand. Sujien, Shiray, Chiachia, Sai. I can live with those. But my heart bleeds a little over the last one. There's no sensible way to spell Lienye in English, so he's Liyan (or possibly Lyan: I'm not sure). He doesn't mind, but I do, a little.
I'll get used to it. I always do.

Skirt of the day: still jeans.
(The photos will return when I have a chance to take some. It's been busy round here this week.)

[identity profile] sartorias.livejournal.com 2011-03-18 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I have this trouble too. I struggle to find a simple phonetic spelling, but it's tough when you not only hear the name, you see the image of the person, it feels like summarily changing the names of your family to suit strangers, though you know that you just sound twee and pompous to non writers.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2011-03-19 09:41 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, yes. It really hurts asking Lienye to give up part of his name. Translation issues...