Naming problems. again

The view of my world is kind of blurry. Kind of like this map.

I was very happy when I finished the first chapter of the book last night. However, a problem that I have been delaying on has now arrived. What do I call the cities, the geography, and even the countries in this place?? I have a couple of initial names that I came up with, but that I was never happy with. After writing a chapter, I'm less happy with them. I cringe every time I write them. 😬

That made tonight a research night. I watched several videos by authors as they discussed their methods for coming with names. I found this video by Tom Hickson to be a bit helpful. The reason it only helped some has more to do with my mental state than what Tom explained. I'm a bit fried at work this week, so I was just too tired to put in the thought needed to follow him. Still, I liked how he focused on what names tell us about the place (physical characteristics about the land), the history of the area, or the people who live, or lived, there. Then he got into detail and my brain couldn't follow it all.

The other video I looked at was less helpful to me. Brandon Sanderson's video on naming places was based a lot on meshing languages and city names that exist on Earth into something else. It's not that I don't think it has merit, I just don't feel like I know enough to pull it off. I also watched one of Brandon's BYU lectures on worldbuilding, but there was only some mentions of things that may help me. (It was a Q&A session.)

I feel a bit stuck. I'll probably use a place holder for some city and village names for the time being. I don't want to stop writing because I got hung on this. At the same time, I need to spend some time figuring this out. If my names are kicking me out of the story, I can only imagine how annoying it will be to readers.

Next week plans

I going back to my school work next week. I'm about 10-15 pages away from completing my master's degree and I want it done so badly. The paper is framed up and ready for me. I just need to put in the time to hammer it out.

We also have family coming into town this weekend, so I know my time is going to be spent with them. I'll probably do some more writing prompts, since time will be in short supply.