World of Wreckage [removed] Torth #3

Welcome, Reader!

2023 Update: I've unpublished this book on Wattpad. I may re-publish chapters as I release them on RoyalRoad. If you want to read this book for free, head over to RoyalRoad [user: AbbyBabble]. Advance chapters will be posted on my Patreon at /abbygoldsmith.

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Thank you for sticking with this series for this long. I'm so excited to start Book 4. It feels like a new season. My hope is that you'll find World of Wreckage to be aptly titled.

If you're totally new and have no idea what this is about, the previous books were available on Wattpad and are now being released on RoyalRoad. This series starts with Majority (formerly titled City of Slaves).

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I Changed Two Character Names

When I finally take the plunge and publish this series, you might see a few cosmetic changes. Like, I've renamed Alex.

His name is Ariock, and Margo is now Vy.

Why the name changes? I'll get to Margo = Vy in a moment. First, I'll cover Alex = Ariock.

The dual protagonists of my series are an exaggeration of the classic Brain vs. Brawn archetype. I wanted to contrast these characters in exaggerated ways—including their names. Thomas has a bland, normal name that obscures the alien complexities going on inside his brain, the same way his appearance is misleading. His name sounds soft and innocuous, which is what I want. He is easily underestimated.

Alexander, in contrast, is a big and formidable name, with four syllables and hard consonants. His character is on a path to become a galactic-level Alexander the Great, so that name seemed perfect for him.

Except....

When writing, I couldn't imagine Alexander's mother and friends calling him that big name. It didn't work. He doesn't like attention, so he would insist on using the plain nickname Alex, which, contrary to my purposes, sounds a lot like a soft, feminine name: "Alice." It also ends in a soft SSSsss sound, like Thomas. Both Alex and Thomas are a common length, two syllables, and both sound bland, with short vowels and soft consonants. The contrast is gone.

On top of that disappointment, some beta readers kept mixing up the names "Thomas" and "Alex" due to pop culture associations. Thomas the Tank Engine is big and exuberant, whereas Alexander Graham Bell and Alexander Hamilton give the impression of clever boys. So I wanted to change one of their names for clarity.

Thomas's name fits well, as far as I'm concerned. The name's etymology means "twin," or someone with a dual nature, which is what he struggles with. He's a Gemini. I don't think of cartoony tank engines; I associate his name with Thomas Edison and Thomas Aquinas.

Alex just didn't work. (He's a Taurus, in case you wanted to know.) My goal was to have an exaggerated contrast with the simplicity of "Thomas," so I was looking for 3+ syllables and bold sounds. I really wanted his name to sound strong, with long vowels and hard consonants. Not something totally made-up, either. He should sound like he's from Earth, named by parents who want to fit in with the demographics of their corner of the world.

Brainstorming a new name for Alex took me forever. Names I tested out, but didn't seem quite right for the role, included Sebastian, Baylor, Callahan, Orion, and Alaric.

The name "Arioch" means lion in Hebrew. Arioch met my requirements for long vowels, hard consonants, and 3+ syllables. I figured that a phonetic spelling, with a hard K, could take away the pressure of shortening it to an unbefitting nickname. Plus, I learned that many readers do better with phonetic spellings; when I spelled Margo "Margot," I heard some readers pronounce the T.

Few male names in the English language have three or more syllables. Ariock gets that benefit, plus the hard K ending, which is an added bonus. A hard K is correlated with bad-ass characters. Kal-el, Kratos, Captain Jack, the Rock, Rocky, Jack Reacher, etc.

Now, here's the problem with Margo's name.

"Margo" sounds too much like "Ariock." Both have an "arr" sound. No good. I want her name to contrast nicely with his, because they spend a lot of time together. Also, I was troubled by too many two-syllable names in my main cast. Thomas, Kessa, Cherise, Alex, Margo, blah-blah. It sounded repetitive. When I refitted Alex with the longer name of Ariock, I saw my chance to give her a name that won't outshine his, in terms of length. One syllable was attractive.

I liked the motherly M sound for her, so May was top of my list for a while. Gwen was a good contender, but that put her in the same soft phonetic wheelhouse as other characters she spends time with, so I rejected that, and brainstormed names with bolder sounds.

Vy won out, because that "ai" sound offers a light and happy contrast against the heavier, moody syllables of Ariock's name. Also, Vy works as a nickname for Violet. That ties in with the purple theme of Yeresunsa.

I think it works!

Sorry for changing the names on you this late in the series. You might have noticed a few accidental slip-ups. I was doing find/replace every time I posted, and that was a chore. (I know, I should go back and retroactively change their names in the earlier books. Let me see if I can find a way to do that quickly.)