MathiasCavanaugh.com

We writers do silly things when we write. Many of these silly things are never intended to make into our final manuscripts but are just done as placeholders so that we can move on and not get bogged down in the foolish quest to make everything perfect from the get go.

We name our characters things like John Q. Knight or an_elf_01. We call our call remote cities that we haven’t yet come up with names for Bumfuck Egypt or just BFE until we come up with something better. In my current work in progress, Under the Darkened Moon, I had the main character shouting “Bazinga!” (ala Dr. Sheldon Cooper) for one of his spells he would cast until I had worked out the language now known as Old Kingdom.

Sometimes I just have to shake my head and ask what I am thinking but these little things help me move on and get the story done. The funny part happens when you forget about these sorts of shenanigans and rediscover them during the editing process. You sit there with your face twisted and wonder what ever compelled you to call that one particular character Farty McFartpants.