posted
I've been writing some steampunk/Western work set in a different world with humans and a few other alien races. My problem is I'm not sure how to name a few things like a Stetson hat or a Smith & Wesson revolver. It ain't earth; Stetson, Smith, Wesson, and the like never existed.
Should I just stick with guns, pistols, revolvers, and repeating rifles? Should I just call them cowboy hats?
I don't think the main character would ever grab his "Falworth 45" and then think how "Falworth 45s are the best revolvers outside the rings."
Or if I'm wanting a character to be wearing a sombrero cordobes, do I need to come up with a different name since there is no Cordoba region of Spain in the story?
posted
May I make a radical suggestion and say, why CAN'T there be a Cordoba, Stetson, etc.?
I find steampunk to be a GREAT genre. How bout making the planet in question Earth? You have aliens in your story, yes? Perhaps they came to Earth in the early 1800's, which then progressed our technology faster than normal?
This way, you can write your story just as you'd like, but the familiarity of certain places and names will create an interesting juxtaposition for the reader.
I know this doesn't answer your question as asked. But I thought perhaps it would give you a different slant on things. Either way, I wish you the best of luck!
posted
If you are going to worry about terms like "Stetson" and "Smith & Wesson," you are also going to have to worry about terms like "guns, pistols, revolvers, and repeating rifles." Those would be every bit as alien and out of place on a different world.
Your choice is either to call them by terms as generic as possible (example: "hook and loop fastener" as opposed to "velcro"), or you are going to need to come up with terms that would have been given to them on your different world.
Guns, pistols, revolvers, and repeating rifles would be various terms for something you might call an "explosion projectile weapon" (a possible generic term for them).
Your world will have its own ways of coming up with its own versions of such things, and things like rifling a gun barrel to improve accuracy and using a revolving bullet chamber to improve speed of firing may not even come up in their technology.
So you're either going to have to do a lot more research and creation, or you could just use the "wink-wink, nod-nod" conceit of "yes, it's not Earth, but this is how what they have there would be translated into English, more or less."
The old man tipped his hat back and considered for a moment. Then he said, "You're plumb right. Dubya is a funny name for a gun. Y'see, a few years back they had this fella who made this right fancy gun. He couldn't find a name he liked for it so he just called it the Explosion Projectile Weapon. Must have been from one of them foreign countries whar they talk funny. Anyway, folks back east just started calling it the EPW. And well, they're from back east so folks round here shortened it to Dubya. It's sorta stuck 'round ever since."
;P
Edit: Do you need to worry about the name of the hat? If the image you're creating in the reader's mind is of a weather-beaten loner on a horse with a rifle in it's holster and a rope wound around the horn...wouldn't the reader automatically cliche them into having a cowboy hat without you even mentioning it? From then on you could just call it his hat and you wouldn't need to say it's a cowboy hat.
Just my thoughts ^_^
[This message has been edited by RillSoji (edited August 23, 2009).]
posted
On the other hand, you can invoke a lot of imagery and memories just by using a trade name...if you can establish one in your world, that is.
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CaptJay76, your suggestion is so tempting but it would mean killing some basic rules and plot ideas I have for the sake of convenience.
Ms. Woodbury, I believe you are suggesting that I'm wandering into smeerp country. Although I would use "hook and loop fastener" before I'd ever use velcro in a steampunk story, I do like your "wink-wink, nod-nod" conceit.
RillSoji, I don't worry about the character wearing a derby or a top hat because they are just the names of the garment. When the garment is directly named after its creator, as in a Stetson hat or a Bowie knife, I begin to worry that the direct reference to Earth and reality as we know it might jar a reader from the experience I'm trying to create.
Mr. Nowall, after I posted this thread, I began thinking quite a bit about that very thing. It wouldn't even be that hard to do.
Again, thanks for all the wonderful advice. I get obsessed with names and the naming of things to the detriment of my own writing. You have all been very helpful.
posted
Definitely don't let it be a detriment to your writing! If need be, use the names you are familiar with (Stetson, Bowie) as you are writing. Then during your rewrites you can swap them out with the awesome and totally appropriate NEW names that you come up with.
You can always just use the "find" feature under "Edit" to make those changes.
posted
I don't see why you wouldn't just make up a new brand name. No need to have a character pick up a Jeffries 9mm and then think about how it's the best gun this side of the Cordoban River. Just have him grab his Jeffries 9mm, and make it obvious from what he does with it that it's a gun.
I've used the same effect many times - just create a fictional brand name, and don't bother to explain it. Just have it be as common to the characters as brands are to us. Just as I'd never explain to someone what a Coke is, I'd be perfectly happy having my character grab a can of Jase and enjoy a refreshing swig.
Stephen King was particularly good at this in many of his novels - I'd suggest Running Man if you've got a bit. He even has fictional ad campaigns permeating the story, which really help give the book its own feel. I haven't reread it in years, but I'll never forget the "Rich folks smoke Dokes" ads all over the place.
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If you, say, have a character haul out a Bowie knife, so named, you invoke a picture in the minds of your readers---this massive blade---and also Jim Bowie, his history, his death at the Alamo, any of the books or movies he's been portrayed in. (Maybe down to that "Crocodile Dundee" and the "that's a knife" scene...though I forget whether that was a proper Bowie knife or not.)
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