Smushy Pairing Names - a DIY guide
Sep. 27th, 2010 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird1(a repost from LJ, two years later)
So: you want to write fanfic. And you’re worried that your summary will have too much punctuation. Have no fear! With this quick lesson, you can forget about all the /s, &s, and +s running rampant through your summaries, and instead learn how to craft the perfect smushy name that, with one word, can summarise each relationship in your story.
(For the purposes of this essay, I am using Buffyverse characters. But this technique can easily be used for any fandom, whether it be Harry Potter, Doctor Who, or Sesame Street.)
Step One: identify the most identifiable prefix or suffix among your characters. In our case, this is Spike.
Notice the “Sp”. It’s a prefix that can fit onto almost any word, and it’s instantly identifiable as belonging to Spike.
This is our starting point. From now on, every character in a relationship with Spike will have to take the suffix, because the prefix goes to Spike by default.
There is only one exception to this rule, which I shall mention later.
Step Two: having established the default prefix, we need to find the default suffix. To do this, we find the least identifiable prefix among the characters.
This would be Anya.
“An”, of course, could easily refer to Angel, or to Andrew. When referring to Anya, the “ya” is the most important part.
Of course, the letters needed for the prefix or suffix are not the only letters needed for the pairing name. If they were, then the Spike/Anya relationship would be “Spya”, which is fairly unpronounceable.
In this case, the correct pairing name is “Spinya”, which uses an extra letter from each character.
Note, by the way, that Spinya is made up of the default prefix and suffix, so it’s the perfect pairing name.
Step Three: divide every other character name in half – so that they have a prefix and a suffix.
So Angel becomes “Ang” and “gel”.
Willow is “Wi” and “llow”.
Xander is “X” and “ander”.
Buffy is “B” and “uffy”.
Wesley is “Wes” and “ley”.
and so on…
After each is divided into halves, it’s a simple enough procedure to match a prefix with a suffix, and a suffix with a prefix.
With the default characters (“Sp” and “ya”), it’s easy. Obviously, characters paired with Spike need to use a suffix, and characters paired with Anya need to use a prefix.
So we have Spuffy and Xanya, clearly, and also Spangel, Spimony, Spisilla, Spillow, Willya, and Ganya.
With other character combinations, it’s merely a matter of trying both options, and deciding on the best ones.
Should it be Bander or Xuffy? Cornder or Xandelia? Illyrley or Weslyria? It’s really up to you.
You will find that some choices are easier than others. Killow, for instance, doesn’t sound nearly so workable as Willenedy.
Be wary of names that sound like normal words. They can work, but you’ll still probably want to go with Fresley rather than Wed, Xillow instead of Wander, and Wooth rather than Food. Wiles has interesting connotations, but Gillow might be preferable. And Billow isn’t nearly so good as Wiffy.
You won’t be able to pick all of these by spelling. Non-words can still seem uncomfortably close to real words: like Dangel. It will inevitably remind the reader of “dangle” – you’re much better off going with Angarla.
It gets really interesting when you’re stuck choosing between two normal words. In this case, try for the more exciting word: Concord instead of Cornor.
The occasional normal word can work, though. I think we’re all agreed that Tiles is much better than Gara.
Remember, when you have two characters with the same first initial, the prefix has to be much more specific. Frunn, for instance, has very different implications than Funn. So do Wed and Willed – although, in this case, you’re much better off with Fresley and Frillow.
You’ll find that some characters are much more heavily weighted towards one end of the prefix/suffix scale than the other.
Xander, for instance, almost always ends up using the prefix, as does Buffy (giving us Bangel, Burker, and Butsu – although it should still always be Fuffy rather than Baith).
As I said earlier, there are some exceptions to the default characters. This is because Spuffybot and Olanya just sound ridiculous. Instead, we should go with Botbike and Anlaf – they’re much more sensible.
There is also occasionally a reason to try something completely different. These situations will usually be obvious. After trying Wesginia and Virley without any luck, you’ll suddenly realise that the solution is clearly Wyndham-Bryce, and you’ll wonder why on earth you didn’t think of it sooner…
Let’s take a moment to look at an example from the show.
In AtS, between Offspring and Tomorrow:
Fred points out that Angelia is looking quite likely… that is, until Angarla suddenly pops up again. Because of Angarla’s past excitement, Holtz starts chasing them round Los Angeles, and pretty soon starts training others – leading to the Jultz relationship. Just when Angelia starts getting back on track, Groo returns from Pylea, and Groody picks up where it left off (leaving Angel broody about Groody… but I digress). Meanwhile, there’s a fair bit of competition between Frunn and Fresley. Frunn winning, Wesley delivers Connor into the hands of Jultz, and then goes off for some hot Weslah action. (At one point during the Weslah relationship, by the way, Lilah wears glasses in an attempt to provide some Fresley. This is known as Weslared.)
Eventually, Weslah, Frunn, Groody, and Jultz are all left in tatters, and the whole thing reforms into Fresley, Concord, Gwunn, and Ningel… but that’s another story.
Fanficcers being what they are, we also need to consider the matter of threesomes. It’s actually quite simple: you just pick a smushy name for a couple, and then add the third person in.
So Spuffy becomes Spuffel.
And Bunnedy becomes Bunnewiffedy and then Bunnewiffaithedy.
(Note that Bunnewiffedy is actually a combination of Bunnedy and Wiffy. This sounds much better as a pairing name than the straight Willow-insertion, which would be Bunnewilledy.)
As you can see, this simple technique will make any pairing immediately obvious to the reader. Whether it be canon (Coyle, Tallow, or Joyles), fanon (Larnder or Githan), or really out there (Xara, Dawndrew, Foyle, Cluffy, Benory, or Spinterelle), your summaries will be just that little bit clearer.
And, after all, clarity is what matters.
So: you want to write fanfic. And you’re worried that your summary will have too much punctuation. Have no fear! With this quick lesson, you can forget about all the /s, &s, and +s running rampant through your summaries, and instead learn how to craft the perfect smushy name that, with one word, can summarise each relationship in your story.
(For the purposes of this essay, I am using Buffyverse characters. But this technique can easily be used for any fandom, whether it be Harry Potter, Doctor Who, or Sesame Street.)
Step One: identify the most identifiable prefix or suffix among your characters. In our case, this is Spike.
Notice the “Sp”. It’s a prefix that can fit onto almost any word, and it’s instantly identifiable as belonging to Spike.
This is our starting point. From now on, every character in a relationship with Spike will have to take the suffix, because the prefix goes to Spike by default.
There is only one exception to this rule, which I shall mention later.
Step Two: having established the default prefix, we need to find the default suffix. To do this, we find the least identifiable prefix among the characters.
This would be Anya.
“An”, of course, could easily refer to Angel, or to Andrew. When referring to Anya, the “ya” is the most important part.
Of course, the letters needed for the prefix or suffix are not the only letters needed for the pairing name. If they were, then the Spike/Anya relationship would be “Spya”, which is fairly unpronounceable.
In this case, the correct pairing name is “Spinya”, which uses an extra letter from each character.
Note, by the way, that Spinya is made up of the default prefix and suffix, so it’s the perfect pairing name.
Step Three: divide every other character name in half – so that they have a prefix and a suffix.
So Angel becomes “Ang” and “gel”.
Willow is “Wi” and “llow”.
Xander is “X” and “ander”.
Buffy is “B” and “uffy”.
Wesley is “Wes” and “ley”.
and so on…
After each is divided into halves, it’s a simple enough procedure to match a prefix with a suffix, and a suffix with a prefix.
With the default characters (“Sp” and “ya”), it’s easy. Obviously, characters paired with Spike need to use a suffix, and characters paired with Anya need to use a prefix.
So we have Spuffy and Xanya, clearly, and also Spangel, Spimony, Spisilla, Spillow, Willya, and Ganya.
With other character combinations, it’s merely a matter of trying both options, and deciding on the best ones.
Should it be Bander or Xuffy? Cornder or Xandelia? Illyrley or Weslyria? It’s really up to you.
You will find that some choices are easier than others. Killow, for instance, doesn’t sound nearly so workable as Willenedy.
Be wary of names that sound like normal words. They can work, but you’ll still probably want to go with Fresley rather than Wed, Xillow instead of Wander, and Wooth rather than Food. Wiles has interesting connotations, but Gillow might be preferable. And Billow isn’t nearly so good as Wiffy.
You won’t be able to pick all of these by spelling. Non-words can still seem uncomfortably close to real words: like Dangel. It will inevitably remind the reader of “dangle” – you’re much better off going with Angarla.
It gets really interesting when you’re stuck choosing between two normal words. In this case, try for the more exciting word: Concord instead of Cornor.
The occasional normal word can work, though. I think we’re all agreed that Tiles is much better than Gara.
Remember, when you have two characters with the same first initial, the prefix has to be much more specific. Frunn, for instance, has very different implications than Funn. So do Wed and Willed – although, in this case, you’re much better off with Fresley and Frillow.
You’ll find that some characters are much more heavily weighted towards one end of the prefix/suffix scale than the other.
Xander, for instance, almost always ends up using the prefix, as does Buffy (giving us Bangel, Burker, and Butsu – although it should still always be Fuffy rather than Baith).
As I said earlier, there are some exceptions to the default characters. This is because Spuffybot and Olanya just sound ridiculous. Instead, we should go with Botbike and Anlaf – they’re much more sensible.
There is also occasionally a reason to try something completely different. These situations will usually be obvious. After trying Wesginia and Virley without any luck, you’ll suddenly realise that the solution is clearly Wyndham-Bryce, and you’ll wonder why on earth you didn’t think of it sooner…
Let’s take a moment to look at an example from the show.
In AtS, between Offspring and Tomorrow:
Fred points out that Angelia is looking quite likely… that is, until Angarla suddenly pops up again. Because of Angarla’s past excitement, Holtz starts chasing them round Los Angeles, and pretty soon starts training others – leading to the Jultz relationship. Just when Angelia starts getting back on track, Groo returns from Pylea, and Groody picks up where it left off (leaving Angel broody about Groody… but I digress). Meanwhile, there’s a fair bit of competition between Frunn and Fresley. Frunn winning, Wesley delivers Connor into the hands of Jultz, and then goes off for some hot Weslah action. (At one point during the Weslah relationship, by the way, Lilah wears glasses in an attempt to provide some Fresley. This is known as Weslared.)
Eventually, Weslah, Frunn, Groody, and Jultz are all left in tatters, and the whole thing reforms into Fresley, Concord, Gwunn, and Ningel… but that’s another story.
Fanficcers being what they are, we also need to consider the matter of threesomes. It’s actually quite simple: you just pick a smushy name for a couple, and then add the third person in.
So Spuffy becomes Spuffel.
And Bunnedy becomes Bunnewiffedy and then Bunnewiffaithedy.
(Note that Bunnewiffedy is actually a combination of Bunnedy and Wiffy. This sounds much better as a pairing name than the straight Willow-insertion, which would be Bunnewilledy.)
As you can see, this simple technique will make any pairing immediately obvious to the reader. Whether it be canon (Coyle, Tallow, or Joyles), fanon (Larnder or Githan), or really out there (Xara, Dawndrew, Foyle, Cluffy, Benory, or Spinterelle), your summaries will be just that little bit clearer.
And, after all, clarity is what matters.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 09:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 10:54 pm (UTC)