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The town where I live was expanded from a small market town during the nineteen sixties, spreading out into the surrounding countryside. As the newly developed areas were built on greenfield sites finding street names has been something of a problem - one area has streets named for composers, another for islands and another for Roman emperors! More recent developments however have just stuck with generic suburban names.
My busride home takes me through the latest development, built on the site of a large mental institution. I thought perhaps the local authority would take the opportunity to reflect a little local history in the street names, but no fear, the signs that have started appearing bear names like 'Lavender Copse' and such. To amuse myself as the number nine crawls through the estate I began making up more fitting street names, mostly of very questionable taste, like... well I'll leave most of them to your imagination.
Lately I've been wondering what sort of people would live an area with those street names, whether through choice or circumstance and a title keeps springing to mind... 'Tales from Lobotomy Lane'. The more I think about it, the more ideas come about the residents of the various streets... it's driving me up 'Compulsive Close'.
Incidentally, the area I live in has an authentic, historical name. Built on the margins of an English Civil War battlefield, while its name sounds quite quaint it's actually an archaic way of describing a mass grave.
I'm not sure what that says about the people who live there!
Comments
I frequently start with a title
In fact, three of the stories posted by me over at Fictioneer started from the title or part of the titles. "The Balladeers", "Birdsong" and "Cliff Hangeur - Orangutuan at Large" all started with the title as the first idea. "Cliff..." wasn't even my title, it was Donna Lamb's joke-title. :)
But I like your idea about street names. Where I live most streets have letters or numbers and most of the ones that don't are pretty standard namings. I use to own a house on Venus, though. :)
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
my first time
So far titles have come after I've written at least a part of the story, but in some cases they have influenced the unwritten balance. With four stories on the go at present I'm resisting the urge to wander too far down 'Lobotomy Lane', but I'm jotting down the little pieces that won't go away, who lives at 'Megalomania Mansions', how far it is from 'Delusion Drive (off Grandeur Gardens)'; just how did 'Knowsharp Hedges' get its name and why is 'Agoraphobia Park' always empty? What's more why would anyone want to live in 'Aversion Avenue'? I can see it, a little anyway, as a modern day suburban artists' colony... something like Saffron Park in 'The Man Who Was Thursday'... Saffron Park would be a great name for a character too :)
Sometimes a tittle inspires a storyline for me, Um Title Karen
How to Edit Yourself and Christmas Eve were that way.
Sometimes a placename so sticks in my mind I have to use it even if I don't base the story on it. Poniatowski is one such place. When I stumbled onto Terace Hill, the Victorian Iowa Governors manison, it indirectly led to the whole Eric/Joanie romance in my serial Timeout so place names do have power.
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. Jeese, you make one LITTLE typo and the hoards descend on you.
John in Wauwatosa
Wierd And Wonderful Names
Here in Hong Kong there are a lot of strange names. There is a building called Effectual Centre. What do you say when somebody asks where you work? In Effectual Centre,:-)