NaNo Preparations

It's almost November, which means that NaNoWriMo is almost here. I have a ton of things to clear out before I can start writing, and first of them was my characters' names. I know you guys have already heard of Nia and Nesa but they changed names just now. I went through Indian naming tradition in Behind the Name (an awesome site about names, their meanings and history from all over the world) and this is what I emerged with.

Nia became Kalie. The title of the first novel, A Girl of Dark and Dust, refers to her  - she isn't all light and fun things. There's a lot of darkness in her, and so she was renamed after the Hindu goddess of destruction, Kali.

Nesa became Vena. Vena means "yearning" in Sanskrit and that is what she's made of. She wants to do the right thing, do what she has been told to, make everything all right. It's the most important thing in her life.

I'm very happy with Kalie and Vena. They sound right and have a meaning. They're not too alike, as the original names were. Unfortunately that's only one thing off my list of things that need figuring out...

My absolutely biggest problem at the moment is that I don't have a main conflict. I know what happens with and to and between the characters and I've said their world needs saving. From what? I do not know. How is it saved? Not sure the sword ritual is going to do it. Maybe. Maybe not. The sword ritual is performed according to an ancient prophecy (something I came up with today) and is pretty religious. So it's not a said thing that the religious ritual will do any good... to whatever it is that needs good done to it.

Maybe it could be environmental? It could also envolve gods (often come with religion but I'm not sure I want gods as characters). We'll see how it turns out. I still have several days before I have to start writing.