I’ve been working lately on the system for showcasing completed projects and have been wrestling with the whole naming scheme conundrum. Today I made some key choices, and it affects more than just names. I’ve changed the way I think about products too.
I’ve been working on my Norwegian noun cartoons for several months now, and I’ve amassed quite a few of them. 390 at present, and I’ll probably hit 500 before I run out of steam. So far, it’s just been me, sitting in my office, reviewing a few cartoons each day on my own, and maybe adding a few new ones when I trip over another noun I should probably know, but I had always planned to share them. Originally I was thinking in terms of flashcards, but then today I realized that the collection would make a great book.
I’m still fleshing out the details. How many cartoons can you fit in one book before the book becomes too bulky to carry around? Can it be printed cost effectively in color? Is there a non-painful ebook format for static layout books? Should I do a calendar? So many things to look into.
But before I do any of that, the project needs a name. Not just a code name, which I give to all my projects so I can organize my notes and files. No, I think this one wants to know it’s walking around name from the start, because the more I delve into this, the more I realize that there could be a whole series of these books. Depending on the print logistics, I might have to break my 500 cartoons into 2 volumes, but I’ve also got a growing collection of Emotion and Facial Expression cartoons, as well as my verbs, and a few special categories of adjectives too.
Since I work alone, I quickly get tired of talking to myself for these brainstorming sessions, so I’ve taken to externalizing the banter by riffing out loud with one of the generative text AI systems. By explaining my thoughts to “somebody else,” I often shine a light on my own bad thinking before it ever reaches production. And this session was no different.
The first proposal we landed on was “Wordplay,” built on the notion that by playing with words rather than studying them, the experience is more fun. But after sitting with it for a while, I thought it was a bit generic sounding. Maybe good enough for a single book, but not meaty enough for a series.
The next idea was a bit more expansive — Play With Your Words — but I dropped this even faster. Too clunky. But it did help to highlight what the problem was. I was focusing too much on the play aspect itself and not enough on what that play actually accomplishes for you. I’ll do a deeper dive into my theories about the psychology here later, but the important observation was that adding humor makes the words more memorable. Makes them…
Unforgettable.
So that’s going to be the name of this series. Unforgettable Norwegian Nouns, Unforgettable Norwegians Verbs, Unforgettable Norwegian Adjectives, and so on.
And with that much accomplished today, it’s time to swing the lighthouse spotlight to another project for the afternoon.