I’ve found that I very much enjoy naming characters. I really work at finding fun and creative names (and nicknames). Catherine (Cathers) and Jessa (without the ‘ick’) are just two examples. And even though they start with the same letter, I really like the names you chose, Charlotte and Clarice especially. Elynea is especially nice — looks and sounds entirely elfen! My hint when it comes to characters is to, whenever you come across a name you like, to record it in a file for that purpose on your computer. Eventually, that list will become very useful.
 
Place names is what I really struggle with. It is so hard to come up with the name for a city or town that sounds plausible but doesn’t bring a certain city to mind. In other words, you can’t use Boise, Sacramento, Orlando, Buffalo, etc. for a fictional town. Lately, I’ve been mixing up the words in existing towns to invent place names. That’s what Stonefield, for example, is. I’ve also looked at the names of small towns in one state, and then moved them into another state.
 

That’s all very motivating, I guess I will continue writing.

You should absolutely continue writing!

Sorry it took me a while to respond to your comment, because actually I was quite speechless. I never expected such a positive (and long) comment about this little story.

I tried to make it mysterious by giving some hints about what might have happened to Charlotte. But I didn’t want to solve the mystery, I wanted to leave this to the reader (although I had made up a background story). According to your comment it seems to have worked. I am really happy about the reactions of the readers.

Regarding the names of my characters: I didn’t notice at all when writing that their names all start with the letter C. I just googled for popular female names in the nineteenth century and chose the one I liked. Same with the other names. This seems to be a weak point, I had problems naming my Christmas elf as well. For my next story I have to pay more attention to this. For this story I better leave it as it is because some comments refer to the names already; this would make it confusing.

And thanks for all the awards! One more precious to me than the other!
That’s all very motivating, I guess I will continue writing.

I’m totally in “Gothic Horror Award”!

Helen.

I was wondering what turned the bath water red. Was it just from Clarice’s hand, or was it because of Charlotte? However, it’s not needed to explain, as part of the story’s strong point is that it makes the reader think about what happened in the past, and how Charlotte died.

Forgetting to bring a towel to the bathroom award. Efficient writing award. POV switch done well award. Engaging writing award. Intriguing mystery award.

Hooked6