Capitalization Problem

[BWFoster78]

I'm having an internal debate, and neither side seems to be making a definitive argument. I hate it when that happens!

When I started writing my novel, I decided to call the process through which a mage comes into his power as Surging. As you can see, I also decided to capitalize it.

I recently got a suggestion that I refer to the source of magic as the Source.

In general, I don't like capitalizing things.

I'm not sure if I should:

1) use Surge and Source
2) use surge and source
3) use Surge and source or even
4) use surge and Source

Thoughts?

[JonSnow]

Be careful with "Source". Robert Jordan used "True Source" as what magic was "channeled" from...it might be a little too close. I think surge is fine, but I wouldn't capitalize it.

[Ankari]

Option 4.

Be careful with "Source." I know that Robert Jordan doesn't own the name, but he has such an association with it from his WoT series.

[Ireth]

I like the look of the capitalized Surge and Source; it sets them off immediately as important-looking. In one of my RPs involving mages, the point at which a latent mage's powers first appear is called the Awakening. The capitalization works to similar effect. You can see variants of it elsewhere with regard to big, important events -- the Downfall (of Numenor), the Council (of Elrond), etc.

[JonSnow]

I like the look of the capitalized Surge and Source; it sets them off immediately as important-looking. In one of my RPs involving mages, the point at which a latent mage's powers first appear is called the Awakening. The capitalization works to similar effect. You can see variants of it elsewhere with regard to big, important events -- the Downfall (of Numenor), the Council (of Elrond), etc.

I totally agree with capitalizing important events or things... For instance, in my own WIP, I capitalize "The Heaving", which was a catastrophic event thousands of years in the past (caused by two warring factions of mages, incidentally), whenever someone refers to it. I would agree that IF you use Source, you should capitalize it. "Surge" still looks funny to me capitalized... maybe because it is an action, not a thing. You wouldn't capitalize Run or Speak or Walk. Maybe if you referred to it as "The Surge" when the magic flows through him (or whatever), then you could capitalize Surge. But again, the Surge becomes a "thing", and not an "action" in that case.

Again, I'll use Robert Jordan as an example. He capitalized "True Source", but didn't capitalize "channeling", which would be the equivalent to your "surge" or a more generic "casting". You wouldn't see a wizard "Casting" a spell. You would see a wizard "casting" a spell.

[Christopher Wright]

Stylistically you can get away with capitalizing both. However, from a pure grammatical perspective, I would not capitalize "surging." It's a word used to describe a process, similar to the way you'd use "gestation" or "hatching" or "puberty." There aren't many stories where I see "and then he hit Puberty."

To justify the proper nouning of it, I'd want to add something culturally significant to the process. Add a ritual or test or something that other wizards perform in order to contain/assess/otherwise bring in the new wizard. When you add a social formality to the thing it becomes more specific and the proper noun makes more sense.

To me. But this is likely to be a purely subjective thing. Honestly, it'll work either way.

"Source" is obviously a proper noun, so you're good there. Though I agree with the others--the first thing I thought of was Robert Jordan. But that's a separate issue.

[BWFoster78]

Argh. I'm not sure if all this discussion helped or hurt.

Good point about not emphasizing source. I kind of have to use "the magical source" or "the source of magic" as I think "the place where magic comes from" is kind of stupid.

However, capitalizing Source makes it stand out more instead of being a generic representation of the way they refer to that which provides their power. I think I elect to not capitalize it.

Which brings me back to surge.

I think I capitalized it in the first place to emphasize its importance. Otherwise, the usage can get lost in the text. Writing: After you Surge, you'll be a mage" makes the process stand out and, I think, makes it less confusing.

I still don't think that I have a definitive argument on the subject yet. Any other thoughts?

[T.Allen.Smith]

To use an example from a commercially successful series:

In Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy he says that Allomancers snap to get their powers.

I snapped, she snapped, stressful situations cause you to snap, etc.

He only briefly mentions what snapping really is and it works fine. There is no special capitalization needed because the dialogue & narrative let the reader know that something special happens when someone snaps.... We know it's not literal.

As far as using the word source, you can capitalize it if you want to draw emphasis to it as something revered. That wouldn't bother me as a reader at all. However, I also recommend leaning away from the word source itself. Unless you're really wanting the alliteration between surge & source maybe another word would suffice.

Maybe Origin? Kind of has a mystical feel to it, still means basically the same thing....

[Addison]

For some reason the show Charmed just popped into my head.
Anyway, your Surge (or surge) sounds like a stage of puberty for magic kids. As puberty isn't capitalized beyond the beginning of a sentence I don't believe it should apply to surge. Source is different. It could depend on the magic itself. Is it religious? Is this center of magic a living being or god? If so then it should be capitalized. If the Source, or source, of magic is piddly and something internal or such then it should be lower caps.

[ShortHair]

The general rule for capitalizing nouns is to do it if the thing in question is unique. We capitalize Philadelphia because there is only one. Even though there are Philadelphias in New York and Mississippi, they're not the same Philadelphia.

If you don't capitalize these words, readers won't know whether they're unique and thus important. The magic could come from more than one source. The anointing of various types of mages could involve more than one type of surging. Only you can determine those facts.