Let say you want to steal a mare named Chinet from where she lives in the Cornfield. Since stealing from a kingdom and a herd are pretty much identical when it comes to writing the steal and using clues, let’s say that you’re stealing her from Hedley, who is her king/herd stallion.
When writing a “meaning steal,” your first step is determining what exactly the names mean. Ask yourself: What does Chinet mean? Is it a person, a place, or a thing? In this case, Chinet is a company that manufactures disposable tablewear, most notably plates, cups, and napkins.
Here’s an example of a good clue to Chinet:
I’m setting the table for my dinner with Huhtamäki and Martin Keyes in Kansas. I hate doing dishes, so I’m glad all these cups are disposable.
See how I didn’t say the word Chinet, but did refer to the fact that the Company makes disposable cups? Martin Keyes and Huhtamaki are also not just a random name – Keyes was the man who patented the original Chinet paper plate making machine and Huhtamaki is the current owner of the Chinet brand, the headquarters of which is located in De Soto Kansas. In two sentences I gave four clues to the name Chinet.
If the character you are going to steal has a name used in a work of art (movie, book, song, play, etc) you need to name the work of art itself or some other highly relevant clue to the work or the clue will almost definitely be judged as too vague. For example, say you were trying to steal a horse named Slytherin. The colors of house Slytherin in the Harry Potter series are silver and green, but simply using the words “silver” and “green” in your steal will be too vague. Many things are silver and green, like my fingernails as I type this. Below are some good clues for Slytherin.
Harry Potter’s favorite colors aren’t what you expect. Rather than red and gold, I like silver and green
Salazar wore a lovely green hat, and I wore a silver toupe.
NOT good clues for Slytherin:
I like the color of grass. I like the mineral that is the opposite of gold.
Bottom color of a stop light. Sliver with an inverse LI.
Scattering clues to smaller sections of a longer name is fine, as long as it is clear that/how those sections fit together. They might be all in one place or you might use numbers/letters to signify they belong together.
If the character you are stealing/staling from has a name with no definition/meaning, but it similar (we're talking a single letter difference, nothing crazy) to another name and you use clues for that other name, you must also include the difference between the name you are clueing to and the actual name of the horse. For example, the character name Fennick doesn't have a meaning itself (but does have several other clue options beside the explicit definition of the word, and those will almost always be considered stronger clues than this method), but comes from the word fenwick, meaning dairy by a marsh. So if you had clues pertaining to a dairy by a marsh, you would also need to include how Fenwick is different than Fennick, whether that's including "replace the W with and N" or "A modernization of the old word" or something along those lines.
New things will probably be added to this as we go. If you have any questions about steals, feel free to post them in response to this thread. WE will add your question and an answer to it to this post, and then delete your original post to avoid too much cluttering of the thread.
When writing a “meaning steal,” your first step is determining what exactly the names mean. Ask yourself: What does Chinet mean? Is it a person, a place, or a thing? In this case, Chinet is a company that manufactures disposable tablewear, most notably plates, cups, and napkins.
Here’s an example of a good clue to Chinet:
I’m setting the table for my dinner with Huhtamäki and Martin Keyes in Kansas. I hate doing dishes, so I’m glad all these cups are disposable.
See how I didn’t say the word Chinet, but did refer to the fact that the Company makes disposable cups? Martin Keyes and Huhtamaki are also not just a random name – Keyes was the man who patented the original Chinet paper plate making machine and Huhtamaki is the current owner of the Chinet brand, the headquarters of which is located in De Soto Kansas. In two sentences I gave four clues to the name Chinet.
If the character you are going to steal has a name used in a work of art (movie, book, song, play, etc) you need to name the work of art itself or some other highly relevant clue to the work or the clue will almost definitely be judged as too vague. For example, say you were trying to steal a horse named Slytherin. The colors of house Slytherin in the Harry Potter series are silver and green, but simply using the words “silver” and “green” in your steal will be too vague. Many things are silver and green, like my fingernails as I type this. Below are some good clues for Slytherin.
Harry Potter’s favorite colors aren’t what you expect. Rather than red and gold, I like silver and green
Salazar wore a lovely green hat, and I wore a silver toupe.
NOT good clues for Slytherin:
I like the color of grass. I like the mineral that is the opposite of gold.
Bottom color of a stop light. Sliver with an inverse LI.
Scattering clues to smaller sections of a longer name is fine, as long as it is clear that/how those sections fit together. They might be all in one place or you might use numbers/letters to signify they belong together.
If the character you are stealing/staling from has a name with no definition/meaning, but it similar (we're talking a single letter difference, nothing crazy) to another name and you use clues for that other name, you must also include the difference between the name you are clueing to and the actual name of the horse. For example, the character name Fennick doesn't have a meaning itself (but does have several other clue options beside the explicit definition of the word, and those will almost always be considered stronger clues than this method), but comes from the word fenwick, meaning dairy by a marsh. So if you had clues pertaining to a dairy by a marsh, you would also need to include how Fenwick is different than Fennick, whether that's including "replace the W with and N" or "A modernization of the old word" or something along those lines.
New things will probably be added to this as we go. If you have any questions about steals, feel free to post them in response to this thread. WE will add your question and an answer to it to this post, and then delete your original post to avoid too much cluttering of the thread.