30 days of writing - Day Three
How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
I like names, names are fun. They are hard but fun. Sometimes I choose names that have a meaning, something that says something important about the character and sometimes I just pick one that feels right. One that when I look at the character in my minds eye they just feel like a Sarah or a Marie or a Celia. Sometimes I ask for help. Argyle for example got his name thanks to my tweethearts, I think it was Amara that gave me his name and it just fit.
I'm a roleplayer so I've been making up names long before I got any of my stories onto the proverbial paper and I've been making them for my friends too. Sometimes I recycle names, I have at least two characters named Kahri for example, and a few named Zora.
Sometimes names morph on me, like how Chrysopoeia was supposed to just be the name of the 'verse and it ended up changing into the name of the city the stories take place in. And when it established itself as a city it all made sense. My mind is strange, especially when it comes to names.
When a name has attached itself to a character it doesn't matter if I want to change it. It's stuck and there is no way to get rid of it.I'll try to try out other names just to be bounced back like I'm on a bungee cord.
Speaking of names, and just to bring a bit of fanfiction into this day too, how people use characters names in fanfiction is extemely important to me. If Eliot suddenly calls Hardison Alec there better be a damn good reason for it, if not I hit the backspace faster than you can say Out of Character.
Names matter, even if you haven't made them up yourself.
I like names, names are fun. They are hard but fun. Sometimes I choose names that have a meaning, something that says something important about the character and sometimes I just pick one that feels right. One that when I look at the character in my minds eye they just feel like a Sarah or a Marie or a Celia. Sometimes I ask for help. Argyle for example got his name thanks to my tweethearts, I think it was Amara that gave me his name and it just fit.
I'm a roleplayer so I've been making up names long before I got any of my stories onto the proverbial paper and I've been making them for my friends too. Sometimes I recycle names, I have at least two characters named Kahri for example, and a few named Zora.
Sometimes names morph on me, like how Chrysopoeia was supposed to just be the name of the 'verse and it ended up changing into the name of the city the stories take place in. And when it established itself as a city it all made sense. My mind is strange, especially when it comes to names.
When a name has attached itself to a character it doesn't matter if I want to change it. It's stuck and there is no way to get rid of it.I'll try to try out other names just to be bounced back like I'm on a bungee cord.
Speaking of names, and just to bring a bit of fanfiction into this day too, how people use characters names in fanfiction is extemely important to me. If Eliot suddenly calls Hardison Alec there better be a damn good reason for it, if not I hit the backspace faster than you can say Out of Character.
Names matter, even if you haven't made them up yourself.