Oh yeah, this is sometimes a writing blog. Whoops. I guess it’s safe to say I finished my novel, edited it a lot and spent a few guilt-free days not writing before that obsessive compulsion to start telling stories kicked in because I love writing and I’ve just got to do it, so. As of October, I’m back in it. I have an idea I’m cautiously pursuing and as always, after the vaguest details were decided, I got temporarily stuck on names.
I’ve recently read various published authors takes on the character naming process. For some it’s a snap else it prevents you from writing, for others it’s a painstakingly agonising process. I think I’m middling. Names do present a writing roadblock for me until I find the one that belongs to whoever I’m writing about, but on the flipside it never takes me that long to figure them out. With a few exceptions, I generally go to a website of names, scroll through the list and wait until I feel a click. It’s a click system. If I feel the click, that’s the character’s name regardless of my personal feelings about it because I have this weird superstitious tendency to OBEY THE CLICK.
Probably because it’s been so good to me. <3
I like old-fashioned/plain names, too, but ones with a rougher sound than the usual classics, which probably doesn't make any sense so using an example: I would choose Ruth over Mary. And I think a lot of older names are relatively timeless and easily fit in contemporary settings. Also, if this makes sense, I find them less alienating as well. As a reader and a writer I am consistently very alienated and removed from names like Skylar and Blair and so on. Maybe the reason for that is simply a matter of preference but I just thought I'd throw that interesting fact out there.
... And in doing so have probably just alienated any potential Skylars or Blairs reading this blog. Whoops x 2.
Anyone got any thoughts on character names as a reader and/or a writer? It's probably not a very inciting topic. You know what is inciting, though? Thinking up character surnames. Doing that incites me to grab a pen and stab myself in the eye because I hate trying to think them up that much. You’d think that’d be the easy part aka wtfbbq.
In other news, Thanksgiving dinner = best ever.
I think I’m exactly where you are when it comes to character names—in the middle between agonizing over the names so I can’t write and yet still feeling “stuck” a little until the perfect name comes.
For me, the first names usually start as sounds. I’ll know if someone’s name has a soft sound or a hard sound (a Sarah as opposed to a Katie) and then if it’s open (ends with a vowel) or closed. A lot of times I steal people’s names—people I knew a long time ago, or met in passing. A character in a recent story of mine was named after the super of my building (he’s a character in himself).
As for last names, they’re tough. I dig out the huge New York City phonebook and flip through until I find something fitting. So I guess I steal names that way, too.
Someone once told me that he hates reading books with characters who have “weird” names because they don’t sound like real people. As someone with a weird name in real life, I was miffed by it. (What? I’m not real?!) But most of my characters have actual names, certainly not as weird as mine. I guess they feel more real that way, even to me. ;)
That was a long comment, sorry! I hope you find your names soon. I have a feeling you will…
Heh, never apologise for a long comment! Thank you for it. I’ve got names for two major characters now it’s a matter of the rest… ah, fun.
You know, it never occurred to me to comb through a phone book so I am going to steal that idea from you in future but I promise to take a moment of silent appreciation for it. ;)
I love hearing about other people’s processes… that is so neat to me about names starting as sounds/opened or closed. & Rock on with stealing people’s names, for some reason I’ve never felt comfortable doing that–probably because people who have names I really love I’m pretty close to, so I don’t want them to be confused if they suddenly discover they share a name with a protaganist who happens to be a drug addled prostitute or something. Heh.
I was thinking about this more last night since I posted it! Maybe the topic of character names is more uh, inciting than I originally thought. Heh.
The guy who didn’t like weird names–I don’t mind “weird” names at all in fiction (weird, of course being relative). I was thinking back on certain YA novels I’ve read with more sci-fi leanings etcetera and I’ve run across pretty interesting names and they never bothered me. So I was trying to figure out what irked me about names like Skylar and Blair and I think it’s a class thing!! Does that make sense? The names sort of seem uppercrust, snobbish, which is an instant turn off for me and yet I’ve read about evil rich people aka The Great Gatsby and those names were totally innocuous. I don’t know! Now I’m just thinking out loud and MY comment is getting too long, heh.
And I love your name! It’s gorgeous, and not weird–uncommon which = + a million points. Do you have any names you absolutely hattte to read in fiction??
Funny, but when I see a Blair I have an immediate distaste for the character — and I think it is the class thing, exactly how you put it. Perhaps the writers know this… or they should.
I’m trying to think if there are any names that put me off. I think unnecessary spellings of otherwise standard names are annoying in fiction — just looking for a typo. Or where everyone’s name is outlandish (in everyday fiction, not even scifi) and there’s not a Johnny among them, you know? It seems then like the writer is trying too hard.
I hope the phone book works for you… I really do make sure that the first and last name combo I pick isn’t in there. I don’t want to go TOO far with the stealing!
I think Blair is a character name from the Gossip Girl series–go figure!
And I can’t stand unnecessary spellings of standard names either. It’s exactly what you said: a writer trying to hard!!