Thursday, May 15, 2008
Character Names
I'm reading a book right now by a local author. I recognize a lot of the names of the characters. The main character's love interest has the same first name as the author's wife. Several of the political types have the same last names as political figures in the state. I'm just wondering how writers come up with the names for their characters. Enlighten me! What's the big secret? I know you must have to come up with lots of names for your many books, so how do you pick them out? I know how hard it was just to find names I liked for my children!
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4 comments:
LOL. It depends. Sometimes a name will inspire a character. Sometimes I have to go searching through baby name books to find the right one.
Sometimes I wander through the aisles and use mutated/mixed up author names.
And sometimes I ask DH what the girls in the book he's reading are called. LOL.
Picking out names is not my favorite task.
I know what little I've written it's always a struggle to come up with names. I chose my user name as a combination of my kids' names. Now I really like it, but I can't very well name another child a combination of my 2 other children's names!
And here I thought all this time you writers had some magical tool to pick out names LOL!
Erin, for me it just depends. I might hear the name on TV, or while I'm out, or read it somewhere. Usually my h/h names have been hanging around in my brain for a while.
For secondary books, I have a ratty old name book or I go online and google names, or I've used the phone book or even lists of names for events. I just find the name that fits the character.
Great topic!
Thanks, Jen. I'll have to make note of all these character naming methods.
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