In my current WIP - I have a character that has gone through four or five names already. I am struggling to find a name that fits him and fits in with the rest of the characters and the story. Sigh. It is proving to be difficult.
So for now I am calling him - 'The Character Formally Known as Kade' - until I find a more suitable name. It usually is not this hard for me to pick out name for characters. Every time I think I have found the name - I start using it and then fall out of love with it. And then I am back to square one.
How do you pick names for difficult-to-label characters?
That's a tough one. I don't usually change the names of my characters. I pick one I like and I stick with it.
ReplyDeleteYou could try searching for a name on a baby names website, by meaning and see if that helps. Or start with a letter of the alphabet and scroll through some of the baby names starting with that letter.
That sounds like a great idea! I had searched by letter before but not by meaning that could open up some really cool possibilities. Will try it.
DeleteTry getting a random name picker. You can google it. It's helpful, because it keeps coming up with different combinations until you find one you like. I had a character once (in The Fourth Wish) who started out as Melanie, and then I tried to change it to something more current at the time, "Jessica". Well, Melanie refused to become Jessica. So she stayed Melanie. You might write a letter to your character along the lines of "Who are you, really? What do you want me to call you? I know that can sound weird to non-writers, but writers do things like that. :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL - Yes us writers be crazy people. Thanks for the suggestion. Finding some really funny random name generators online :)
DeleteSometimes I just leave a blank space or brackets until I figure it out. ;) For most of the initial draft of my current WIP, one of my key secondary characters was known as "shipment dude" until his name finally came to me.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to know that I am not alone in this struggle.
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