--
It’s a celebration!!!!!
You made it! Thirty-one days in a row of writing at least fifteen minutes a day!
::dances with abandon, horrifying everyone in the room and embarrassing the dogs::
Wait.
Why aren’t you dancing? Why are you looking at me like that? I know that I dance like Dorkasaurus Rex, but I have fun while I’m doing it, so it’s all good. ::resumes ghastly dance moves::
::stops dancing::
You mean you
didn’t write for fifteen minutes every day during the month of August?
::Kool and The Gang stop playing and stare. A waiter drops of tray full of champagne glasses::
So?
I’m not going to scold you, silly. (You’re already doing a good job of that.) Besides, scolding has never turned anyone’s mood from anxious to creative. Listen up. You tried. That’s all any of us can do. I bet that if you’ve been (more or less) following these blog posts this month, that you’ve written more than usual, and you’ve thought about writing more than usual. And I bet that there are few of you (Carrie?) who managed to write every single day, or something close to that goal.
WFMAD is the time for us to come together and commiserate about the missteps we make with time management. When the self-flaggellation ends, I hope we can get down to the business at hand; restoring creativity to our lives, in whatever form feels right and good.
I’m not going to give you advice today. Or a quote. Or a prompt.
OK, I lied. I’ll give a little advice.
Life is short, my friends. Way too short. There’s not nearly enough time to love as much as we want and laugh and watch the stars and hold babies and eat good food and hang out with friends and express the creativity that God put in our hearts. So get to it.
If you want to write, make the time to do it. It’s as easy and as hard as that. When you’re done writing, I hope you’ll come back and dance with me. And with these two guys…
I get emails a lot asking me where I come up with the names for my characters. Is there a specific formula or a particular way to do it? Absolutely not! LOL! Most of the time, I come up with my character names in the most peculiar ways. You want to make sure that your characters' names fit their role in the story...as well as fitting the overall theme of the story.
Here are some tips for naming characters:
1. Choose something that mirror's your character's personality. If your character is a science geek (like Celia Nichols in GHOST HUNTRESS), give them a name that fits their interests. My first manuscript was about a naive twenty-something working her first job in the tech industry, traveling to tradeshows, and unfortunately giving away a company trade secret. Her name was Vanessa Virtue. It was perfect for her. Could you imagine Thor with any other name? If he was Irving, it just wouldn't work.
2. The character's name should be pronouncable and easy for the reader to understand. Think of how the name sounds if you say it out loud. Is there a harmony or a ring to it? Avoid names that no one knows how to say. I respect all of the urban fantasy out there these days, but some of the names are just...unrecognizable. Being creative with a name is great, but not if you reader has no clue how to say it in their head.
3. Make sure the character's name fits the time period. You wouldn't want to write a contemporary YA and name the heroine...Ethel. (My grandma was Ethel...so apologies if I offend anyone.) If you're writing steampunk or historical YA, make sure to use names from the time period. I don't think anyone back then would be named Brittney. LOL!
4. Use the names of people you know...friends, family, colleagues. When I first sold my SORORITY 101 series, all of the guys at my sales office wanted to be in the book. So I put them in as random fraternity guys, teachers, and fellow students. I carried this tradition on with my GHOST HUNTRESS books. The character of Rebecca is one of my best friends (see below.) She's not a goth chick at all, so she loves reading her "alter ego." Be careful with this technique as you don't want to make anyone look bad or make the character reflect something you can get sued over. Always get the person's permission to use their name. Funny enough, the name Kendall Moorehead, the heroine of the GHOST HUNTRESS series came from an offensive lineman that played for the University of Alabama when I was in school. I always loved the name and wanted to use it. So I did.
5. Obituaries are a great place to find unique and personality-filled names. Now, before you throw rotten tomatoes at me, a LOT of authors do this. It's a tribute to the person in that their name carries on and, you can read a lot of about who they were in their obituary, and pay tribute to their life.
6. There are numerous online sources you can use for naming characters. If you're writing about someone that was born in a particular year, why not visit the Social Security website that ranks the popular names by year. Or, you can use any "name your baby" website. There are also name generator websites you can use, as well. Use a surname generator for your family's history
Okay peeps...I'm in the blood fever of working on GHOST HUNTRESS: THE DISCOVERY and am on dealine to get it done. So, I don't have much time to post. But here I am 'cause that's how dedicated I am!
I invite anyone--Buzz girls and fans alike--to take all the time they'd like for whatever shameless plug they've got going on in their lives.
Do you have a book coming out? Something cool you're doing this summer? An interesting vacations? Things related to your day job? Spill it here in your "shameless plug" opportunity!
Let us hear what you've got going on!
Hugs
Marley = )
Wow! Thank you! I always have trouble naming characters! Thanks!
-Meredith
I am forever writing down names in my notebooks--my favorites being slightly unusual but, like you said, pronounceable. In my book, THE ABC'S OF KISSING BOYS, the "mean girl" is called Chrissandra. I have no idea if that's a common name or if the mother of the woman I met made it up, but once I heard it, I knew I was going to use it!