As the properly* named(and alliterative) thread title suggests, I want to discuss anything related to fiction writing. Whether you have a tip or useful link for would-be writers, or just some opinions on writing style and character naming practices, come in here and talk about it!
I’ll start the thread with a question, but I don’t merely want this question to be discussed.
How do you name your characters?
Thank you and commence!
~S.P.I.~
*This is a passive-aggressive jab at people who give vague names to their threads.
Okay I’ll admit it up front, I’m not a writer. But I’m butting in to recommend a book on by writing by Anne Lamott called Bird by Bird. Full of funny writing tips, and written before the wonderful Lamott started writing about religion so much. This is a Must Read book, seriously.
I love to use names that are totally old fashioned and out of place. I say if it was common in 1890 then it should be used in a book today.
The best tip to remember writing isn’t about writing, it’s about RE-writing. I like to get a microphone and start telling the story as you talk it out. Then type that up verbatium and then you can start to see what works and what doesn’t. Then re-write it again.
The second tip I found was never insult your readers. It’s hard somewhat, 'cause I’ve done it too, and sometimes people don’t get what you’re going for. But that is the key of knowing who your audience is. If they aren’t getting your writing, you need to change focus or re-write it.
Finally save your bad ideas, if you get enough of them you may be able to connect these bad ideas into a workable scirpt. You know there is such a thing as so bad, it’s good.
I name characters in many different ways. I go through lists of names to see if something looks good. I make up names from sounds I like, or by using anagrams or mashups. If I make a typo in a name, I keep it (assuming it’s pronounceable).
For example, in my current novel, I have two bad guys Ceyon and Ghist. The names originally derived from “O.C.” and “Stiggs” (older National Lampoon readers might get the reference0. “O.C.” became Ceyo; I added the "n’ just for the hell of it. “Ghist” is sort of “Stiggs” spelled backwards and sideways.
As for how to right, Kipling had it right: “There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays and every single one of them is right!” Everyone does it differently. I got into a discussion with another writer who, when I mentioned I didn’t outline, said to me, “Oh, Chuck, you need to.” Just for the hell of it, I tried it. It didn’t work at all. Finally, tried of getting nothing done, I wrote down an intriguing opening sentence and ran with it. It was my best story in awhile. Right now, I’m writing a novel and have no idea where it is going, but I have confidence I’ll get there.
Don’t worry about style. Write in whatever way you feel comfortable. For me, that’s a lot of dialog and only a bare minimum of description. That may not be what works for you.
The best book on writing is Dwight V. Swain’s classic Techniques of the Selling Writer.. No one has ever done a better job of Swain in breaking down what makes a story work. The book is over 40 years old, but still as valuable today as it was when it was first published.
Second choice is Barry B. Longyear’s Science Fiction Writers Workshop I: An Introduction to Fiction Mechanics. Longyear wrote this when he first broke in – he was a big success very quickly – and when he still could remember how he learned his craft. I’m delighted it’s back in print (and, no, there isn’t a sequel).
Addendum: Just noticed it was published by iUniverse. They are usually scum, but if this is what Barry has to do to keep the thing in print, I’ll ignore that for now.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to alienate any would-be posters. Any suggestions are welcome, regardless of your writing status. I should have made that clear…I suck.
Dan Simmons has a Writing Forum on his message board – here. I’m not a writer but I’ve read some of the discussions, and it looks like something that might be helpful.
Stephen King’s On Writing has been cited by several writers as having useful advice, and it’s a fun read besides.
My only advice: Avoid dialogue tags, especially if they include adverbs. There’s nothing wrong with " . . . , he said". The best writers don’t even need that much – the characters are so well drawn, you recognize who’s talking and their tone.
Oh, that made me think of another question. Who is writing for fun(hobby), and who is writing to be published?
RealityChuck - Yes I work better just writing down the bones. I find it helps for me (and I can’t believe I just realized this) to write the most “mundane” scene first. The scene that, no matter what, has to happen (because even though I don’t necessarily plan, before I put pen to paper I am inspired with a pebble or two of an idea.). Of course, since I am such a brilliant* writer even my mundane scenes are interesting.
There is a book that I would like to recommend called Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. I am not sure how to make words a link, so forgive me for not doing so. I am a member of a poetry group, and we refer to that book a lot for small writing tips.
Markxxx - You sound just like me! I like unconventional names, especially telegraph. Sometimes names will just come to me that turn out to be actual names. Olivian, for example. Does that happen to you, too?
*Half-sarcasm, half-arrogance, in a conveniently sized word.
~S.P.I.~
ETA:
I completely agree. Your mind skips over the “He said, She Said” part, but only if you aren’t adding unnecessary words like, “She ejaculated the phrase”. Like seriously, no one needs to be ejaculating anything…
That jives with the no outlining approach. If you don’t know where you’re going beforehand, how could you skip ahead in the story?
I’ve always wondered how a person could write a novel length fiction without outlining some of the basic concepts of the story beforehand. I imagine there’s a lot more rewriting involved as a writer would probably have to go back and match up the earliest written stuff to the newest idea. One cool idea could disconnect the future of the story from everything written before.
I write to be published. Although most of my books are non-fiction, I have one novel published and am working on the second.
I find I have to see my characters and they often name themselves. I collect pictures from magazines. Anyone who is looking at me and causes me to react. So the skinny pretty models who all look the same are of no use.
I have a stack of these images in a folder. I am careful never to read the article about a picture I like, so I have no idea who the person in the picture really is. No-one sees them except me, so it doesn’t matter.
For the current novel, I had a reasonable idea of the sort of people I needed because I had a basic outline of the plot. I don’t develop the plot details until I know my characters very well. I grabbed the images which attracted me and stuck them in an exercise book, covered them with clear plastic and started to get to know them. I listened to names on TV, in conversations - anywhere. Over a few weeks, the characters got their names and roles. I carry the exercise book with me everywhere. I can scribble notes, or scenes or character profiles whenever they strike me.
I know this sounds a strange way to do it, but otherwise I would fill my novel with too narrow a range of characters. Now, I just have to look at the image and the character will talk to me. Currently, there are still a few faces in there who have no part in the plot. They may never be anything but background, or they may suddenly take action and liven things up. I won’t know until it’s written. Others have taken a central role, yet I had no idea of the importance of that role when I made the initial plans.
I believe that characters are worth a lot of work before you get writing. I also plot fairly thoroughly.
I write to sell. The name of a character for me, at least, will depend on what type of fiction I am writing. Nero and Sherlock work fine with classical mysteries, not with hard-boilded. Heathcliff works fine with Romance not with a Western. Yes, you can break molds, but remember your readers (and your publisher - or your publisher’s reader) will need to identify with the character or at least get past the name if it doesn’t fit with the type of fiction you are writing.
One of the first things I learned when I sold my first short story to a science fiction magazine years ago (no longer in existence), was that one needs to be careful when naming villains. One of the things the publisher personally contacted me about was changing the name of the villain I had in the story. I had named him Brian Johnson (or something equally nondiscript) and I was told that basically there were two reason that would not fly. In the first place, it needed a harder edge (I was going to argue subtlety) and second he said, if the story were successful, he said there are thousands of Brian Johnson and some, if not many who will match up physically, sartroially and emotionally with the bad guy. Some of those will like to sue people. He said his magazine didn’t like to be sued because some tall blond guy with a lisp named Brian Johnson took offense because some tall blond guy with a lisp named Brian Johnson in my story brutally slaughtered 94 people (he said his magazine would no doubt win the lawsuit, but why invite it?). If I wanted to make it as a writer with his magazine he told me, I should get in the habit of finding people (especially villains) with unusual names.
Decades later, I still follow that advice and I am still selling stories.
Thirded. If you must, use “exclaimed,” “replied,” “shouted,” “screamed” etc. very, very, very sparingly. “Said” is going to be the best word 99% of the time. For that matter, don’t be afraid just to have dialogue in blocks, back and forth between two people, without having to use “Bob said”/“Susan said” over and over. As long as it’s clear who’s talking, it’ll flow better.
Use adverbs and adjectives sparingly, too. One or two here or there can be illuminating; too many is the mark of an amateurish writer, IMHO.
I keep programs from concerts and plays I’ve been to, and use the acknowledgements/donor lists as a source of names. Ditto my college and law school alumni magazines. Also, if I read an article about politics in Thailand, for instance, I might clip it as a source of Thai names, if I ever need them. Just make sure to mix up first and last names (consistent with cultural norms) so that the proprietor of the Thai restaurant in your story doesn’t share a name with, say, a notoriously corrupt deputy prime minister.
If you haven’t yet found the perfect name for a character and are writing on a computer, use a nonsense word or phrase (I’ll sometimes use three letters in a row like “AAA” or “ZZZ”) as a placeholder, then use the find-and-replace function later to swap out “AAA” for “Sherlock Holmes” or whatever.
Any story idea I get, I write it down, even if it’s just a fragment. The same with a good turn of phrase or an image that particularly strikes me. Stick 'em in a file and come back to 'em later; you’ll be surprised where they lead you.
Use spellcheck.
Unless you’re on a tight deadline, put whatever you wrote in a drawer and come back to it after doing - or better yet, writing - something else. Sleep on it, at the very least. It’ll give you a better perspective on it, and maybe an even better idea will come bubbling up out of your subconscious.
Don’t be afraid to edit your work, and if you have a friend who doesn’t mind reading it and rigorously taking a red pen to it, so much the better. Don’t be so proud of what you’ve written that you can’t take sincere, well-intended constructive criticism.
Write, write, write. Then write some more. If you have any talent, it will only improve with practice. And if you have no talent, sooner or later this will (hopefully) dawn on you, but in the meantime you’ll have had some fun and perhaps, at least, have pleased yourself.
Now, in regards to that sentence…I am pretty fortunate in that I remember all that has been written, so I don’t have to stop and go, “Wait, his name was MARVIN five pages ago…Now he is Arthur Dent? What?”. Also, If I write something seemingly innocuous earlier in the story, it somehow comes back later in the story as important. This is independent of any planning on my part. I make it work.
@All: LE WHAT? Published novels and short stories? The only thing I have ever had published was a poem…
Well, I’ve only ever finished one novel in my ten-year writing career, so I suppose it is to be expected. (I wasn’t writing that one novel for ten-years, mind. That one was started and finished during NaNoWriMo. Great contest, helps me focus on writing down the ideas and not focusing on editing every second word.)
lynne-42, that is an interesting way to name/develop characters. I might try it sometime.
Hobby writer here. Naming varies with me, depending on the setting - I love older names, but I prefer more common names when I’m putting the story in a high school. It also has to pass a test - “Would this name get the character beaten up on the playground? Is there a suitable nickname?” If it can pass the playground bully, the name is worthy.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America site has a very good collection of articles on writing. Some of the articles are specific to science fiction and fantasy (like Poul Anderson’s classic “On Thud and Blunder”), but most would be relevant to any fiction writer.
“Read, read, read. Read everything–trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” William Faulkner, the master.
It’s an excellent selection (and I’m not saying that just because I have three articles in it :)). The Turkey City Lexicon is a must for anyone trying to write fantasy/SF. And Roger Macbride Allen’s “How to Submit a Manscript” is required reading.
For more than twenty years I have been writing short, periodical fiction with the same large recurring cast of characters who reside in the small town of Potter’s Point, MA. (“The Report From Potter’s Point” appeared weekly in three newspapers from 1984 to 1987. After a long break, the reports have run monthly since December 2001 in a local magazine published by my wife and I.)
I love creating character and place names. Bud Clinkerbilt and Herb Lapstrake are boat builders–clinkerbuilt and lapstreak are boatbuilding terms. Aggie Bristol, who works at Town Hall,is a reversal of the name of the local agricultural high school Bristol Aggie. And Haddie Finnan, a fiestly old dame, is a reversal of finnan haddie, smoked haddock. The local self righteous busybody, church choir organist and president of the horticultural league is Prudence Worthy. William-Bradford “Brad” Bradford (D, Potter’s Point) was the state representative until recently. My username Vern Winterbottom is an old fella from VFW Hall, as are Pop Stokes, Roy Hathaway and Virgil Boggs.
Most of these characters have aged in real time since 1984, although I lopped 10 years off of most of the older folks when I restarted the serial in 2001.
I keep a biographical guide of all of the Potter’s Point characters that includes their street addresses, their relationships to others–Prudence Worthy and Mae Clinkerbilt are both daughters of Haddie Finnan–and any other notes I need to keep track of.
Two of the characters are somewhat autobiographical. The first, created in 1984, is ten years younger than I am and was my “high school self.” Since he has aged naturally, he’s now my “married” self and now a much more recently created character relives some of my high school and college days.
Although I’ve had some very, very long story arcs, many of the stories are short humorous episodes, often with some basis in actual events, past or present. I often start an installment with a particular premise–Dorlene Spratt getting arrested for stealing Ho Hos from the Town Hall vending machine–without knowing precisely how that story will play out. The characters lead me along as the plot develops and, in most cases, play out the story for me as I watch and record it.
My advice to someone who wants to write is this: write. And read and listen, but mostly write. The Report From Potters Point began when I wrote five sample columns and showed them to the editors of some local weekly newspapers. They agreed to start running them and now I simply cannot stop writing about these people.
I have never earned my living solely from writing. But I’ve had an audience of thousands of regular readers for years.
Not really. I’ve written dozens of novels and novellas, and I’ve never outlined a single one. I can also count on one hand the number of times I’ve needed to go back and rewrite anything substantially. And only one of those times was the result of something completely surprising happened that made the former events problematic.
That’s not to say that cool/surprising things don’t happen when I’m writing. For me, that’s the perk of avoiding outlines. Every event is a surprise. Every action is a revelation. I write because I want to know how it all ends and what happens to the people who are coming to life right before my eyes.
Don’t think of it as a matter of piecing together a series of events. It’s more like excavating a building. I’m discovering it.
I write to make a living. I find that an empty stomach and bills to pay is a hell of a motivator. In fact, I’m pretty sure that people who write for their living never suffer from writer’s block.
Seems counterintuitive to me - if his name is Brian Johnson, you can say, hey, common name. If his name is Sir Princess Tutmose III, and there really is a sir Princess Tutmose III, then it sounds to me like he has a lot more of a case.
