Character sketches. I've been working on my character sketches. Do you know what I'm having the most trouble with? I am having trouble with their names! I know exactly who they are, what they do, most of their background, how they act, and dress. I know all these things about them and then I'm stumped. I can’t think what their names should be! Nameless characters.
It won't work that way. I'm having the hardest time coming up with the right name, THE right name for my characters. I don't mean to dwell on this and I don't think I'm making it a bigger issue than it is, but it's their NAME. It's one of the major things that readers have to identify the character. Names are important, aren't they? Don't you picture a Bertha different from a Chelsea? Okay - maybe that's an extreme comparison - but don't you? Picture them differently, I mean? It is important! And I'm struggling with it just a bit.
I wonder what other writers do and how they pick names for their characters. I've read the entire John Sandford series and his character Lucas Davenport. He introduced an undercover cop that I really, really liked in the series and Sandford named the character Del. Okay, good name. I could picture this disheveled man, who worked on the street, dealing with the druggies and street people as an undercover cop. Now I'm not sure why, but Sandford gave Del the last name of Capslock. This characters name is Del Capslock.
Hmmm...I thought. I wonder if Sandford got stuck on the name. I wonder if he just went blank, looked down at this keyboard lost in thought, and saw that key. I wonder if while he was writing, the key got stuck and he looked up and everything was caps and it gave him the idea. I don't know where the idea for the name came from, but it sure made me think of that when I was reading the books. Maybe Sandford was on a writing roll and meant to change it later but never did? Did it work out anyway? I wonder if I was the only one that noticed that name.
Okay, enough...thinking way too hard again, aren't I? I have some characters to name and I don't want to end up with a tab or a shift.
TT
1 comments:
Whatever you do, don't come up with something like Tweed Jeans, or Comet Sniffer. Hard to even think of a title at that point. Then your just stuck again on the names issue.
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