The Process: Pre-Stuff–The Art of Naming Characters

I often think how unfair it is that we don’t get to choose our own names (particularly the first name) when we’re old enough to have some kind of common sense. Parents mean well when they choose their baby’s name. At least I’m hoping that is generally the case. It is unfortunate that sometimes they shouldn’t be allowed to do it, to hamper a future adult with names like Baby or Apple or … I’m sure you get my meaning. Even I’m sort of in that group of “could have had a name I like better.”

As a writer choosing a name for your characters, you are in much the same position as a parent. Except if you are a prolific writer of many, many works (such as I am), you will have the opporunity to pick many names for your characters. My advice: Choose them wisely not on some fanicful whim of the moment.

I’ve added another article on The Art of Naming Characters to both my Writing Tools on my website and to My Writing Tips on this blog. I’ve also included some wonderful links to online name sites.