How do characters in books get their names? How do authors decide what to name their characters?
Personally, there are four things I consider when naming characters: having unique names that are not too crazy, having memorable names, having a name that fits the character, and not having sexually ambiguous names.
First, giving a character a unique name that is not crazy. I am not a big fan of common names, not even when I'm not reading. When I have children, they will not be named Bob, or Tom, or John, or anything common like that. Not that there are anything wrong with those names, I just don't prefer them. Some one's name should be unique, as unique as that person is, and possibly their situation. Names like Waverly, Rivers, Lux, Jaden, Mercy, Sawyer, Graham, are all names that are memorable, unique, and interesting.
A character's name has to be memorable. A reader may love the book and want to tell their friends about it, but if the characters names are not memorable then they will not remember them and telling their friends about it would be difficult. Names of book couples like Patch and Nora, Dimitri and Rose, Katsa and Po, are all memorable names and guaranteed to stick in people memories and hearts.
A character's name has to fit them. I love unique names, but they have to fit the character. A lot of the time, in my writing, I like to give villainous characters really sweet, innocent names. I feel like giving evil characters names that are sweet only adds to their evilness; Sophie, Cassie, and so on.
Alas, giving characters sexually ambiguous names is boring, confusing, and often, not memorable. Names like, Sam, Alex, and so on, could lead a reader to be confused and thus become disinterested in what they are reading.
If you are writing, anything, remember that characters names should stick with the reader. If a name is unique, memorable, and fits that character, the reader is more likely to remember and care about those characters and enjoy their reading experience more.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
My Journey As A Reader
I am an avid reader. I don't go a day without reading something. I can usually finish a book in about two to four days. And then I start a new one. I always take a book with me, no matter where I go. Now, I wasn't always like this.
When I started school as a five year old, I was not a very good reader. I struggled with it and therefore did not like it. This lasted till I was a freshman in high school. The summer before my freshman year, my sister had me read the first two Harry Potter books and I fell in love. I fell in love with the Harry Potter books, and all books alike. I needed to read. I picked anything that looks interesting. I just had to read. Unfortunately, I did not always like what I read. I often got bored, disinterested, or did not want to finish what I read. But I loved reading so much that I put up with it. I read the classics because that is what I thought I should be doing, but I did not enjoy them. I read books from about every genre I knew of and was just not finding what I needed to.
My senior year of high school, I had a new English teacher. She and I had a lot of the same taste in movies, music, and books. This teacher, J-Rad, as we called her, told me I might like the Twilight books. I had never heard of the Twilight books (mind you, this was six years ago so about no one had heard of them) and I didn't think I would like books about vampires. But, I decided to give them a try, what did I have to lose. So I read Twilight and fell in love. I just had to read New Moon and Eclipse (Breaking Dawn was not yet out). And that is when I found my genre. Young Adult Fiction.
In my opinion, Young Adult Fiction (or YA) is the best genre there is. YA is always exciting, relateable, passionate, and so many more things. After twilight I soon discovered the Hush, Hush series, the Vampire Academy Series, the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and so many other fantastic books. My reading fervor only increased after that. I bought new YA books with any money I could spare. I begged my parents to buy me new books. I just had to read YA books. Jackson Pearce, Maggie Stiefvater, Becca Fitzpatrick, John Green, are some of my favorite YA authors and they are amazing. I only hope, someday, I can join their ranks and people like me will be adding me to their list of favorite YA authors.
But just because you are not the best reader or you don't like reading, doesn't mean there isn't a reader inside of you. For me, it was finding my genre to make me into a reader. I believe a person needs to find the right book for them.
When I started school as a five year old, I was not a very good reader. I struggled with it and therefore did not like it. This lasted till I was a freshman in high school. The summer before my freshman year, my sister had me read the first two Harry Potter books and I fell in love. I fell in love with the Harry Potter books, and all books alike. I needed to read. I picked anything that looks interesting. I just had to read. Unfortunately, I did not always like what I read. I often got bored, disinterested, or did not want to finish what I read. But I loved reading so much that I put up with it. I read the classics because that is what I thought I should be doing, but I did not enjoy them. I read books from about every genre I knew of and was just not finding what I needed to.
My senior year of high school, I had a new English teacher. She and I had a lot of the same taste in movies, music, and books. This teacher, J-Rad, as we called her, told me I might like the Twilight books. I had never heard of the Twilight books (mind you, this was six years ago so about no one had heard of them) and I didn't think I would like books about vampires. But, I decided to give them a try, what did I have to lose. So I read Twilight and fell in love. I just had to read New Moon and Eclipse (Breaking Dawn was not yet out). And that is when I found my genre. Young Adult Fiction.
In my opinion, Young Adult Fiction (or YA) is the best genre there is. YA is always exciting, relateable, passionate, and so many more things. After twilight I soon discovered the Hush, Hush series, the Vampire Academy Series, the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and so many other fantastic books. My reading fervor only increased after that. I bought new YA books with any money I could spare. I begged my parents to buy me new books. I just had to read YA books. Jackson Pearce, Maggie Stiefvater, Becca Fitzpatrick, John Green, are some of my favorite YA authors and they are amazing. I only hope, someday, I can join their ranks and people like me will be adding me to their list of favorite YA authors.
But just because you are not the best reader or you don't like reading, doesn't mean there isn't a reader inside of you. For me, it was finding my genre to make me into a reader. I believe a person needs to find the right book for them.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Knowing What You Want To Do For The Rest Of Your Life
I am now twenty one years old and I have wanted to be more things than my age. It was not until about two years ago that I discovered that what I really want to be is an author. For the longest time after watching The Lord of the Rings I thought I wanted to be a director. My first two years of college I thought I wanted to be an editor or a reader for publishing companies. I have wanted to be so many things I don't know that I can remember or count them all.
Two years ago I was taking an advanced fiction class and discovered that I wanted, desperately, to be an author. Now, I have been writing since I was very young. I have been cleaning out my old bedroom at my parents house and have discovered so many stories and poems and little things that I had written over the years.
When I was in junior high, I was bullied and didn't know how to relieve my pain I was feeling. I am also a very private person and I didn't want to have to share the things I felt with any one. I then started writing poetry. This provided me with an emotional outlet and I didn't have to share it with anyone. By writing poetry, I discovered that I loved writing and I was good at it. The more I wrote, the more confident I became in my writing and I started sharing it with people, who, in turn, told me to send it out. I won four poetry contests and was published.
But eventually poetry just wasn't enough for me anymore. I needed more. In my English classes I was assigned stories to retell or stories to write. I loved it. So I began writing my own stories. Then I wanted more than short stories, I wanted to write longer stories.
This whole time, though, I never thought that I wanted to be an author or even that I could.
My freshmen year of high school, I discovered that I loved to read. I had never been a good reader or even liked reading until my sister had me read the Harry Potter books. After that, I couldn't read enough. And the more I read the more I wrote. My junior year of high school, I thought that I could write a book. I knew the story I wanted to write, I knew the characters and what I wanted to have happen to them, I knew I wanted it to be a four book series. I had everything planned out. Then I started writing it and only got about twenty pages in and quit. I didn't quit because I no longer cared, but I didn't really know how to continue. I didn't know how to write a book.
Then, my junior year of college, a few friends of mine and I took a novel writing class with a favorite professor of ours. Going into it, our professor told us it was going to be hard, really hard. But we didn't really listen to him. Needless to say, it was hard, really hard, but we got threw it. I learned how to write and finish a novel and that I most certainly wanted to be an author, no matter what it takes.
It is not only that I want to be an author, but I want to tell stories and have people read them and get invested in the characters, because that is what I love to do, I love to get invested in other people's characters and I love to fall in love with them, even though they are fiction. And I want to share that with the world. My best friend read my book and told me she cried when she finished it and I felt so happy that I made her cry because I knew then that I could create real characters that people get invested in and care about.
Even though that I went through wanting to be many different things and it took a while to find out what I want to do, I know that I want to be an author and that there is nothing else I would rather do.
So how many careers do we want to have before we find out what we really want to do. And how do we know that what we want is really what we want and not just what we want to do until what we really want to do comes along?
Two years ago I was taking an advanced fiction class and discovered that I wanted, desperately, to be an author. Now, I have been writing since I was very young. I have been cleaning out my old bedroom at my parents house and have discovered so many stories and poems and little things that I had written over the years.
When I was in junior high, I was bullied and didn't know how to relieve my pain I was feeling. I am also a very private person and I didn't want to have to share the things I felt with any one. I then started writing poetry. This provided me with an emotional outlet and I didn't have to share it with anyone. By writing poetry, I discovered that I loved writing and I was good at it. The more I wrote, the more confident I became in my writing and I started sharing it with people, who, in turn, told me to send it out. I won four poetry contests and was published.
But eventually poetry just wasn't enough for me anymore. I needed more. In my English classes I was assigned stories to retell or stories to write. I loved it. So I began writing my own stories. Then I wanted more than short stories, I wanted to write longer stories.
This whole time, though, I never thought that I wanted to be an author or even that I could.
My freshmen year of high school, I discovered that I loved to read. I had never been a good reader or even liked reading until my sister had me read the Harry Potter books. After that, I couldn't read enough. And the more I read the more I wrote. My junior year of high school, I thought that I could write a book. I knew the story I wanted to write, I knew the characters and what I wanted to have happen to them, I knew I wanted it to be a four book series. I had everything planned out. Then I started writing it and only got about twenty pages in and quit. I didn't quit because I no longer cared, but I didn't really know how to continue. I didn't know how to write a book.
Then, my junior year of college, a few friends of mine and I took a novel writing class with a favorite professor of ours. Going into it, our professor told us it was going to be hard, really hard. But we didn't really listen to him. Needless to say, it was hard, really hard, but we got threw it. I learned how to write and finish a novel and that I most certainly wanted to be an author, no matter what it takes.
It is not only that I want to be an author, but I want to tell stories and have people read them and get invested in the characters, because that is what I love to do, I love to get invested in other people's characters and I love to fall in love with them, even though they are fiction. And I want to share that with the world. My best friend read my book and told me she cried when she finished it and I felt so happy that I made her cry because I knew then that I could create real characters that people get invested in and care about.
Even though that I went through wanting to be many different things and it took a while to find out what I want to do, I know that I want to be an author and that there is nothing else I would rather do.
So how many careers do we want to have before we find out what we really want to do. And how do we know that what we want is really what we want and not just what we want to do until what we really want to do comes along?
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