It is so hard coming up with names for characters. Especially when it's fantasy and you have to make up unusual names for people, lands, cities, and landmarks. I have over sixty characters in my book in which most of their names are completely made up. I have so many cities and land marks that I've lost count. How about you? Do you find it fun or what?
1- Less characters. If they're not important, or only have a minor roll, they don't get named or only have a name pulled quickly. It keeps readers from having to remember a billion characters, because I can't really characterize a ton of characters to the point people will connect with all of them.
2- No to minimal made-up names. I stick to names from the region I'm basing my world off of, to keep them somewhat pronounceable. I also make sure names don't really go over three or four syllables. Else it gets a bit complicated to say.
Past that, really I just keep a baby name book beside my writing space and flip through it whenever I need a name. If I can't find a longer name, I shorten it in a nickname.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo
Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
I just give them random names. If I give them a purposful name, it doesn't seem realistic. If I don't like the name, then too bad. I didn't have a choice in my name.
I have the same problem. If I can't come up with a fitting name withing about five seconds, I just write down whatever their position is (peasant, blacksmith, knight, etc.) and change the font color, so that it'll be something I can come back to when I edit, instead of getting my writing flow bogged down.
There are two kinds of folks who sit around thinking about how to kill people: psychopaths and mystery writers. I'm the kind that pays better. ~Rick Castle
That's really good advice Rnager I never thought to do that. I usually just stop writing and sit there staring at the screen until I come up with something.
"If the king doesn't lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?"
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