Writers And Readers Websites Wednesday - Pick The Brain

 

Pick The Brain ~ 10 Writing Tips from the Masters

Many of these are amusing, but they’re no less helpful for writers struggling with getting the story right and informative to readers as to what goes into writing that great novel you’re reading.

Name Those Characters - A Writer's Puzzle

Have you toyed with, fought with, howled at with giving names to your characters when you’re writing? Have you developed a character, followed him or her, saw them through all sorts of tight spots and just knew the name wasn’t right? Ask any parent, there are many factors that go into naming a child and those characters in your novel you write are just like your children.  

Names are important.  An obvious fact.  

Just think of a name and an instant preconception springs to mind. If the name doesn’t fit the character it’s difficult if not impossible to get/keep things moving on the written page.  Names can reflect our personalities, our background or ethnicity or faith.  Think about it. Kathryn can be very professional, Katie  very friendly and bouncy and Kate more neutral.  Then there’s Elizabeth who can be, of course, Elizabeth, Liz, Lizzy, Beth or even Betty or Bet.

Last names are equally important. Smith or Goldblum. Varella or Capra. Singleton or Brown. Well, you get it. A name can inspire not only your reader, seeing  your ‘hero’ as a dynamic, well, hero, as opposed to a mumbling, introverted nerd, it can also inspire you, the writer. 

So what to do? 

Well, there are a lot of resources available to us. Just ask any expectant parent.  There are still all those books for baby naming. The web has a lot to offer (some resources below), phone books, friends you can bedevil for suggestions, movie credits you can read (you can even pause your DVD if you like so you can read), other books where you can pluck a first name from one and last name from another. And don’t forget you can compile lists of your own when you run across a name that seems great out of context. You might well have the opportunity to put it IN context with your next writing project.  

You can try writing about a character with a ‘place holder’ name if you can’t come up with the right one when you’re first writing, but I’ll bet that will niggle at you like an annoying paper cut until you can fill in that blank. It just seems like the character can’t get it right until he or she has the right name bestowed upon  him or her.  And that translates into your writing being unbalanced, not right, until you can grab that name. 

Is there a secret formula? A magic way to pluck the name you need out of the vapors and spur your writing to new heights? Nope, but there are a few loose guidelines that can help. Things I keep in mind. 

*Don’t use several names that begin with the same letter.  In fact try not to use two names that begin with the same letter in the same novel.  Fact of the matter is after the first introduction of the character most readers don’t actually read the name, but rather identify the character by the first letter and the shape of his name as they skim down the page.  Best not to risk confusing your reader.

* Pick names that are realistic and don’t get carried away with naming after you’ve been searching for a long time and feel a bit desperate.  Especially don’t fill your story with bizarre and complicated names the reader will need a score card to figure out.  

*Think about history and geography when naming your characters. Yes, they have a bearing.  Germanic names are different than Scots. English different than Spanish. Keep it in mind.

*Watch out for gender neutral names.  Lee, Drew, Lynn, Francis (Frances), Tracy, Kelly, Jean, etc. If you use one, be sure to immediately let your reader know if the character is man, woman, boy, girl. Don’t let it hang out there for them to figure out. 

 *And don’t be afraid to change a name if you discover as you write that it just isn’t working. That’s what global replace is for.  But keep in mind that a change of name may well signal a change in character and could instigate the need for rewrite in areas prior to the change. 

If, when looking over the material you’ve written, a name change necessity arises, don’t fight it. A character with the wrong name can throw quite the ‘monkey wrench’ into a story no matter how well written to that point. Seriously, think about it.

Here are a few resources to help you along:

Social Security’s Popular Baby Names - what’s popular this year - and other years?

The Greatest Baby Name Book Ever by Carol McD. Wallace 

The Writer’s Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon -Organizes names alphabetically, by origin, and by popularity according to year. 

Want the history and etymology of first names? Behind The Name   allows searches by meaning and includes a generator.  

Going to follow in Tolkien’s footsteps? Try The Elvish Name Generator 

The Baby Name Bible 

The Baby Name Wizard  Unique baby names 

Victorian Names online  and Victorian & Steampunk

Fantasy Name Generator—Set the specifications to your needs and generate lots of name possibles. 

Now you’re all set – but don’t forget those newspapers, magazines, phone books (in any city you live or visit) and of course Google for even more possibilities.

  

Writers And Readers Websites Wednesday

A day late, but here nonetheless.  Sorry, got swamped yesterday, but who says Thurs. can't serve as Wed? 

Writer looking for a site to give you some tips on the ins and outs on character, inspiration, editing,  and story structure? Check out the site belonging to K. M. Weiland that lays claim to:  Helping Writers Become Authors .

Writers Considering Readers

There  are a whole lot of things for writers to consider when they’re writing; lots of things about story and where it’s all going and how to get there.

But there’s another thing to consider when writing and this may well be obvious, but strangely, for some it isn’t. And for others it’s an obsession. 

That’s the reader.

Yep, you know, those folks who’re actually going to buy your books, stories, articles, scripts, whatever.

Sometimes the writer can get so caught up in the reader, pondering where their interests are, what their intelligence level is, how to communicate with them, that they kind of skip over the obvious. The obvious being most surveys reveal that educated people like books. Likewise those same educated people are likely to have an income that allows them to buy books, many times lots and lots of  books. 

Surprised? No reason to be. It’s simple logic and math really.

Still,some newer authors believe they have to dumb down their writing because they fear they may alienate vast pools of potential readers they believe they’re writing for. Don’t even go there. It isn’t necessary. Readers  are  a lot smarter than a lot of demographics might lead you to believe. And that’s at the end of the pipeline. Don’t forget if you’re not self-publishing and have chosen to go the traditional publisher route then you’re writing will have to pass the test with (probably) agents and (certainly) editors (maybe) script readers.  If you’re  purposely writing ‘down’, you aren’t going to turn any heads there as they, too, are well educated, and if you self publish and write ‘down’ you’ll just turn off your readers.

So keep the writing loose and simple. Free your vocabulary and don’t think about it so darn much. Use language that is appropriate.  Make your dialog fit your character. A street kid might say ‘icky’, an educated character might say ‘abhorrent’.  Don’t change the language that fits your story in order to ‘dumb it down’ or the reverse, to show off your amazing language skills.

When I was a kid I read with a dictionary handy. What I didn’t understand I looked up. To this day I appreciate a writer who ‘tells it like it is’ using language fitting to plot and characters.  If I come across a word I don’t know I still look it up. When I write if I’m stuck I pull out a thesaurus, then choose a word or rephrase it so it helps build character and plot, not distract from it.

And don’t overexplain to your readers when showing action or your characters’ thoughts either.  They get it. Really.  Give them what they need to know and allow them to use their imaginations to fill in the rest. The reader doesn’t need to see in print every thought that goes through a character’s mind.  As the writer, set the scene, propel the action and let it go.

Readers, be they the ones at the end of the pipeline or those along the way such as agents and editors who can help you, will respond to honest, unpretentious writing.