A to Z Challenge – Day 14: N is for Names

Hi all,

Today I wanted to talk about something that always gives me trouble as a writer – names! I get quite envious of those who seem to effortlessly just ‘know’ their characters should be called, or even have the name before the character even appears to them. Before now I’ve been sat there three quarters of the way into a manuscript and still not knowing what one of my main characters should be called 🙂 I will usually have a general idea of what it should sound like – and I tend to know it when I hear it/see it. It’s kind of like when you’ve met someone once and you know they introduced themselves, then you meet them again and can you remember their name – can you hell! You know you know it – and it’s an annoying nagging at the back of your brain as you try and try to remember.

I will do all sorts to try and ‘find’ it – this can include trailing through baby name books and websites, checking mythological sites, scoring lists of names from certain countries. And don’t get me started on place names, ssecondary characters, companies and world building details 🙂 My WIPs tend to scattered through with ‘xx’ which is where I didn’t want to break the writing flow by having to take half an hour to think of the right name for something.

What do you think, do you find names come to you easily – or do you share my pain? Readers, do you ever think that character names don’t suit the character, or on the other hand that they’re such a perfect fit that you always associate that name with that particular character?

Take care x