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Sunday, August 5, 2012

What's in a Name?

When writing a story, how do you choose a name for your hero? At times this is an abvious, natural choice; other times you struggle with it, and have doubts about your choice. Recently I came across an article by Thomas A Knight about this subject. He is an author who writes stories set in a fantasy world of his own design. The name of the article is Writer's Den #5 - What's In A Name. This is how it starts:  

"'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' Or so wrote the great William Shakespeare. But would it really? Name's are important in fiction. It's hard to identify with a character that has a long or difficult to pronounce name, and names that are too common or overused can have the same effect. So how do we come up with the winner?"

10 comments:

  1. Interesting, thought provoking!My younger one always quarrels with me over the names of characters in the stories I cook up for her so much so often we end up with no stories but just naming the characters. LOL

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    1. Shyam, your younger son takes after you then: he has the making of a creator, and the yearning for perfection!

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  2. I chose my main characters surnames a long while before I started writing them. It was the first names, in both cases, that gave my trouble, but I rarely use those names anyway.

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    1. Interesting, William--with my characters it's just the opposite...

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  3. I find I keep reusing the same names, but once the characters become real I have to go back and change them.

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    1. Thank you Sheila! I'm thinking, maybe the names you reuse are meant to be there, then...

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  4. Uvi,

    I'm flattered that you enjoyed my article enough to share it like this. :)

    This is the highest form of compliment to me, and I truly appreciate it. Thank you.

    Thomas

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    1. I definitely did, and I'm quick to share valuable information! From now on I'll visit your place from time to time, and I hope you will visit mine, too

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