Naming Your Characters

Today I will be writing a pretty straight-forward post.

When you are writing apiece of fictional writing, you obviously have to name your characters, whether it is a nickname, their birth name, or a code name. You have to give your characters some type of recognition. It is important to think carefully about what you are going to name them because...

*Things can get really bad if you make up a name that you can't remember
*Never use the same name twice, unless you have something to identify each individual (a last name would work, though I would not recommend it because it takes forever to write it out each time)
*Try not to use names that create confusion

-Names that start with the same letter (i.e. Mike, Mick OR Jack, John). However different the names are, it will create confusion among readers, especially the fast ones, because they will think that they are reading about one character when in reality, they are reading about a different character with a similar name

-Names that are long. This creates difficulty of registering in someone's head. It also makes it hard for readers to remember.

-Names that are hard to pronounce. Again, this can be a problem when trying to make a memorable and important character. You want to try to pick easy names, though it does not necessarily have to be common names.

-Pick unique names that won't distract people.

When naming your characters, try your best to pick names that register in people's brains, are easy to remember, and will be something that a reader can say with ease when trying to talk to a friend about the book.

WHEW, this just got complicated. So much for straight-forward. SORRY. I will try much harder next time.