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I'm pretty stoked about this book I bought today. (My fellow writers may enjoy this)

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by MusicIsLife, Aug 27, 2010.

  1. MusicIsLife

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    It's called The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

    I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm just awful at thinking up names when I start writing a new story. I'm really anal about naming my characters and it usually takes me a few days just to come up with the "perfect name". This book is perfect for me. It covers common surnames and given names of tons and tons of cultures/languages from greek to latin to gaelic to irish to maori to native to japanese and so on.

    I would highly recommend it (!)
     
  2. Ciceron

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    Re: I'm pretty stoked about this book I bought today. (My fellow writers may enjoy th

    Oh mercy this has always been a weakness of mine. I love to write but I've been so bad at naming I often give my characters placeholder names I later replace. Then honestly, I might later go back and replace them a second time.

    Typically what I do in order to properly name a character is try and find something about them, such as he/she might like to dance, and then find what the word for dance would be in a foreign language. Since I largely write fantasy, I typically base my races on a mash up of like 2 or more races, and I try to choose names from those native languages. Of course, I have a fondness for Latin and I often find myself falling back on it time and time again...which doesn't give much variety.

    I've only ever named one character with little influence or thought and actually loved the name. Then I was crushed when I found someone with the name I chose >.<
     
  3. Revan

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    Re: I'm pretty stoked about this book I bought today. (My fellow writers may enjoy th

    Kool
     
  4. AlyssWonderland

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    Re: I'm pretty stoked about this book I bought today. (My fellow writers may enjoy th

    I need that. I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddddddddd iiiiiiiiiitttttttttt.
     
  5. Emberstone

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    Re: I'm pretty stoked about this book I bought today. (My fellow writers may enjoy th

    I am writing a Heroes Quest involing greek mythology. the first name was easy. I wanted something that bridges the gap of the modern and the mythical, so it had to be a common name today, but have a connection to greek mythology. I went with the name Jason, as it is a name still used in modern times, and connected to the hero of Jason and the Argonauts.

    the surname is killing me though. I want to find a surname that means Earth.

    Right now I am struggling between two variations. Giaus, and the one I am leaning more for Caius.

    so either it is Jason Giaus, or Jason Caius. both are latin for 'Person of Earth.'