![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
Let me tell you a secret - I'm really bad with names.
No, seriously. I have no naming fu at all. It was so bad when I was young I used to write fic involving my friends because I had no idea how to name characters outside of names in my immediate vicinity. When my friends told me that was embarrassing, I would name my characters Boy A and Girl B and then dig for names later. One of my favourite methods to do that - watching credits. I picked up a lot of interesting (and strange!) names that way. My dad's a teacher, so I used to steal his class register to read too. My favourite name to date: Siobhan Fury.
Even now, I still have to dig up a baby name book/site before I come up with a name. When I choose names, I go by two criteria - meaning and initials. Meaning is pretty easy - I try to find a meaning that would suit an identifying (though not always key) trait of the character. Then I go by initials - I like some combinations of letters better than others, and have a weakness for A - G for first names, and C for surnames.
Places are a lot harder - I try to rely on real world settings where I can, and cool sounding words when I can't. Part of the reason why I don't write sci-fi I guess - I have a hard time making up words!
( Days 4 to 30 )
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
Let me tell you a secret - I'm really bad with names.
No, seriously. I have no naming fu at all. It was so bad when I was young I used to write fic involving my friends because I had no idea how to name characters outside of names in my immediate vicinity. When my friends told me that was embarrassing, I would name my characters Boy A and Girl B and then dig for names later. One of my favourite methods to do that - watching credits. I picked up a lot of interesting (and strange!) names that way. My dad's a teacher, so I used to steal his class register to read too. My favourite name to date: Siobhan Fury.
Even now, I still have to dig up a baby name book/site before I come up with a name. When I choose names, I go by two criteria - meaning and initials. Meaning is pretty easy - I try to find a meaning that would suit an identifying (though not always key) trait of the character. Then I go by initials - I like some combinations of letters better than others, and have a weakness for A - G for first names, and C for surnames.
Places are a lot harder - I try to rely on real world settings where I can, and cool sounding words when I can't. Part of the reason why I don't write sci-fi I guess - I have a hard time making up words!
( Days 4 to 30 )
Tags: