Names

In my current main WIP*, I have a lot of characters. And each one that plays any real role in the story has a name. Although it was not hard for me to name the MCs*, the more minor characters were much more difficult. Here's a few of my names for minor characters: *****, 8888, and ()))). Lest you think that I have either pioneered a new motif in writing, or that I am using the lack of names in a deeply symbolic manner, I'll tell you that those are not their "real" names. Their real names have not been found yet.

Why didn't I just name them things like "Steve", "Angie", or "Moronica" and be done with it? You know the answer to that--names should not just be chosen randomly. [Random-name generators?  I'll talk about those in a future post. They do have their place!]                 

In fiction writing, one of the most important--and most difficult--things is giving names to your characters. Good names are crucial to writing successfully. And as a carefully-chosen name will make your readers enjoy your story a lot more, a badly-chosen name will annoy your readers at best.

This is my personal criteria for choosing a good name in fiction writing:

1. The name should not lend itself well to puns and jokes. I'm thinking of "Peeta" specifically here, but I know that this is a problem in other stories as well. A name like that is just begging to be made fun of! I do not mean that original names are bad. I love original names. But not silly names.
2. The name should be original. That doesn't necessarily mean it should be strange, but consider giving at least one character a name that your readers will remember. The writing of Charles Dickens is an excellent example of this. If you have read any of his novels (or seen TV versions of them) you know what I'm talking about. 
3. The name should fit the character--or maybe it shouldn't, for the sake of irony. Again, Charles Dickens did an amazing job of this with his names. By choosing names with the character in mind, rather than just making a list of names and picking one, the name will seem much more fitting. 

I would like to say that, in fiction, names are second only to plot in importance. But I don't know about that. The important elements of a novel are Plot, Names, Tense, Narration, and Genre. Notice the capital letters? That's to hint at another element, the time in which it is written. Old British novels, at least, use a lot more capital letters than modern novels. (From my limited observations.)

All this is to say one thing: that good, carefully-choosen names are of extreme importance in fiction.

* In the near future, I will post a list of such terms.