Although there are many ways to name your characters, it’s more difficult than it seems. As writers, we must pick memorable names that define the personality of our characters. Each character’s name must be distinctive so our readers will not confuse them, yet we don’t want complicated names that will trip them up as they’re reading. If we have a huge cast of characters, we may run out of new and original ideas.
Writers who plan will create character profiles as they outline, choosing their names before ever writing. Those who write by the seat of their pants (like me) invent names as we go, or use placeholder names until the writing is done.
I’ve had to go back into my manuscript more than once to rename characters after realizing they had boring or similar sounding names. I’ve also had to research authentic names for characters who come from different countries.
I asked our members at the Writers’ Mastermind their favorite ways to name characters. Here are some fun ideas you can try out the next time you’re stuck for a character name.
9 Fun Ways to Name Your Characters
1. Movie credits–Most of us stop the movie when the credits roll. Next time, read through the names. Jot down any that jump out at you.
2. Players of sports teams–Are you a sports fan? Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, golf, horse racing? You can find an endless supply of names at sporting events. Mix and match first names and surnames for your next hero or villain.
3. Name tags of personnel–Next time you’re at a shop, restaurant, or grocery store, look at the employee’s name tag and save that name for a future character.
4. Family tree–Mine your family tree for cool names, and honor your ancestors in your story.
5. Graveyard–Walk around a graveyard with a notebook and resurrect the names of the deceased.
6. Scrivener name generator–If you use the Scrivener app, you can use the built-in name generator. Click “Edit” and scroll down to “Writing tools.” From there, you can choose gender, language, and other options.
7. Online name generators–If you don’t have Scrivener, no worries. There are many free name generators online, like the fun-to-use one on Reedsy.
8. Baby name books–Bringing a new character in the world is like having a baby on the way. That’s why baby name books are the perfect source for names. They also list the meaning of the name, which adds an extra layer of personality.
I got the name for Ona, the protagonist of my WIP, from a New Age baby name book, which included names from different cultures and traditions all over the world.
9. Google–When characters need foreign names or common names for different time periods, Google is the best option. Search up “most popular names” in the geographical area or time period your character is from, and you will find loads of interesting names.
How can you tell if you’ve chosen the right name for your character?
It helps to read your story out loud to see if your characters’ names ring true. Beta readers will also tell you if they get confused.
Avoid using multiple names that start with the same letter or have a similar structure, especially important characters who appear in the same scenes. Mix up sounds, syllables, and styles. Good names will sound and feel right, and create a picture in the reader’s mind.
What are your favorite ways to name your characters?
NOTE: The Artist’s Way is a 12 Step Process to recover your creativity by Julia Cameron that we are doing in the Writers’ Mastermind. You can read all about it here. Today, you get a sneak peek into what we’re working on inside the group. If you’d like to join us, sign up here! —Christa
This month, we cover ABUNDANCE!
And we are going to talk about MONEY.
The Problem with Writers and Money
One of the most damaging clichés about creativity is the idea of the poor, starving artist.
Add to that the fact we live in this age of free content…
And write in a highly competitive market…
Writers get used to the idea that it’s okay not to be paid for our writing.
But even if it feels good to sacrifice yourself on that altar (another virtue trap!)
you don’t have to martyr yourself for your art!
Money blocks that keep fiction writers from financial success
Combine our romantic “poor starving artist” notion with traditional qualms about money, and you’re destined to become the cliché.
Common money issues:
It is the root of all evil
It turns people into greedy, self-centered megalomaniacs
It leads to addiction and vice
It is not for you (because of gender, race, class, age, etc.)
God/spirituality/morality hates money
That if you want money, you’re a bad person
That you do not deserve it
Getting rich off of writing will make you a sell-out
Money and fame will taint the purity of your art
That you’ll end up like Tony Montana in Scarface
You may not even realize you’re carrying around some of these ideas. But if you unconsciously believe successful, wealthy people are bad, it will only ensure you never become one.
Julia Cameron debunks the God/spirituality/morality issue below.
How can writers break money blocks?
The first step to breaking money blocks is to become aware of them. Do this exercise from The Artist’s Way to find out what beliefs are holding you back when it comes to going big on your dreams as a fiction author.
MONEY MADNESS, AN EXERCISE
Complete the following phrases.
I. People with money are
2. Money makes people
3. I’d have more money if
4. My dad thought money was
s. My mom always thought money would
6. In my family, money caused
7. Money equals
8. If I had money, I’d
9. If I could afford it, I’d
10. If I had some money, I’d
11. I’m afraid that if I had money I would
12. Money is
13. Money causes
I4. Having money is not
Is. In order to have more money, I’d need to
16. When I have money, I usually
17. I think money
18. If I weren’t so cheap I’d
19. People think money
20. Being broke tells me
It’s not all about money
Your ideas about what you deserve affect everything you do as an author.
If you don’t think your writing is worthy, you will fail.
Why?
You won’t put your best into your book because, what’s the point? It’s not going to sell anyway.
You won’t query dream agents and publishers because it will be “a waste of time.”
You won’t promote a book you wrote in fear and uncertainty, because you feel it’s inferior and it’s not good enough to be successful.
You will not be willing to invest in proper editing, formatting, cover design, marketing, advertising.
You won’t invest in yourself and your continuing education as a writer. you “can’t afford it,” right?
You will give up, thinking it was all a foolish dream (like all the naysayers and your inner bully told you). You proved to yourself it isn’t going to work. All because deep inside you believe you’re not deserving.
In reality, you only failed because of your half-hearted attempt.
Don’t deprive the world of your words. Don’t sit on your stories. Give them the best chance you can. They deserve it.
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Would you like to join us for more exercises like these? Take a step to becoming a better writer. Sign up here!
To continue our series of interviews with our short story contest winners, we talk to Sam Szanto, author of second place winner, If No One Speaks. Sam is an accomplished writer and poet, whose had nearly 40 stories and poems published and listed in competitions.
11 Questions with Sam Szanto
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where are you now? What has your life been like?
I’m originally from Eastbourne (known as God’s Waiting Room), a seaside town in South-East England. I’ve lived all over England but mainly (20 years) in London. Last April, my family and I migrated to the other end of the country and now live in Durham, a city where everyone knows everyone (except us). I have a husband, two young children and an old tabby cat. Life has involved a number of jobs from (wo)manning an ice-cream kiosk to working at a girls’ private school to marketing for a national blind charity, and now writing as much as possible while freelancing as a copy-editor and English tutor. Much of my copy-editing is academic research for clients in Taiwan, although I also do novels, PhDs and whatever else anyone asks for.
2. What kind of stories do you like to write?
I write stories and poems; some are political, some about love relationships and some combine the two. They tend to be realistic, although I do like to add in the odd ghost! I also write a lot about displacement and alienation, with a particular interest in refugees (I am from a refugee family who came from Hungary in the Second World War). I like to place my writing in a wide variety of settings: Mexico, Madrid, Thailand, Cambodia, Venezuela, Russia, Bangladesh, etc. If you can’t travel far in real life, you can in your mind!
3. What sets you apart from other writers in your space?
I guess I haven’t read any other stories that sound as though I could have written them. But presumably every writer feels like that. I’m lucky now that I have the time to write, as I didn’t when I was younger – I have been reprimanded by a former boss for writing when I should have been working!
4. What drives your writing? What do you mean to accomplish with your stories?
I was once told by a novelist that ‘Writers need to write.’ This is absolutely true for me; and the older I get, the truer this is. I need to write, and I want to write. My aim is to publish a short story collection, which I have recently finished and am querying.
5. Who are your favorite writers and books? What are your other creative influences?
So many. I’m reading Val McDermid’s ‘1979’ at the moment, and Carolyn Forche’s ‘The Country Between Us’. I also always have an audio book on the go. My favourite short story writers and influences are Tessa Hadley (I was lucky enough to have been taught by Tessa on my MA in Creative Writing) and Elizabeth Bowen. My favourite novelist is Kate Atkinson and favourite poet Simon Armitage (neither seem very original answers!) but I could go on listing all day…
6. Tell us about your writing space. When and where do you write? Do you work in silence? Or music?
I write as much as possible, when I’m not doing paid work, housework or school pick-ups (I do also sleep). I can’t write with music anymore, although I did all my A-level English coursework with happy hardcore bulldozing into my ears. I write in silence in a study, interrupted by my kids asking what’s for tea and my husband asking what’s for lunch. The study is a luxury and blessing, as I spent each of the lockdowns in London writing at a table while the kids bounced up and down in front of the TV at the other end of the room.
7. What is your favorite thing to do when you are not writing?
I exercise a lot, mainly at the gym at the moment although we’ve also just bought a rowing machine. I’ve also got into gardening so I know I’m middle-aged. I also like the theatre. And of course, reading! When I was younger, I was often to be found unwashed at a music festival.
8. Who is your current artistic muse?
I’m not sure I have one, but I am smitten with the poetry of Warsan Shire, who wrote the poem I wish to have written (‘Home’).
9. Why do you think it’s important to write fiction?
Fiction has so many important roles. I can’t remember a day of my life when I haven’t read a book. Escaping into different worlds has got me through all the problems and hardships in my life to date. I’ve also learned so much about different worlds and times. Writing also has a very important role in mental health: it certainly helps me with that.
10. Who would be the best writer, alive or dead, to tell the story of your life?
Tessa Hadley. If only!
11. What are you working on right now?
A story about a school reunion, featuring a ghost, entitled ‘Everybody loved Romy’.
*****
About Sam
Sam Szanto lives in Durham, UK with her husband and two children. She has had almost 40 stories and poems published and listed in competitions.
In March 2022, her short story ‘If No One Speaks’ won second prize in the Writers’ Mastermind Short StoryContest; ‘Mikey’ was longlisted for the Bedford International Writing Competition (previously also highly commended in the Write by the Sea KQ Competition) and ‘The Thought of Death Sits Easy on the Man’ was published in WayWords, Issue 5 and ‘The Yellow Circle’ was published in Personal Bests Journal 3 (also published earlier by Storgy). In 2021, her story collection ‘Courage’ was a semi-finalist in the St Lawrence Book Awards; ‘Quiet Love’ placed third in the Erewash Writers Open Short Story Competition; ‘The New House’ was longlisted for the Crowvus Ghost Story Competition; ‘Rubbish’ was highly commended in the Glittery Literary Summer Competition and published in Anthology Volume 2; and ‘Don’t Refuse Me’ was listed in the Parracombe Prize Story Competition and published in the Parracombe Prize 2021 Anthology.
In 2020, Sam’s short story ‘Inaccrochable’ was published in Storgy; ‘125’ was a finalist in the 2020 Literary Taxidermy Competition and published in the Regulus Press anthology 124 Beloved – another of her stories in the 2021 competition also received an Honourable Mention; ‘Ferhana’ was published by Momaya Press in their Short Story Review 2020 and ‘Phil in Real Life’ was published in Secret Attic Booklet #6. ‘Making Memories’ was highly commended in the Michael Terence Publishing Winter Short Story Competition 2019 and published in the anthology The Forgotten. Also in 2020, Sam had stories shortlisted in the Writers Forum Competition, the 2020 Exeter Literary Festival Short Story Competition, the Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition and the 2020 Pennine Ink Writing Competition; and longlisted for the Flash 500 2020 Quarter One and the Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition.
In 2019, she won second prize in the Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition with her story ‘Letting Go’, which was published in the 2019 Chairman’s Challenges Anthology. Also in 2019, one of her stories was shortlisted in the Henshaw Press December Short Story Competition. Her flash fiction, ‘The Things that he Gave Me’ was published in Gold Dust.
Sam is also a poet and in 2022, three of her poems will be published in Europe Poetry Magazine and Horned Things Journal. In 2021, she was published in Alternate Route Zine. She won both the 2020 Charroux Prize for Poetry and the First Writers 12th International Poetry Competition. In 2019, she won second prize in the Hammond House International Literary Prize and was published in the anthology Leaving. Her poetry was shortlisted for the Grist Prize in 2019.
Sam is currently studying for the UK Poetry School / Newcastle University MA in Writing Poetry and also has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.
Anyone can publish a book, but few authors are successful. According to this article on selfpublishingadvice.org, Worldometers says that 2.2 million titles were published globally in 2021. What can self-published authors do to compete in such a huge market?
Writing a fiction novel is an amazing achievement. Your future fans are waiting for your story, but your book needs to be strategically positioned and marketed to sell. However, many authors rush into self-publishing without proper research and planning.
Howard VanEs from letswritebooks.net talks about how to prepare and position our fiction books for self-publishing success on Amazon and other distributors (and even become a bestseller)!
Howard VanEs
Howard VanEs is President of Let’s Write Books, Inc., a company specializing in working with independent authors providing publishing and book marketing services. Howard has over thirty-five years of writing experience in every format imaginable, including writing thirty-three books of his own. Many of his books have been number one in their respective categories on Amazon.
Howard has also ghostwritten numerous books of others in a wide variety of genres ranging from non-fiction to books for kids to novels.
His experience includes the marketing and creation of information products: reports, eBooks, workbooks, DVD’s, audio programs, etc. Howard is also the former owner and creative director of an award-winning ad agency.
Here are some topics we’ll cover:
Is there a market for my book?
Getting titles and subtitles right
Descriptions (what’s the formula for a good description?)
Cover design
Interior design
Editing
Distribution and formats
Marketing
Bring your own questions for Howard
WHEN AND WHERE
Monday, May 23, 2022
11:30 AM EST – 04:30 LONDON
This will be a live Zoom Meeting. Recording will be available for replay.
*****
HOW TO ATTEND
Start your FREE 30-Day Trial with the Writers Mastermind to join the event. You will receive a link before the meeting.
Last month, we announced our Writers Mastermind Short Story Contest winners. In this series, we interview each of them to discover the soul behind their story.
Today we talk to Tomas Marcantonio, who won third place with his story, Feathers. He taught English in South Korea for most of the past decade, and is now settling in England to finish his dystopian noir series. Learn about his experience abroad and what drives his writing.
Meet Tomas Marcantonio, author of Feathers (3rd Place Winner)
Tomas Marcantonio is a writer from Brighton, England. He graduated from the University of Sussex with a BA in English Language and Film, and he spent most of his twenties teaching English while travelling and writing.
Tomas is the author of two travelogues, Gift of the Gap and How Not To Live Your Twenties, as well as the coming-of-age novel The Leap of Grebes. His dystopian trilogy Sonaya Nights is being published by Storgy Books, with first installment This Ragged, Wastrel Thing released on August 1st, 2020.
Tomas is also the author of numerous short stories, many of which have appeared in literary journals and speculative fiction magazines online and in print. He has placed in several short story and flash fiction competitions, and was the winner of the‘Just Back’ travel writing competition in The Telegraph in 2017. In 2020, Tomas was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
When not scribbling about future worlds or his two beloved seaside cities, Brighton and Busan, Tomas is often writing obscure articles about Korean football. Otherwise, he is most likely getting lost in neon-lit backstreets somewhere, searching for new brands of makgeolli.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where are you now? What has your life been like?
I’m from Brighton on the south coast of the UK, but I spent most of the past ten years in South Korea, where in addition to writing I was teaching English. I recently moved back to Brighton to be closer to family and friends. It’s great being back, but I do miss the thrill of being abroad. I did a lot of travelling in my twenties, but now that I’m in my mid-thirties I’m trying my best to settle!
2. What kind of stories do you like to write?
I love exploring alternate worlds, especially dystopian or futuristic societies. I also frequently write about anxiety, and coming of age through travel. I rarely write about mundane life – I love travel and adventure and diverse peoples and places.
3. What sets you apart from other writers in your space?
I suppose my dream as a writer is to combine genre writing with literary fiction. As a reader I adore both, but I haven’t come across too many writers who write genre fiction with the poetic prose I enjoy. That’s the little corner I aim for.
4. What drives your writing? What do you mean to accomplish with your stories?
I recently wrote a Writer’s Manifesto as part of my Creative Writing Master’s degree – I called it the Soul Tattooist’s Manifesto. The idea is to ‘tattoo’ your soul into history, to make a permanent record of your thoughts, fears, feelings, and inspirations. I love the idea of trying to capture your true self in your writing, and the possibility that future generations will be able to read it and have an insight into your identity.
5. Who are you favorite writers and books? What are your other creative influences?
It’s hard to narrow this down to a few! I adore the writing of James Lee Burke, one of the few crime writers I’ve read whose beautiful descriptions of places and people can take my breath away. In terms of prose I’m hugely inspired by the writing styles of the likes of Laurie Lee, Virginia Woolf, and Annie Proulx, but I also love the big ideas and imagination of fantasy and speculative fiction novels. Haruki Murakami is my go-to writer if I’m in need of a definite pleaser.
6. Tell us about your writing space. When and where do you write? Do you work in silence? Or music?
I tend to write better in cafés, so a little background music is welcome. In Korea my ideal writing routine was to get up early and head to a quiet café with sea views and spend the whole morning there. I haven’t found my perfect writing café since moving back to Brighton, so I’m still searching!
7. What is your favorite thing to do when you are not writing?
Apart from curling up with a good book, my favourite hobby these days is beach volleyball. There’s nothing better than jumping around in the sand on a sunny day – especially if there’s a cold pale ale waiting afterwards.
8. Who is your current artistic muse?
My biggest artistic muse of the past decade has been Busan, my favourite city in Korea. Sandy beaches, sprawling mountains, labyrinths of neon-lit backstreets, and don’t get me started on the food. A huge city bursting with personality, and inspiration in every little nook.
9. Why do you think it’s important to write fiction?
I want to avoid trying to give a deep, profound answer here, so I’ll just answer this from my personal point of view as a writer – it’s a release, a calling, a joy.
10. Who would be the best writer, alive or dead, to tell the story of your life?
I’d love to read a Murakami novel of my life – he’d be able to side-step the boring parts by having me stumble upon a parallel world.
11. What are you working on right now?
I’m tidying up Book 3 of my dystopian noir trilogy, Sonaya Nights, from Storgy Books. I’m also working on a fantasy novel, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. I love world building and letting my imagination run riot, so it’s been a joy so far.
*****
Thanks to Tomas Marcantonio for letting us into his world.
Last month, we announced our Writers Mastermind Short Story Contest winners. In this series, I interview each of them to discover the soul behind their story.
Today we talk to Yong Takahashi, author of The Elements. You’ll learn about her struggles as a Korean immigrant and how she writes all her drafts in longhand on pink legal pads.
Meet Yong Takahashi – The Elements (FINALIST)
Yong Takahashi is the author of Observations Through Yellow Glasses: A Memoir Through Poems, Rising, Sometimes We Fall, and The Escape to Candyland. She was a finalist in The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Southern Fried Karma Novel Contest, Gemini Magazine Short Story Contest, The Writers’ Mastermind Short Story Contest, and The Sexton Prize for Poetry.
Yong’s YA novel, Camp Detroit, will be published in 2023. To learn more about Yong, visit: linktr.ee/yongtakahashi
OBSERVATIONS THROUGH YELLOW GLASSES
Yong Takahashi moved to The United States with her parents when she was three years old. She grew up in a traditional household where her Korean and American worlds pulled her in opposite directions. Shortlisted for The Sexton Prize for Poetry, OBSERVATIONS THROUGH YELLOW GLASSES invites you to follow her journey as she learns life’s bitter lessons, longs for love, and attempts to heal the wounds she collects along the way.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where are you now? What has your life been like?
I was born in Seoul, South Korea and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Currently, I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I was the only Asian student in a newly desegregated school. The white students lived on one side of the highway and the black students lived on the other. I remember the landlord telling my parents we could choose which side because we were yellow. Trying to fit in was difficult and a lot of the pain in my writing comes from surviving childhood. Some of my experiences are in my memoir, Observations Through Yellow Glasses: A Memoir Through Poems.
2. What kind of stories do you like to write? I write poetry, songs, short stories, and novels.
I tend to lean towards darker storytelling. Many of my protagonists don’t have happy endings or struggle to find them. I find this is more realistic as life is not wrapped up in a bow.
3. What sets you apart from other writers in your space?
I blend my Korean and American experiences into my work. It tends to be a tightrope walk between the two cultures.
4. What drives your writing? What do you mean to accomplish with your stories?
I want the reader to see a perspective other than their own. I want them to say: Could that really happen? Well, maybe it could. Let me read it again.
5. Who are you favorite writers and books? What are your other creative influences?
My favorite book is The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. It is the only book I’ve read more than twice. The Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny are the only ones I wait for each year. I don’t really read mystery but her words are just magical.
6. Tell us about your writing space. When and where do you write? Do you work in silence? Or music?
I usually listen to music while I make my to do lists and drink coffee. Then, I start writing or editing. It needs to be completely silent for my editing or writing sessions. If I’m at a coffee shop, I wear noise cancellation headphones. Prior to the pandemic, I wrote at Starbucks for three to five hours a day. Then, I’d come home to type my notes. Now, I write in my backyard or in bed.
7. What is your favorite thing to do when you are not writing?
I binge watch all my recorded shows. I just finished the 23rd season of Law & Order: SVU. I’m on season eight of the original Law & Order.
8. Who is your current artistic muse?
I study songwriters. I also watch cover artists on YouTube before my writing sessions.
9. Why do you think it’s important to write fiction?
I think every form of writing is important: poetry, fiction, nonfiction. However, fiction allows me to create worlds I could never live in. It lets me insert myself into situations that would never happen in real life.
10. Who would be the best writer, alive or dead, to tell the story of your life?
I absolutely love Louise Penny’s way of drawing the reader into her stories. It would be an honor if she’d write about me or just join me for coffee.
11. What are you working on right now?
I’m editing a YA novel. I hope to complete it next month. It will be published in 2023.
