Characters: Names & Personality

Black Fairy Dust:

Gee. When I started writing my books, I didin't even have that much to go on, although I knew my present heroine had red hair. There's a reason for that, and it's not what you might think!
Anne G

I've been having a lot of fun with some of my minor characters from tSotD lately. We have this thing over on another forum called the character meet up, where we throw our characters together in a scenario and have them interact. It really helps with characterization. Through placing my characters in the CMU, I've really started getting to know them better.

One of my characters (who hasn't been in the CMU yet) is really surprising me lately. She's a secondary character in tSotD, but some of the things she says to my MCs kind of set a lot in motion. She tells my MCs several things that rationalize what they do later in the book. Beyond what she tells them, I didn't know a lot about her. But lately I've been digging and it's just really fascinating.

Don't you just love getting to know your characters better?

Novel-Goddess:

I keep finding out more and more about my characters all the time.
Anne G

I thought I'd post a little link up to my blog where I've just posted pics of the chatacters from Slackers On Tour. make my life a little easier instead of putting all the pics up on here:

Slackers On Tour characters

Question: Before continuing with my story, I would like to get to know my characters a bit more. Can anyone suggest any sites that give writing prompts to improve your characters (or links that can provide them)? Like, things where you can use your characters and get to know them more without using them in the actual story. :/ Does this make any sense?

It does, for me i make a series of questions that need to be answered.

If you want an example, go to the site for my novel. It's go character profiles on it!

http://blackrosechronicles.yolasite.com

~Akurei Enzeru

Oh, I've done profiles for my characters, but I was looking for something...I guess kind of like a mini-story, almost for testing them out? If that makes sense. >w<;

Ooooh! I'll help if you want!!!! PM me a little information about your character and I'll come up with like a prompt or a paragraph that you can continue off of to create a more in depth character ^^

~Akurei Enzeru

Moonlight: is it like a roleplay thing your thinking of?

Moon and I are writing parts of the story together. I'm making a situation that she needs to know and learn the characters more in order to deal will ^^

It seems a bit like we're writing a story together xD

~Akurei Enzeru

oh thats an interesting idea! Maybe we could also start a game like "what would your character do . . . " (in a new thread - if people are interested?"

for example: What would your character do if 'they were in a traffic jam' and then maybe the next person tells us about how one of their characters would react etc. and set up the next scenerio?

Sounds like fun, if its OK I'll start it ^^

I do this all the time for my friends that write {whether they write fan-fiction or stories etc} I'd love to start it.

But if, let us say, someone wants something a little more in depth, they can PM me. You see, with Moon she told me about her characters and i actually started like a mini story about them and we go back and forth, like we're writing a story together. It helps develop characters and writing ^^

I'd love to work with anyone that's interested! Just PM me =]

But I'll start that thread too ^^

~Akurei Enzeru

Akurei_Enzeru wrote:

Moon and I are writing parts of the story together. I'm making a situation that she needs to know and learn the characters more in order to deal will ^^

It seems a bit like we're writing a story together xD

~Akurei Enzeru

Yep! Basically, we're roleplaying, Emily.

Count me in.

Tis sounds fun doesn't it ^^ <--- sorry i've been working on my book to long >< aha

ANYWHOZIT

ReNu, if you want a more detailed one {like Moon and I are doing} feel free to PM me ^^

~Akurei Enzeru

Ok so i've been messing around alot with my WIP and have decided to change all the characters names so they would be 'untainted' if that makes sense?

So for the MC, i've changed Zaera to Adiana.

I've given her blind sisters name Ramla (which is african for prophetess)

I've given the prince 'Dargan'

Thats the names so far, what do yeh think?

How do you define "untainted" for your WIP?

Well you see, Zaera and Azael are characters that have been in my mind for a very longtime and i've thought up loads of stories with them, so planting them in my WIP felt really natural, until they seemed to 'taint' my whole WIP and it wasn't the story anymore. if that makes sense? So i felt i needed a clean slate to do the story justice! Also i felt that Z & A are very much characters that are in my head and shouldn't be put to paper yet, as they don't suit my WIP either. So new name=new character

LOL, looking at my previous post. . . yeah azael and zaera are pretty much gone to the drawer for the moment lol.

anyhoo, I've new WIP which is urban paranormal fantasy thing. I've posted in settings thread that i'm a little unsure about where i want to set it. Originally I had irish (common) names for my characters but realised that might seem odd to people who aren't Irish e.g. Chlodagh

So most of my characters have had their names changed : Chlodagh = chloe; Maeve = Grace

My two Main Characters names were originally Síofra and Oísin (male). I changed Oisin to Darren, but i'm sorta attached to Síofra (which is becoming a popular name here. It means changeling/fairy) - if i was going to change the name I more than likely change it to saoirse or siobhan (both irish names)

So i was wondering what are your thoughts on my name changes? And do you think as UK/US/non Irish people, the MC name would matter too much? Do you think i should keep siofra or change it?

Personally, I like the original names better. They have more texture.