tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1859940184293909528.post3084413759519083321..comments2023-04-28T04:20:05.766-07:00Comments on WRITER on WRITING: What's In A Name?Virtual Strangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040333093180694172noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1859940184293909528.post-74496383639355614092009-04-03T13:06:00.000-07:002009-04-03T13:06:00.000-07:00Very good point about consistency with made-up nam...Very good point about consistency with made-up names, Matthew. I wish I'd thought to mention that. ;)<BR/><BR/>I think a bad name, simple as it may sound, is a name that either just doesn't fit-- or one that fits too well because it's been beaten home with a sledgehammer. No one's going to believe a man named Duke Killemall got elected president. At the same time, a priest named Peter Holyman Bishop just makes the audience's eyes roll. You don't see football linebackers named Cecil Worthington; brainy, AV-nerd girls called Muffy Jefferson; or battle-hardened black-ops soldiers with names like Joey, Billy, Cindy, and Mikey.<BR/><BR/>There is some leeway in there for ironic names, of course. Muffy up there immediately calls Buffy Summers to mind, and Billy was the bad-ass tracker in <I>Predator</I>. I think often, though, you get people seeing those exceptions and not understanding that they're ironic names. And that's when the Bobs, Veronicas, and Ezekiels just get thrown down left and right, regardless of the character they're attached to. :(<BR/><BR/>Sometime after publication, I'd love to do a follow up to this explaining why and how all the characters in <B><I>Ex-Heroes</I></B> ended up with the names they did.Virtual Strangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01040333093180694172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1859940184293909528.post-6313185860950653942009-04-02T15:45:00.000-07:002009-04-02T15:45:00.000-07:00Nice thoughts. The only comment I can think to ad...Nice thoughts. The only comment I can think to add is, when naming people from an alien or fantasy culture, be consistent. Possibly it's just me, but I deally like it when names from a made up culture have the same sort of sound. Robert E. Howard did this with his hyborean stories, giving the characters of one culture vaguely Celtic sounding names, another vaguely Slavic names, and another vaguely Spanish names, etc. <BR/><BR/>If you have three characters coming from the same fantasy kingdom and their names are Yoriko, Llanfwyr, and Tom it sounds like you didn't put any effort into it IMO.<BR/><BR/>So, what do you think constitutes a bad character name?Matthew Baughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09138985206277627972noreply@blogger.com