Friday, June 21, 2013

What's In a Name?

So I've been brainstorming, asking What If?, and making tons of notes about my MG project. But I still haven't settled on names for my characters yet. I've only named one character so far already: Helen. That's a shoutout to my own late grandma. And although this is not her story, there are a few elements from her life that I'm incorporating. But that, is a tale for another post!

Usually I have character names pretty early on in the process. This time, however, I've been focusing a lot more on the plot and character relationships, and even character traits - and somehow the names just haven't come to me yet.

So all of my notes are littered with "MC" for my main character - MC goes here, MC talks to grandma, etc. So far the cast of characters includes:
MC
Brother
Father
Grandma
Neighbor
Lawyer
Neighbor's Son
and a few other Important People

and the all important Bad Guy (or Gal).

This temporary fix has been working so far. But I have to admit, I'm really getting tired of writing and reading about MC and other Important People. And somehow - I don't feel like I can really get to know and understand MC until she has a name. I know that I want her to have an "old name that is new again" something that is coming back today, but was also popular generations ago.

So that's my assignment for the weekend - names! What's yours? And how do you go about naming your characters? And feel free to leave suggestions for MC!

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