the game of names

[marycatelli]

Amelia -- Anastasia -- Amelia -- Anastasia --

The world she lives in is not Russia.  And it's not Great Britain either.  And I can explain either name.  But I know that using either one will carry tons of connotation and do a fair chunk of the world-building. . . if the hero is Nicholas, as he seems to be leaning, it could go either way by his name.

Probably wisest to start outlining it without naming her and see what she's like by seeing what she does.  Since it is always of course possible that the reason I can't pick is that she isn't either one.

It can, however, be really, really, really annoying to get the end of the outline, knowing that I have the complete story in hand, with the character fully developed with motives and background and everything and still not having an appropriate name.

It helps when I have one name, even for a bit character, and start looking around for names that go with it.  But I can't start writing the story without having named the characters.

Comments

[pjthompson]

I can't start writing without a name, either, but fortunately they usually tell me their names early on. Sometimes, like you, I get a huge chunk of "prewriting material" done (I don't do formal outlines, but lots of background scribbling) without a definitive name for an important character. In those cases, I usually just start writing chapter one and somewhere along the line the character (my backbrain) makes the decision for me and the name appears on the page. Usually it's the right one. I know this is a loosey goosey technique and may not work for everyone...

[marycatelli]

I think muses love loosey goosey techniques. They probably trade stories about the silly things they make their writers do.

[pjthompson]

lol--oh yes.

[marycatelli]

(I think muses are easily amused.)