Monday, November 28, 2011

The Name Game

Finding the right name for characters involves a number of variables.
*The period the story is set in.  Names must be authentic for the period.  A number of websites are available for different historical periods as well as recent years.  Do your research, and don't have a Medieval heroine named Tiffany. 
Here are a few sites to look at
Popular first names in recent years:  http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html
*The location of the story and ethnic background of your characters.
Popular first name by state: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html  
*The current impression the name gives.  Years ago, for example, men were named Leslie, but it has become a woman's name.  Naming your hero Leslie might be authentic for the period, but it will give your reader the wrong impression.
*How hard the name is to type.  I avoid some names because I can't type them.   If you must use a name that's hard to type, pick a simple nonsense string of letters then do a universal search and replace.  Be absolutely sure the letters are nonsense so you don't insert the name in the middle of words that have that string within them.
THE MAIN CHARACTERS' NAMES
The right name for your hero or heroine is one of your most important decisions.  
For major characters, I don't just pick a name I like.  Instead, I wait until I see a name, and a frission goes through me to tell me I've hit the name for my character.  Most of my character names have been gifts of that sort.  Sometimes, the character will tell me his name at a certain point in the creation process.  
The name, in other words, is as much a part of making the character real for the writer as it is for the reader.  
SECONDARY CHARACTERS' NAMES
Try to avoid  a secondary character's name that is similar to your major characters' names.   That includes names that begin with the same letter or look similar (Al, Sal, and Sally).  
Before I start writing and after I have my main characters' names, I make a list of other names I can use in the book which fit the period, etc., as well as being different from the major characters' names.  This allows me to pick a name for that waitress who has a few scenes without having to stop my writing while I think up a name.  
USING SIMILAR NAMES
I have used similar names deliberately in my writing.  In TIME AFTER TIME, my hero remembers all his past lives, and he's trying to convince the heroine they have been reincarnated lovers in each of those lives.  He restages and retells their past lives and their loves so I needed different names for them in each time period.  
I decided that I'd  use the same first letter or letters of their current names for each past name so that the reader would recognize instantly when I mentioned a name even if they couldn't recall the period that name was from.  Each name would have to fit the historical period as well as the personality of the character.
Justin was earthy Jed in the Old West, and Alexa was Annie.   In the 1940s, Justin was sophisticated Jared and Alexa was Alicia.  Their other names also reflected character and period.
THE GOOGLE TEST
For main characters, particularly villains, it's a good idea to put the name into a search engine to see if someone out there shares the name.  Put the first and last name into quotation marks so you will only receive results with both those words close together.  If you find someone with that name, you may want to consider a different name.  
This is also a good idea for book titles.
THE NAME GAME
As you develop characters and names,  you'll discover a new fascination with names and their power, and you'll probably find yourself scanning obituaries and phone books for that unusual name to add to your name list.  Enjoy this.  It's part of the fun of creating characters.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Links of Interest

Another quiet week on the web.  We Americans seem to have turkey and goodies on the brain, and everyone else seems to be obsessed with Christmas and the standard web squabbles.  Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans and a good weekend to everyone else.



DIALOG TAGS:
CONFLICT ISN’T JUST A FIGHT:
INTERVIEW WITH KENSINGTON EDITOR:
REFRESHER COURSE ON THE DASH, EM-DASH, AND ELLIPSES:
MARKETS, MAINLY SHORT STORY:
WHY BAD THINGS SHOULD HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE/CHARACTERS:
WRITING THE PITCH OR QUERY:

Monday, November 21, 2011

Finding Your Character's Weakness

According to Greek myth, Achilles' goddess mother dipped him into the River Styx to make him invulnerable to injury, but the heel she held him by wasn't dipped.  As fate and story would have it, he died when someone shot him in that heel.   
Most people and the most interesting fictional characters always have an Achilles heel, that one weakness which will defeat them unless they overcome it.
As a writer, you must figure out what your main character's weakness is and attack it through plot.
That weakness can be fear of some physical danger.  If like Indiana Jones, your character is afraid of snakes, then snakes he must face to achieve victory.  
A better weakness is an inner one.  If your character prides himself on his dignity and fears ridicule, he must find the strength, at his high school reunion, to race across the room in his bunny underwear to protect his girlfriend from the same bullies who just stripped him.  
If he fears death, he must find the strength to risk dying for something or someone who is more important than life.
Minor weaknesses and disasters can add conflict to a scene, but that one Achilles' heel of your character and his attempts to overcome it are the heart and soul of a good story.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Links of Interest

INTERVIEW WITH TOR SF EDITOR MOSHE FEDER:
CHECKLIST OF REVISION CREATED PROBLEMS TO LOOK FOR:
THE STAGES OF THE EDIT WITHIN THE PUBLISHING HOUSE:
HOW CHARACTER BETRAYALS CAN BETRAY YOU:
HUMAN VERSUS ANIMAL BONE REMAINS:
FIXING A STALLED STORY:
MUST READ RESOURCE FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN SMALL PRESS:
MAKING YOUR CHARACTERS REAL:
MARKET NEWS:  An agent forecasts what will be hot in romance in the next few years.
A CHECKLIST FOR DEEP POV:

WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T BLOG ABOUT:

PROMOTION:  What you should include in your email signature.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT PROMOTION BEFORE BEING PUBLISHED:
AMAZON’S BEING EVIL AGAIN:

Monday, November 14, 2011

Quoting a Book on Your Blog

QUESTION:  I am interesting in posting a few paragraphs from a book I just read on my blog...as a synopsis of the book. I want to post about a paragraph from each chapter.  Is that legal? Of course, I would cite the book and author, etc. and make it clear that these are not my words, but the author's.
First, let me clearly state that I am not a lawyer of any sort so my advice won't protect your rear in a court of law.
Using quotes like you want to do is done all the time.  It’s considered fair use of copyrighted material.
 Whether the publisher or author contact their lawyers depends on how easily p*ssed off the author and publisher are and how high profile you or the content/author are.  
In other words, if the NEW YORK TIMES quotes to summarize an important new book about a major political figure before or soon after the book is published so that the reader need not buy it, all legal hell will break lose.  
If you want to quote a few paragraphs in a book about writing that's been around a bit, I doubt anyone will call their lawyer although you may receive an email from the author requesting you remove the material.  As a courtesy, you should.
Methods of citation vary from the footnote style you learned in high school to the more casual method where the information about the book is included within the body of the work --
EXAMPLE: As John Exum Smith said in A BUNCH OF NONSENSE ABOUT WRITING, "Writers are the silliest creatures in the universe because they believe others will want to pay them for their imaginings."
If you are using the summary in a positive manner such as you are recommending the book, you are far less likely to run afoul of legal problems.  If you are pulling all the "meat" out of the book stew so others won't have to buy the book, you are much more likely to have a seriously angry author after your head.
All this advice really comes down to the Golden Rule.  If this were your book, would you want someone else to summarize it as you intend?
For more information on fair use, I suggest this blog article:


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Links of Interest

A quiet week in linkdom.  Perhaps everyone is coming off a Halloween candy high.



AUTHOR BEWARE,  A CROOKED LITERARY AGENCY ARISES WITH A NEW NAME:
CREATING A CHARACTER THAT SEEMS REAL:
FREE WRITING BOOKS:  A number of good writing books from Writer’s Digest are available for free download this week.
CRAFTING THE SENTENCE:
BEWARE THE EVIL OPTION CLAUSE:
AGENT SUBMISSIONS 101:
RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT BOOK CONTRACTS:
WAYS TO KEEP AN AUTHOR WRITING FROM THE FAN PERSPECTIVE:

Monday, November 7, 2011

Writing that Fight Scene

QUESTION:  I’m having trouble writing a decent fight scene.  Any suggestions?
The absolute best way to get the fight scene right is to really put yourself straight into the viewpoint character's head and feel that weapon in your hand, see your enemy in front of you, see the location.  What do you see, feel, touch, taste, and hear?  Are you scared sh*tless or are you a cold killing machine?  Etc.  Etc.
If you have no experience in fighting, try to think of something you have done that can compare to that like a really aggressive game of football or basketball to get a sense of the craziness of a lot of people moving around you.
There are some really great reality documentary style shows on now, too, like DEADLIEST WARRIOR on Spike, which really shows you how warriors from particular eras fought.  I imagine you can find them online or can find the series where you rent TV shows.
If you are writing monster fight scenes, the reality documentary series JURASSIC FIGHT CLUB where dinosaurs fight each other will give you ideas beyond the one monster bites the other scenario.
Also, go to your keeper shelf and pull out those novels where the writer really got it right and study how he did it.  
If nothing else helps, just write the dang scene so you'll have it on the page, then go back and rewrite it until you and your critique partners are happy with the results. 
This blog also has some more articles on the subject under the label "fight scenes."  Read those.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Links of Interest

A GREAT DEFINITION OF A THRILLER AND WHAT MAKES IT WORK:
CREATIVE TOOLS FOR ANALYTICAL (OUTLINERS) WRITERS:
MORE ON ASPEN MOUNTAIN PRESS DISASTER:
SETTING:
COMBINING THE REAL AND UNREAL IN SETTING AND WORLDBUILDING:
FIRST LINES:
STYLE BLUNDERS:
WRITING TIPS FOR NaNoWrite:
SOLVING PROBLEMS IN YOUR NOVEL:
PUTTING TENSION AND CONFLICT IN YOUR NOVEL:
HOW TO START WRITING A NOVEL:
REFERENCE RESOURCES:
REALLY BAD CLAUSES YOU DON’T WANT IN YOUR BOOK CONTRACT:
PLOT REVERSALS: