How do writers create characters? 1: Names.

How do writers create characters?

There are many different ways of doing this besides the basic gender, age, race, favourite colour, favourite animal, etc fix. Here are a few other ways:

Names

'What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.' - Romeo and Juliet, Act II Scene II

Well you see Juliet m'dear, that's where you're wrong. A name sets up a character. It tends to be one of the first things you decide on before even writing the book. Let's start with Hunter, shall we? Hunter is named Hunter because he is a hunter. Simple, no? Oui oui. Obviously, that's not his real name but I won't be revealing that tidbit just yet. But just believe me when I say a lot of thought went into his real name. I was stuck between four or five names and I was really struggling with which to pick. In the end I found a quote by one of the Popes (I won't reveal which one either) which fit perfectly with Hunter's character and so I named him after the angel mentioned in the quote. There you go, I've almost given it away. Hunter's name after an angel. That's your only clue. His surname is actually a real surname of a real clergy from the Salem Witch Hunts. Yep, I did my research. When I first started the book I knew Hunter would be religious and I knew his father would be a clergy, priest or pastor. I then developed the story idea to include witches (spoiler alert!) and voila, Salem here I come. From there it was easy.

So naming is hard. If you literally spent five seconds naming your character then I'd advise that you revise it. Think of it as... a baby name. Your character is your baby. You don't pick out a baby name at the last minute do you? No, parents will think long and hard about names and meanings and so why shouldn't you?

Let's move onto meanings, shall we? I like to make sure my characters have names that either reflect on their personality or symbolise something for another character. Felix's full name is Felicity. Felicity means happiness and, quite frankly, that girl brings a hell of a lot of happiness to Hunter's life. Pretty simple, huh? Don't forget to make sure your name fits your character's background too. If your character is French, don't go naming him Billy Bob and like wise, if your character is from Texas don't go naming him Jean-Luc. Be reasonable and be kind. Don't name your characters anything stupid. I'm half kicking myself for the whole "Felix is a boy's name!" thing but I'm hoping that I'll start a trend. Yeah, soon you'll see all the mom's naming their daughter's Felix. Yeah...

So don't listen to Juliet. Don't do it. Call your character 'Rose', don't name her 'Dog Crap' because regardless of her lovely smell, she'll still get some unwanted attention. In fact, just don't trust anything Juliet says. She got married at 13 and killed herself a few days later. Not exactly a role model. And Romeo's a paedophile. She was underage. What the hell is wrong with you Shakespeare!? Stop promoting underage sex, eloping and suicide.

So that's naming. Enjoy. Tomorrow I'll look at... EPITHETS. With a few examples from the Odyssey. Yay...