Random Name Generator. Names by Usage. Problems with names | Writing. Names are identifiers. We're called John and Jane to tell us apart. Still, we're still reduced to saying, Jim, the guy who fixes our car, not Jim who's in Sales or having to say John the guy I golf with, not Jon my brother. If it's confusing in real life, how much more confusing is it going to be in your novel if you don't identify your characters clearly? You'd think authors would naturally be aware that similar names might confuse their readers. Not so: I read a novel where the author gave me a Jenny, a Janey and a Janine. Names that look too much alike also tend sound too much alike, so those readers who 'hear' words will be doubly irritated. It's not just the look and sound of the names you have to consider, but also their rhythms. "Where? " By choosing instead Ted, Francis, Jonathan, Jane and Anna, you will instantly be able to construct more fluid, musical prose: "Where?
" Names come with psychological baggage. Names themselves have intrinsic meanings. Names are powerful tools. A Simple Trick To Create Vivid Characters. Master The Craft of Screenwriting… Sign up for FREE membership and receive: - Exclusive Extract: 3 complete chapters of the cult Screenwriting Goldmine scriptwriting guide - Weekly script request from genuine production companies - Articles and newsletters to help you create exciting scripts that people are desperate to read We hate Spam as much as you do. You can unsubscribe at any time. Spending a lot of time imagining your character’s back stories and previous lives is time you’ve wasted. In my honest opinion. This flies in the face of so much you read elsewhere, but I’ve always found it to be so.
Look, no need to get bogged down. Think about any fascinating people around you. The one thing they all exhibit is contradictions. Someone may be utterly arrogant and aggressive, yet randomly kind. The trick is to get a couple of these big contradictions into your character. When I go into developing the story, that's pretty well all I have in my head as I start to work out the beats.
Personality.