The tale of a hero beyond compare,
With flashing eyes and perfect hair.
Flawless words flowed from my head --
Until I reached that first damned said.
Now the true strife begins at last
As floundering in a sea of names, I'm cast.
Rosebud and Cloud are far too cute,
And he's no Bob, beyond dispute
Corwin? Hilton? Lane or Bard?
Naming a kid couldn't be half this hard!
A couple dozen names go by,
(My hero gives me the evil eye)
I search the shelves for baby name books
(Kept hidden to avoid occasional odd looks)
With frantic haste I start paging through,
No, no --Androcles will never do!
No Mac or Mark or Michael here
Such names are too plain, I fear.
Nicholas has a nice sound it's true --
But I've used it in a book or two.
So to stranger, archaic lists I turn
No he's absolutely not a Vern!
Trying to keep plot lines in my head -
Would what's-her-name take a Loki to bed?
Hours of writing time frittered away
That can't be the dawn of a new day!
I sit and curse that first damned said --
Oh the hell with it! I'll call him Fred.
From: NaNo for the New and the Insane: A guide to surviving NaNoWriMo by Lazette Gifford
http://www.lazette.net/Free%20Stuff/NaNoBook.pdf
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3 comments:
A wise writer once told me that in a novel, characters have time to grow into the name you give them.
Having said that, this hasn't stopped me agonising about names for weeks and weeks. That wonderful 'global find and replace' function is so helpful. Though potentially dangerous.
:-)
I took nearly a week trying to name one of my characters. He's supposed to be a mystery, so I was trying to find a name which didn't represent a specific nationality or ethnicity.
Eventually I went for 'Ersatz'.
Cheers,
Mike
There are lots of sites on the internet with lists of names of different nationalities, regions, religions etc. I find them especially useful.
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