Questions about creating and using names.
-2
votes
1answer
95 views
Ideas for nicknames of characters in a story
I'm translating a short story into English.
1). The protagonist is a woman in her mid-forties. There was a time when she used to copy out verses from poems and paste them on her wall. The people in ...
4
votes
2answers
158 views
How to have a character be nameless for the first few paragraphs of a book?
Let me first explain what is going in in the beginning of the story: My main character belongs to a tribal culture that requires their children pass a rite of passage to earn their name.
So I'm kind ...
1
vote
2answers
82 views
Chapter names: The various ways of implementing them and why should I care
I see many times, that authors use various name formats for chapters:
"***"
"Twenty Four"
"Chapter 5"
"XIX"
"Last Resort"
"Ad notam" (or something Latin or any foreign, (!not author!) language)
...
5
votes
5answers
479 views
Inventing names for Sci-Fi characters
How can I invent names for fictional characters in a future-setting Sci-Fi story so they won't be connected to any existing culture?
I considered the following options:
Invent some random names. ...
8
votes
4answers
206 views
Characters with no names
I've got a few short stories going, and I've foregone naming any of my characters. It started because I just didn't have any good names in my head and I was going to take care of it later, but now I'm ...
6
votes
6answers
714 views
Coming up with names for species in fiction?
When you are writing a story that is set in a fantasy world (maybe our world with just one made-up element, or a completely different world), what is a good way to come up with names for species that ...
1
vote
1answer
93 views
Do I correctly utilize my naming adjective concept in this book?
In my story THE GOSPEL OF THE RETURN OF A CHRIST THAT WANTS ANSWERS I wanted to evoke a sense of the middle ages in a modern book. So I utilized a technique where whenever I referred to a character, I ...
3
votes
4answers
117 views
Not knowing a character's name. Would this be frustrating for the reader?
I have a project I have been working on for many years. It is quite personal and is intended for a small audience.
In the story, the protagonist is trying to find/help another character, who for ...
5
votes
7answers
595 views
Is it OK to refer to some characters by first name and to others by last name?
I'm writing the outline for my first novel, which has three main characters. I'm very happy with their names, however I recently noticed that I was naturally referring to the first two by first name, ...
4
votes
2answers
341 views
On copyright laws and plots
I was pondering a lot on the issue with copyrights on plots. Is having an identical plot infringing someone else's copyrighted work?
I am fully aware that the character names are copyrighted and ...
7
votes
5answers
203 views
About using authentic historical name for teenager material
I am writing a (short) story set in Ancient Egypt, and the intended audience are junior high-senior high school students in the US. I am trying to use authentic Ancient Egyptian names for the ...
5
votes
2answers
243 views
How do you come up with a fictional character name in a historical era/region?
How do you research to find character names? Especially when it's long ago, not European, and the culture was totally different from what the region has now. For example, how would you generate names ...
8
votes
7answers
370 views
Potential confusion: referring to home planet as “Earth”
I'm writing a science fiction story and it's based in another galaxy, colonised by humans originally on a geographically equivalent "Earth".
My current usage refers to it as "Earth" and provides a ...
15
votes
9answers
816 views
Any Technique to See if Your Idea is Original?
I usually get quite a lot of ideas for stories, but every time I want to develop them into a full fledged story, I get paranoid about how it might not be an original idea, and how it might be ...
6
votes
8answers
427 views
Tools for generating characters' names
I found this name generator:
http://www.fakenamegenerator.com
And I'm wondering if maybe there are others? Has anybody found this kind of tool useful? What about tools for fantasy names? Should I ...
11
votes
1answer
569 views
Are Names of Characters Copyrighted by Authors?
Are names of characters copyrighted by authors? For example, the character "Eragon" from the Inheritance Cycle series, or a name that you've generated using an online name generator that you'd like to ...
26
votes
18answers
2k views
How to name the characters of your story?
I find it hard to name my characters. Every normal name sounds funny if applied to a product of my fantasy. If I take a common name, I may get the image of someone I know into my head. And that may ...
