All Comments on 'How To Name Characters'

.... the thought of Joyce Grenfell in a porn story!

Name the characters! I remember stumbling across a story a few years back that was pretty good but rather than name some of his/her creations, it was "Mr. xxxx". John Smith would always be better than "xxxx" and if you know a Smith and think they may recognize you by your writing style and wish to remain internet anonymous, Brown, Reed, Jones, whatever. This is online fiction at its most abundant, not witness protection. No one is likely to come over and pull your toenails out for stretching "the little gray cells" (random ambiguity points if you get the name of that character) . The point is, give your creation a name. It's the nice thing to do.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

This tidbit of advice is long overdue. As with anything else, there may be the occasional "exception to the rule", but you adequately covered that concept, also.

I hate when famous name people appear in a story as a character (especially a main character) other then themselves. Ya know like: Sylvester Stallone appearing as a meek little pharmacist, or Christian Bale as an elderly father in law. Or John Lennon as a traffic cop and Mick Jagger as a podiatrist. Or the ER nurse Janet Jackson, and her surgeon brother Samuel, being transported by their mother Jesse. Even old dead stars aren't exempt, I mean Lee Marvin as a classical oboe player with John Wayne on viola? I don't think so! The not so obvious point to this rant? It's a lot of fun to think up weird occupations or characterizations for famous names, and it's even more fun to write them. In fact on a porn site this type of literary masturbation is probably acceptable, and could even be considered "charming" or "cute." But as you've probably noticed by now, it's not so much fun to read.

the back button works very well!

A friend of mine used the letter die from a Scattergories(c) game to choose a character's name. He'd roll the die twice and choose a name based on the letters that came up.

Even if you have been writing for a while, you can still sabotage your own writing with those pits that trap your readers and lose them forever. I love to read these types of submissions. They are gentle and amusing reminders. And, yours were so true. It made me look at the story I'm writing and say "did I do that". You know what they say--if you have to ask...

Thanks

~ABG

take names out of other stories to use for someone or something else. Such as SS06 does all the time. Like in his story 'November' where he named a ship 'DQS1'. That is just lazy. And he does it all the time.

That I took the time to read this I mean. I have read other how to's and found them lacking. I have yet to write a story but it is on my bucket list. Thanks so much.

If you spot such mistakes in a story, the writers on here are amateurs and don't claim to be otherwise, no matter how 'professional' a critic you think you are!

If you have a story with related characters and also others such as Wife Swapping. It helps if the related characters names start with the same letter... ie. Albert and Alice, Bob and Barbra, Charles and Carol... so when you see that Alice is with Bob... you understand as opposed to Carol with Charles..

Same goes for Brother/Sister when other friends or Families are involved... just makes it easier to keep it straight.

Points well taken.

Thanks for taking the time to write this piece.

But I really wanted to give you five stars!

that Dick Trickle is offended that he wasn't consulted during the writing of this piece.

Harry Butts isn't all that happy either.

Asian seductress Suk Sum Kok was unavailable for comment, although her younger sister Lik Sum is reported as being indifferent to the whole affair.

My particular gripe is reading a story and not knowing until you're well into it whether the character is male or female. It's particularly common (and annoying) in BDSM stories where the gender of the character, when you finally find it out, can cause to you say, "Why did I ever start reading this?" For me BDSM stories with the male on the receiving end can be erotic but the other way around is boring. The way to avoid the problem is to use a name which is gender specific. Dick, Tom, and Harry or Jennifer, Louise, and Katherine are perfect but Riley, Lyn (or Lynn), and Nat are bad choices. Unless you want to annoy the reader.

One point I would add is that I hate stories where the characters have no names. This occurs most often in BDSM stories, but it sometimes shows up in other stories, as well. The most annoying form is where the characters are merely referred to as "He" and "She." Tied for second are "Sir" and "pet", and "Master" and "slave." If the reader cannot decipher the relationship between the characters based upon their actions and dialogue, then the author has failed to tell the story effectively. Pronouns--when used judiciously--make reading a story easier. But when they are used as a crutch, then the author has failed to use his/her imagination.

... one I would have given 5 stars to; sadly ....

Thank you for your time and trouble in bringing us this piece.

my 2c

ONe thing not covered here is the fantasy/sci-fi names. I have found that it can be very weird when reading a story about say an elf named Robert, this just doesn't sound right whereas an elf named Galadriel seems to fit.

While the advice is good, I do feel, it is one-sided. By that I mean, you address some of the issues of choosing names but you do not discuss ideas on how to name characters. This leaves readers wondering how do you name characters even though you know what pitfalls to avoid.

I think Snoopy was reading one of my stories when he came up with this idea.

My first story, I switched Mom and Daughter's names around. Stacy and Susan.

Another story, my worst scoring, used only pronouns. But to be honest, it was an experiment intending to do just that.

For the past few stories, I mix things up depending on the number of characters. For only a few characters, they have first names begining with different letters. For another story, Janet Jones swaps her son Josh to Cathy Coleman, taking Cathy's son Chuck to bed. Then Susan Smith came by the house with her son Shawn and things really got mixed up. Which pleased Chuck as he really wanted to fuck Mrs. Smith.

Thanks, Jenny

I once had a female character whose father was French-Canadian. I didn't know much about French names, so I picked the last name of the Wayne Morris character in Paths of Glory: Rojet. I think it's pronounced Roe-Jay - I'd have to see the movie again. Sometimes people she meets mess up the name and say, Roe-Jet.