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It sounds rather simple, naming a character. But it’s not always easy coming up with the perfect name for the imperfect character. So what’s a writer to do? How does a writer decide what name to attach to a character, and why?
Let’s start with the obvious. Characters need names, just as real people do. When a baby is born, there is no way for the happy parents to really know what personality the child will develop as they grow. Even genetics won’t give the full picture. So they decide on a name for the baby, and that’s it. There are untold numbers of children who grow up that names that are so obviously just not them.
What’s the difference in naming a baby and a character? A lot! For one thing, when you name a character, you already know or have an idea what this character’s personality is or will be. And unlike real life, you can change the name of your character if you lead your character into a new personality.
Deciding on a name can be tricky. The idea is to try and match the name with the type person you are attempting to portray. If you want to show that your female character is shy, reserved, feminine, look for “soft” names, such as Heather, Jennifer, Laura, Stephanie. If your female character is more of a go-getter, and outgoing, names like Ashley, Julia, and Kate might fit your character better.
Let’s say your main male character is a rock climbing man, rough and tough, makes Rambo look like a Barbie Doll. Would you name this character Harold or Walter? Probably not. Names like Hunter, Dirk, and Eric tend to bring to mind tougher type characters. If he’s a nice soft spoken accountant, Harold and Walter might be the perfect fit for a name. Then we have the sometimes exhausting process of just trying to think of another name, or something different.
There are books available that can help you decide the personality traits of your characters, therefore enabling you to better name them. One is Building Believable Characters. It has a section of given names and surnames in it, among other useful information.
The inevitable criticisms that come with the prestige of being called an author could very well be thought as an author’s worse nightmare. How can anyone not be negatively affected by comments and articles that seem to be so harshly written against an author? It’s easier than you might imagine.
The most famous authors have received terrible insults, have been ridiculed, talked badly of, had horrible articles written about them. How do they handle this? You might say that being an author and in the public, this type of thing is bound to happen, and they must deal with it. This is true. But how do they deal with it?
If you are hoping and planning to be published one day, to be an author, you must learn to deal with the critics. It’s easier than one might perceive it to be.
Let’s start with the nasty email and letters. You go to your mailbox or check your online mail. What do you see when you open the mail? Terrible words, from someone saying all sorts of bad things? Or do you see an angry, jealous person who wants what you have, yet has not attained it? Think about it. Does the person that has written such bad things know you? Or are they simply striking out in a jealous rage? When they down you, are they really downing YOU? Or would you say they are projecting they own inner feelings and lack of publishing success?
If you keep in your mind that the people that want to criticize you do not even know you, and that they are simply writing something due to their immense jealously at your success, then you can laugh the criticizers off. So they say bad things about you. Is it REALLY about YOU? No, it’s not. Remember it’s nothing more than jealousy at your success.
Handling criticism also builds your character. If you intend to be published in the “real world”, you absolutely must be able to handle the criticism. It will come! If you cannot handle it, you’ll never make it in the writing business. You will never be able to please everyone all of the time, so don’t waste your time trying. There will always be someone telling you that you cannot write, that you do not know what you are talking about, etc. Who is right? Those few that say you cannot and are aweful? Or those many that let you know that you can? Easy answer!
Allow those that critique you to offer you their gift of help. Much to their amazement, they are actually helping you a great deal with each bad criticism they give you! How? By getting you ready for the real world of publishing. By toughening you up, giving you the power you need to succeed!
How does getting bad comments and criticisms give you power? Easy! Each one you get is like another battery charge! To get more is actually better than getting none. While these people think they are hurting you and humiliating you, they are actually ENCOURAGING you to keep going, because their jealously only shows that you are on the right track, and that you CAN do it! It shows that you DO know what you are doing, and that it is GOOD!
When those inevitable criticisms come, take heart and thank the person that sent it or wrote the bad article about you. They have NO idea how much they are helping you, and NO idea how much encouragement they have given you.
If nothing else, remember this one thing. You MUST be able to handle criticism in order to make it in this business.
For those adoring “fans” that have helped me along, given me so much encouragement and help, I thank you. I could never have come as far as I have without them. They have indeed been my biggest and best help!
Handle criticism with your heart. Allow it to build you up and take you closer to your dream……being an author.
The graphic that is with this article is not what you look like, absolutely not! Rather it’s what those that criticize you look like because they cannot get to you. (Grin again here).
You’ve read them before, many times. Blah or boring, perfect and flawless, too good to be true, obviously fake characters. So what can you do to take a different path? To make your characters come to life, seem real, appeal to the reader’s emotions? The answer is rather simple, though it often escapes the best of writers.
To make your characters human and real, give them real emotions, real feelings. Ideas? Heartbreak, even death, is real. Try job loss, promotions, marriage, divorce, even the affair. Does your character have health issues? Is he or she worried over hair loss, weight, that their clothes aren’t matching today? Make them real!
How many perfect people do you know? Exactly, there are none. Therefore, why would you author a book containing a perfect character or characters? Do you know any people that are without flaws or some type of weakness? Granted, there are those that would have us believe they are flawless with a fortress of steel built around their hearts. Reality, however, tells us that all humans have some vulnerable characteristics.
The obvious being stated, this tells me one thing. Readers want to see real people, with real feelings, real problems, real solutions. Regardless of what genre you write, if you paint the character as being too good, without any imperfections, the reader will more than likely become bored with the book. There are, of course, always exceptions to this idea.
Let’s take the case of the classic fictional hero novel. Our fictional hero, Joel Raison, searches for missing people. He leaves his native France, setting out on a journey that will take him across the globe. He is searching for a woman, Sarah Jehan, reported missing for well over a month. Sarah’s aunt has hired Joel to try and find her. How can we make Joel something more than “just” a hero here?
Throw in some plot lines. Joel might have a stone cold heart, closed after being heartbroken over a lost love, vowing never to let another in. He does his job, gets paid, and moves on to the next job. What would it take to melt his cold heart again? Sarah Jehan? Why or what about Sarah would make her any different than any other female Joel has encountered in the past five years since his big heartbreak? Surely he’s encountered many females in his line of work. What is he afraid of, or maybe we should ask, who?
And what about Sarah? Where is she? Why did she leave France? Or did she ever leave at all? A plot twist suddenly could help! Sarah knows of Joel! Hmmm, you ask….what’s Sarah up to anyway? Could it all be a ploy to heat Joel’s fire? Or did someone kidnap her? Now make Sarah real and give her some flaws, something that she is afraid of, etc.
Have you got the picture? Make your characters real. Give them desires, wants, needs, fears. Mold them after realistic ideas and thoughts. Give your readers something to identify in your book’s characters. Write so that your reader feels they actually know this character. Giving your players something to make them less than perfect allows your reader to feel they are part of this character’s life. It allows the reader to participate in the story, to get involved, to feel part of the action.
That keeps them coming back for more.
How many times have you visited your favorite book store, browsed the isles, had a couple of titles catch your eye? If you’re like me, you can’t count the times. After checking it out briefly, you buy the books, check out, go home. Once there, you cozy up in the recliner with a nice warm blanket, and open a book up to read. As you near finishing the first chapter, your disappointment level is mounting.
What happened? What changed from the book store encounter with a book that looked and appeared to be so interesting, so enticing, to the one you have in your hands now? The author failed to do one very important thing. The author failed to have the reader’s attention by the end of the first chapter. If the reader is bored before they finish reading just one chapter, do you truly expect them to have the desire to finish your book?
It’s a fair assumption to say that if an author does not the reader’s attention early on, they’ve lost that reader. What’s worse? The reader just spent money on a boring book. Readers talk. If too many readers tell too many people, “Hey, don’t buy this book, it’s like totally boring,” then you’ve lost a lot of potential customers. Let’s say that same author puts out a new book. The reader that bought the previous book sees it on another shopping trip. Do you think that reader will buy another of that author’s books? Doubtful.
Now for the tricky part. How do you make that first chapter, and all others for that matter, interesting enough to grab that reader’s attention, and hold it? First of all, be assured that not all readers how the same interest. So it stands to reason that there will always be someone who will find your book boring, blah, off color, just plain out wrong. To grab the attention of the reader, there are some basic, and fairly simple ideas you can follow.
Start by using the power of description. Describe what you are talking about. The reader can’t read your thoughts. Use descriptive words. Appeal to the reader’s senses: their emotions, their fears, their wants, their desires. Write to move the reader, to want to help the helpless, slap the villain, rescue the damsel in distress, run away with the hero. Make them not want to put your book down.
Examples…
(Boring)
The woman walked across the room and stood beside him, listening.
(Breathtaking)
The seductive woman slithered across the crowded room, and clung to him, mesmerized by his every word.
See the difference? Which tells you more about the woman and what she is doing? Now you’re understanding. The point is, don’t just tell the reader something, show them! Grab their attention, and then keep it.
If you can keep them glued to the book through the first chapter, you’ve usually got them through the entire book. What’s so good about that? They’re much more likely to buy your next book.
You can be an author. Yes, you can. Think of an author, and the word that comes to mind is prestige. You can have that prestige. It’s attainable. It’s within your reach, your grasp. Reach for it.
Becoming an author is not difficult, but it requires something we call commitment. Commitment to what, you ask? Commitment to yourself. You’ve got to make the commitment to yourself to do this, to do what you need to do to become an author. An author is not made without work, without time, without COMMITMENT.
What About That Word.. Commitment?
Commitment….it’s a different thing for different people. Some writers find it simple and unstressful to sit down, pound out a story, check it for spelling and grammar, and send it on its journey down Publish Me Avenue. Those writers usually have no problem with commitment. They know what they need or want to do, and do it. Yet another writer might look at the computer on their desk with disdain, knowing they need to write, yet having a feeling of doom come upon them. So they find something else to do, any excuse to keep from writing. They’re too busy, the house needs cleaned, and so forth. These writers have more a problem with commitment. They know what they want to do, need to do, but don’t want to take the necessary timne to do it.
Make the commitment to yourself to write so much at least every other day. Whether that commitment is to write five minutes, five pages, five hours, DO IT. If you get stuck on one storyline, blocked for ideas and thoughts, put that one aside and write something else for a brief time. Just write. You are building yourself as an author in doing so.
How does one become an author if they will not take the time to write something? If you are one of those people that has put Commitment on the back shelf, it’s time to take Commitment down, dust it off, and put it to good use. Commitment is your friend!
Some Ideas
Decide what is the right amount of time for you to write, uninterrupted. Five minutes? Five hours? You know your life, your schedule. Now take that, use it to your benefit. You say you have no time? Make it. You take time to go to the bathroom, right? Then you have time! Take pen and paper, clean off a spot in the bathroom, leave it there. When you’re occupied in the bathroom, use the time to jot down ideas and such. After a few of these trips, you’ve written yourself a book! Who knows how many authors penned their works while visiting the unspeakable place.
Got kids? Get them to help with the housework. Most kids are old enough to do some type of chore, whether it’s washing the dishes, folding laundry, and the like. Enlist them to help out, be sure they clean up behind themselves, let them help each other with homework. Take the time to write, saving the editing for later that night after they’ve gone to bed.
Are You a Comedian at Heart?
Do you live to crack people up? No, not the kind of cracking up that requires glue sticks to mend the person. Are you the type person that finds humor in life? Use that! Break out the paper and pen, the computer, the smoke signals, and write those funnies down! People love to read humor in articles and stories, especially when times are uncertain. It helps bring a feeling of calmness to life.
Humor can be found anywhere. The workplace, the home, the extended family, the grocery store, the park. Take ideas you see in everyday life, make them into your own story, and jot it all down. Humor makes the world spin around, so humor someone today!
Yes, you can be an author. The dedication you put forth will show in your finished product. As a craftsman takes pride in his finished piece, so you also can take pride in yours. The prestige that comes from being an author is one seldom seen in any other field. Join the ranks of that special group of people, become an author.
If you’ve ever dreamed of writing, of putting your feelings and thoughts into words and onto paper, you’ve already accomplished one of the major first steps necessary to be an author. But wanting to write isn’t enough. And writing itself isn’t enough. What purpose does it serve to write something, hoping someone else will want to read it, if no one desires to partake of the essence of your hard work?
Author Mania hopes to help you, the author, bridge the gap between your ideas and the reader’s interest level. We’ll show you how to capture the attention of the reader (who’s buying your work), and keep them on their tip toes, in anticipation of the next words. In doing this, you’ve already set the scene for this reader to buy (or not buy) your next book. After all, Stephen King didn’t become the best selling author he is today from authoring boring books. One of the main goals for fiction writers should be to capture and hold the attention of the reader.
If your desire is to write nonfiction pieces, there’s no need to think they have to be mundane or blah. When writing articles or books that deal with facts, writing with a bit of humor often makes the difference in whether or not you make a sell. This doesn’t mean making a joke out of your topic, rather it means adding a twist of funniness to your words. Not only will this help to sell your book, but it’s makes for more interesting reading.
Obtaining your own domain and hosting is fairly inexpensive. You can host your domain for as little as $3.99 a month using a GoDaddy hosting plan. You can also register a domain name for as little as $8.95 with GoDaddy. Web hosting and having your own domain doesn’t have to cost a lot! If you want a domain with more hosting resources, you can always upgrade to a higher host plan.
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