11 Days till Launch: How to Find the Right Name for Your Characters

One of the really exciting things about writing a novel is meeting interesting characters.  There are more than 50 named characters in Stelladaur: Finding Tir Na Nog, most who I did not know before they appeared in the story.  I get to know them better as I write because it is, after all, their story, not mine.  My story is in the writing of it.  Sometimes as I write I can almost hear a character say, "No, that's wrong! It didn't happen that way,"or "I wouldn't say it like that," or "That's not how I feel about it!"  A character might tell me right then and there what to write, but sometimes I have to pause for a few days or longer and really think about that character.  Ask a lot of questions.  Listen.  Wonder.  A good writer does not reveal everything he or she knows about the characters.  And an excellent writer knows exactly what needs to be revealed.

Finding the right name for characters is also important.  I typically do a lot of research to make sure each character is given a name with meaning appropriate to his or her personality, especially for main characters.  Sometimes a name comes to me quite unexpectedly, which usually means it is the right name.  This happened for the character named Charlotte Louise McKinnley.  She enters the story at a critical point in the plot as a person from the past.  I stopped writing to see if she'd tell me her name.  Within a minute, her name rang in my ears clear as a bell.  A few days later I suddenly realized my deceased great-aunt and my grandmother were both named Charlotte.  They passed away before I was an adult and I had always called them by their married name, so it didn't occur to me that I would me naming this character after either of them, or in their honor.  But here's something else almost "Zen-like".  One of my granddaughters, who was born after the book was written but before my son or daughter-in-law read it, is named Charlotte!  And neither of them knew then about my great-aunt or grandmother who were given the same name.  Some things are just meant to be.

Sometimes I intentionally name minor characters after someone I know....just for fun.  Most of the characters in Stelladaur: Finding Tir Na Nog are named specifically for their meaning.  Check out the Meet the Characters link on my author website for a sneak peek introduction to each one of them.