Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? II

[Imladris]

I do a few things to discover names.

A. Take a word from a foreign language (Latin and Greek for me normally), and "transform" it into a name.

B. For fantastical names, I try to find odd names -- names that aren't too common, and then spell them differently. Sometimes, I'll scramble letters as well.

As for deciding names: I believe that this is an off shoot of letting the story write itself. Sometimes you just *know* the name of your characters and all's well and dandy. Sometimes, as some of you have expressed, you don't. My recomendation would be to just pick a name you are somewhat satisfied and continue to write using that name. When you finally decide the name of your character, you can go to your word processor and replace the name, etc. However, if you don't like writing a character with an unsatisfactory name (like me), I would recommend to hold off writing the story. I've found that when I force a story, it doesn't work at all.

[Lhundulinwen]

Well, I guess I'm lazy. I finally bought a baby names book. It has foreign names, out of date names, and variations of names. I can take any of the names in the book, and twist them, or put them with regular fiction characters or fantasy characters. I know some writers who use web databases to find names also.

[Enorëiel]

I like to think of myself as a serious fantasy writer but sometimes I wonder...

My biggest problem is the fact that I'm a hard critic on myself. Others look at my work and think it's great but the whole time I'm comparing my work to others and thinking that mine is really pathetic and immature. Anyone else have that problem?

I find my characters' names in a really odd way... I type random letters on the computer until they look authentic, unique, or at least somewhat plausible .

[Eowyn Skywalker]

Oh, do I ever have that problem. I write... and most people think it's good... everyone but me, that is. What I'd like to do is actually find someone else who writes, and is about as good as I am, and then we could send each other's stories back and forth, and actually give advice, and correct, and all that. I am one of my worst cridics (sp?).

Back to names for a moment though, I know what you all mean... tha characters can usually find their own names. One of my characters was origanally called Tiffany, after a friend of mine, and she was meant to be the 'girl' of the group. But, as her character went on, she proved herself unworthy of the name, and so I gave her a new name, an 'elvish' name that suited her better... and so the character just found her new name. My first experience with this 'finding' of names was with a halfy character. He had a name in my first scribbled drafts by hand... he was meant to be evil, and all... I called him Yanindil, or something else like that... but, when I started writing the story on my computer, suddenly the character changed, and he had a new name. It was odd. Names just come to me, and come to the character... like Arawyn Telessa... I made that up on the spot, and yet, I already know what her character will be like. She's a human, one of a seafaring race, and her people are slowly dying out... as the lands are growing, and the seas were she was born are receeding. She is not royal, but has some bloodline leading her to the throne, so, if the persent royals were to die, she would have to take leadership. But she is not that type... she is a free spirit. And that just comes from the sound of her name. (PS: This character just came to me, I won't be using her anywhere, anyhow... anyone can borrow her)

Yeah, that's that. I hope I made some sense... I know I didn't make dollars... sigh.

-Eowyn Skywalker

[Estelyn Telcontar]

When I need names for an RPG, I often take real life names of family and friends and change them to suit the race/people to whom the character belongs. For example, 'Mark' became 'Markal'...