Thank you for the ideas Lu, it certainly got my tired brain moving! I ended up sitting down last Sunday and writing for about seven hours straight, trying to get that scene right, but I think I finally have it. After I went back and read it over, I was able to expand on a number of things I'd already said in order to make it the length I wanted. I honestly don't know why it took me that long - tedious perfectionism, probably.

7, I've done a lot of history-developing for my world as well, though not all of it is actually written down yet. I should probably do that. My story revolves around something that happened in the past, which happened because of something else that happened a long time before that! So the whole thing is a sort of history. Recently, I've also been going back and trying to develop those characters who don't really have much of a background and give them all histories, so that I can get to know them better.

narniahannah, I've never heard of that! But it sounds like a lot of fun. Let us know how it goes!

Glad everything worked out, Silver!

Lu

P.S. 7 hours..wow!

I have a problem with names.
I've had three brothers and another guy who's names all started with the same combination of letters. So I changed the first three guys names, but the old names, similar as they are, are better-sounding than the new ones. So I don't really know what to do.

Whew, it's been a while since I've posted here! I was really burned out after doing NaNo (just barely won by four words! ), and December was really busy all the way around. Like 7chronicles and Silver, one of my resolutions for the new year is to start reworking my novel and see if I can get a first draft punched out, so I'll definitely be hanging around here more and more.

I have a problem with names.
There were these three brothers, and another guy, and they all had very similar names. (Findsom, Findor, Findas, and Findal) I thought they were all too alike, so I tried changing them. But its not working out very well. They get their one name, and it seems to stick. None of the new names I thought of work very well, either. So should I keep the names that I've been calling them for years, or should I change them? (the first three mentioned are brothers.) Findas is out of the story fairly early, but the rest are around quite a lot.

Those names are really cool and I can definitely see why you don't want to get rid of them. Have you thought about keeping their current names, but having them occasionally call each other by the nicknames of Som, Dor, Das, and Dal, or something along those lines? It might help differentiate them more, but then, it might just make things more confusing. Just a thought. I know how hard it is to change a character's name, especially if they've had it for years!

I found a similar problem too. I tried to randomize my names and I still ended up with a lot of names starting with J. I'm not the best at coming up with names and even when I have a good list to choose from, picking one just doesn't work well for me. But here are some tips that help with names selection. Do what you can to avoid having similar looking names or similar sounding names. For my novel, I had two characters named 'Baden' and 'Raiden'. During my final battle scene, I ended up having both of them taking on the same villain. And the names are so familiar I had to do something about it. I tried to use someone else in the battle, but that simply didn't make sense for the characters. So I decided to change 'Baden's name to 'Maynard'.

Another thing with names is that you want to stay consistent with the culture you are writing. Especially when dealing with historical fiction. You don't use Spanish names in a Chinese culture, unless you have a Spanish character. And you don't use American names in a pre-American culture. In a fantasy/fiction world, you can make up your names, but be consistent in the style. If you look up a translation for certain words, like seeing what the Greek word is for 'castle' or 'hope' and using that for the foundation of your new name, stick with that style for a given culture. This will give your culture some depth and not just a hodgepodge of names selected from a hat.

I have a problem with names too, unfortunately. Of my five main characters, four of them have names that end in "N", and the one remaining name ends with "M". Four of the five also have two-syllable names that follow the same vowel stress pastern as words like "HAP-py" "AN-gry" and "FUN-ny". Three of those five names have second syllables starting the the letter "L". One of the five has a name that, no matter how many times I try, I cannot spell it the way it's supposed to be pronounced, and everyone always says it wrong.

I didn't do this on purpose, of course. What happened was, all of the names came to me at different times - some months ahead of others. And once I started associating my characters with them, they just stuck.

I know I'm going to have to change something eventually. But, like Lady H, I've had these names for years and years, and changing them would be really hard. But, alas, it must be done. What I'm thinking of doing is changing some but not all of them, and the ones that I will change, I'm going to just tweak them a bit instead of coming up with an entirely new name. For example, I'll add in another syllable here, change a letter or two there, and vola! New names, but not completely different from what they were originally. This will make the transition a little easier for me.

Well, of all the above, Findal will stay Findal, and its the brother's names that will probably be changed. I tried to do something similar, though. Unfortunately, I've become worried to death about accidentally naming them something embarrassing. I liked the name Firron as a replacement for Findsom, but I'm not sure about it. I like to try and keep the same ending, but it seems like all the other good beginnings for names that end in -dor have already been used. There's another trio of names that are all really similar (Eslan, and his two sons Estam and Esran), but since all three of those people never appear in the same book I think that's okay. But three of the guys whose names all began with find- all have lots of scenes together, so that has to go.

Meanwhile I am on chapter five and doing the best I possibly ever have (well, at least in a w-h-i-l-e) on a book.

So, Alice George and Arthur almost have an "Alice in Wonderland" moment when they slip down a hole after a rabbit they were chasing. But I don't think it's that bad, not like I'm copying C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien or anything. Which is a very good and unusual thing!

So they just found an old abandoned city (they were hoping to find food and help to direct them back home) and soon I'm going to have them meet some mysterious guy who helps them. No, I do not know what his name is. No, I do not know how he affects the end of the story. But I soon need a turning point where the kids decided to stay, even though they can go back (think LWW after they rescue Edmund). And I am suddenly sorely tempted to make the mysterious guy in the city be rather like Strider.

Lu

I solved my name problems for two characters! Findsom is now Firron, and Findor is Saynor. Now I think I really do need to do something about those 'Es' people (I'll probably change the name of the minor character), and find something better than Enhas to replace Findas with. I think having two similar names can be okay if its like a series or something, and the two similarly named characters aren't even in the same books.
I had the help of a fantasy name-generator website.

Oh wow! That's neat, names are hard. I usually throw something out there and keep using it even if I dislike it slightly. What was the website you used called? Sounds neat (though I probably wouldn't use any but my absolute originals- picky that way. )

Lu

I don't know what generator Lady H uses, but the one I use is here. Like you, I don't actually take too many names from there, but it's good for inspiration. Sometimes, I'll find different syllables that I like and tweak them, combine them, and move different letters around until I come up with something original, that I like.

Yeah, good inspiration! Thanks Silver!

Lu

Another helpful name source is http://www.behindthename.com - not only for ordinary names but for ideas from various parts of the world, such as Irish, African, Indian, and even mythological names.

Friends can also be helpful. The other night I was visiting friends (one of whom is a writer), and mentioned I needed a couple of names. She made one suggestion that confirmed a name I was leaning toward, and offered an excellent idea for the other name that I've decided to use.

I needed the new names for my latest project - a fun exercise with my NaNo main characters in which one of them finds himself in the proverbial 'alternate universe.' It's not a worst-case scenario (as in Back to the Future 2 or It's A Wonderful Life), just a few fun changes that will keep him on his toes.

hello fellow writers!
just wondering, has anyone ever heard of One year adventure novel? it's a curriculum designed for the begining writer and helps with learning story techniques and pretty much anything else a writer wonders. I'm doind it, and there is no way I would have ever written anything if it weren't for OYAN.
http://www.oneyearnovel.com

my novel's coming along pretty good. don't know if anyone wants to hear about it?

I am so going to ask my mom if we can use that in our homeschool program! It looks so inspiring and great! I'm going to ask my parents if we can get the demo dvd to check it out.

@stargazer: I also use that site for name finding! I found a couple of my characters names on there!

I also have a hard time finding names!
I named one of my countries, Odysseus and the other Andromache. This became a problem later on after I learned more of my Greek Mythology and found that the names were to familiar.
So I’m still searching to find some names to replace those.