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"If I'm gonna tell a real story,
I'm gonna start with my name."
- Kendrick Lamar
"Call me Ishmael."
- Herman Melville
"It ain't what they call you.
It's what you answer to."
- W.C. Fields
How important do you think characters names are in your writing?
Think "Wesley" versus "Eric."
What images come to your mind about the personalities of those two men?
Take Darth Vader.
Darth as in dark. Vader as in the variation of the German "Vater" (father.)
Dark Father.
How do you choose the names of your characters in your novels?
Good question, Roland! For me, the names are very important, even for minor characters. I choose one that for me resonates with an emotion or impression that I hope affects the reader too.
ReplyDeleteI read once that Margaret Mitchell had at first named Scarlet O'Hara (wait for it...) Pansy. Acck! Can you imagine?
Might as well have named Rhett "Frank!" :-)
DeleteI have fun naming characters, especially if the story is light in tone or outright humorous. I once named a magazine editor "Angela Mercy" and a newspaper editor "Dewey Mellon" and his father "Crenshaw Mellen."
ReplyDeleteFunny. :-) I once named a crusty Kiwi soldier, Sergeant-Major Curmudgeon. It was a YA novel done like KIM. It worked ... for me, that is!
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