A question to scriptdroids & other budding writers

[Oddboy]

How do you come up with the heros name?

I'm working on a story (which I'm not going to tell y'all about yet - unless you get me drunk & probe me at Shedcon) & I've got the basic plot more or less sorted but no name for the lead (or in deed any) characters.
Should I use the flip through a phone book method or does anyone have any better solutions?

Oddboy.

[Trout]

Probe you?

I don't think so.

- Trout

[WoD]

Whay not use names from the notice board.

Mark has quite an heroic quality.

[damnandblast]

"How do you come up with the heros name?"

That's the best bit about writing a script! I've found a number of methods work for me; take a name, swap the firstname and surname and play with the result (not as daft as it sounds). Another rich source are foreign place names (I have a favourite country for this). And if you're doing something humorous the theme can help - my first small-press script was about MegaCity weather control and all the names had meteorological connections. One that's coming up is set at sea and all the names have nautical references.

Nigel

[Jared Katooie]

Just pick two names from anyhere and swap the first names around! It's great. Avoid John's, Jack's and Smith's too and you'll be fine...

And Katooie is mine y'hear?


JK

[Oddboy]

Hmmm....

Gary Wyatt: "Arthur Wilkinson, we meet at last!"


Nah, needs more work...
Ta for the suggestions y'all.

Oddboy (quite relieved that the fish won't probe him)

[Quirkafleeg]

Names, I always have trouble with names?

The name scrambling one works quite well... I've also picked names from the writers of any books near to me... Try to avoid the desperate 'first thing you see though' Mr Mouse, Mr watch, Mr Pen...

And try to avoid Wendy House and similar unintentional hilarities.

The mighty random keystrokes method brought us the Daleks!

You can go for the Martin Amis approach and call someone by an aspect of their character (Keith Talent)... though, if say, you are writing a Dredd based screen play and you have a bent Judge, don't call him Judge Evil or Judge Bastard or similar as it might just give the game away?

[Art]

There was a nasty Judge Hitler a while back...

[damnandblast]

"...Mr Mouse, Mr watch, Mr Pen... "

Surely Mr Full-Ashtray, Mr Work-Avoidance-Toy, Mr Kidney-Dialysis-Machine etc.

These are *writers* we're talking about here, no?

Nigel

[Tiplodocus]

I send off to a mail order company in Conneticut who provide names for all occasions.

I like to give the names some relevance to the story (if you can get away with it not sounding stupid).

So in a time travel story I had the hero called Planck and everyone else named after a period of time. In another time story I had a Julie-Ann Day.  A story about the process of writing (and rejection)  had everyone named after fonts.

And just wait until you read the story with characters named J'hiz and Kl'midia.

You can take short cuts with characterisation, I guess, by calling people things like Steele and Keane.

I'm dying to use my mate Johnny Mullis' name just because I think it sounds cool.

Actually, if I spent more time on the story than I did on getting cool names, maybe I'd have got something published by now...

[Richard McTighe]

I often give names to characters based on their nature, the situation they're in, or their point in being in the story.

For instance, in a Future Shock I wrote there was a character who existed solely to be killed off; he was called P.D. Vice - the 'P' standing for Plot.  Arf!

[Leigh S]

You certainly shouldnt consider naming a thuggish Judge "Goon", for example.

[Matt Timson]

"You certainly shouldnt consider naming a thuggish Judge "Goon", for example."

Now that's funny...

[Tommo]

Try foreign words for an aspect of the character's personality or role. Well, it's an easy way out.

[Tu-plang]

Never use Johnny or Jack or Joe.  All are done to death and smack of 'action hero'.

I try to go for more common names, but when I put pen to paper and come out with something like 'Graham' or 'Tim' I know I've gone too far and it's as boring as bat shit.