With Halloween days away, I’ve been thinking about how writers wear many hats. As children, Halloween is an excuse to slip into another skin. If you dream of being a firefighter, it’s perfectly acceptable to portray yourself as one. Likewise, if you have an obsession with Freddy Krueger, no one will bat an eye if you don a fedora and strap on some wicked fingernails. Costuming How does this apply to writers? Well, unless you are a memoirist or nonfiction writer, you make stuff up. You create firefighters or Kruegeresque characters with nothing more than a vivid imagination and a keyboard. Feel like writing a character who works at a…
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How do You Name Your Character?
I like my character’s name to be compatible with the time period. For instance, if my female character was born in the 1920s I’m inclined pick the name Evelyn or Doris. But if my female character was born in the 2010’s I’m more likely to pick Emily or Madison. So how do I select a time-appropriate name? Historically Accurate When writing in a different time period, my go-to website is SSA. The social security administration has compiled the 200 most common names for girls and boys from each decade starting in the 1880s. Generally speaking, when choosing a character’s name, I pick a number before I pull up the list…
