For 2019, I thought I’d do a new Sunday column—quick writing tips!
Each week, I’ll offer a tip you can take and apply to your WIP to help improve it. They’ll be easy to do and shouldn’t take long, so they shouldn't take up your Sunday. Though I do reserve the right to offer a good tip now and then that will take longer—but only because it would apply to the entire manuscript.
This week, it’s a quick check on the names in your novel.
Although we know our characters and who is who, readers can be confused by names that are too similar. Bob, Bill, and Barb are hard to keep straight, and while Jane, Shane, and Dane, look different to us, they sound a lot alike and could blend together in a reader’s head.
Take some time today and check all the names in your book. Are they different enough for readers to remember who is who with no trouble? Look for:
- Names that all start with the same letter (Kari, Karl, Katherine)
- Name with similar sounds or middles (Jane, Shane, Dane,)
- Names that are all the same length (Bob, Joe, Ann, or Annamarie, Donatello, Maximilian)
- Names that are hard to pronounce (Kalamium, Architol, Pthistis)
For more on dealing with names in your novel, try these articles:
- The Name Game: Do All Your Character Names Sound the Same?
- What's in a Name? Naming Your Characters
- What's in a Name? How Do You Name Your Characters
Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book. She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.
When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.
Too true.
ReplyDeleteDone right: Stan Lee insisting on the hyphenated spelling "Spider-Man" so his hero wouldn't be just two letters different from Superman.
Done wrong: the Dragonlance books gave us Tasslehoff Burrfoot, abbreviated to "Tas" even though the hero was "Tanis." Yes, they're the team's comic relief and its tormented leader.
That's cool about Stan Lee. I had not heard that, but it makes sense.
DeleteMy protagonist's name is Eli, and his off/on girlfriend (and supporting character) is named Aimee. Too similar?
ReplyDeleteI think that's fine. Different enough to stay separate.
DeleteI think Aimee and Eli are fine because visually they're different even if they sound alike spoken. I just realized the other day I had three: Marek, Morec and Marko, sigh. Marek has to stay because he's in something else, too, and probably Morec. One's a child and the other a very distinct adult so I think that'll still work but Marko became Cyrus. He was another child and often in the same scenes as Marek, and it was even confusing me, sigh.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I've done in the past, if the stories are fantasy or sci-fi, is just drop or change the first letter. Keeps it close enough I know who I mean but usually changes it enough for others.
Thanks for these Janice. This will be nice new series
That was my thought, too. The names seemed to fit the characters and their history. I was thinking of the actress Audrey Tatou when I created Aimee, but the name Audrey kept reminding me of Little Shop of Horrors.
DeleteNice tip--dropping the first letter. That's a lot of M-names :)
DeleteWhen I decide to write a piece of fiction I usually research the time period and the geographical location. Thank goodness for the Internet. So what I do is pick out names and surnames which would give a more realistic feel to my story. Often the surname is indicative of the occupation of my character, e.g. a barrel maker would be a Cooper. You might want to apply a Dickensian technique of creating a name that sums up the character's personality. Who could ever think of a more clever name than Scrooge! - T.R.
ReplyDeleteAnother great tip. I have several name sites bookmarked for research. I also like the Social Security site to see what names were popular at what time.
DeleteGreat post! I learned early on (from ARC readers) that the names in my multi-POV thrillers were too similar. One of my Scrivener files is now a simple list of all the names (across my series) and a short (one line) description. I keep separate detailed files for each character, but this list makes it easy to spot the problems you highlighted.
ReplyDeleteI have a list like that in my OneNote file.:) I also keep a "name pool" for when I need an extra.
DeleteThanks for the post. How do you handle historical names that confuse the reader. The fairly epic novel I've spent too many years on is filled with ancient biblical characters, whose names can't be changed but sound a lot alike (e.g. Jeh-something, Something-iah). I've tried nicknames, but all my beta readers get stuck on the names, regardless. With fictional characters, I try to apply more rigorous rules but still need to sound authentic. TIPS, please? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough one. And I've run into that with one of my novels, actually. I try to differentiate them best I can. Try to find names that fit the time period and naming conventions, but are as different as I can make them, especially in the first several letters. Readers often read the first syllable on tough names and gloss over the rest.
DeleteYou can also look at alternate versions of Biblical names. If I remember right, they often have several they're known by, and one of the other versions might work better if one is too similar to another.
If readers are still getting confused, just accept that either... A, it's going to happen and there's not much you can do, or B, change the names that don't absolutely need to be authentic and just have an author's note that you'd adjusted some names for clarity.
Hope this helps!