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Posts with tag: character-names | Return to the IWJ Homepage
How Scott Westerfield Names His Characters
Author Scott Westerfield provides some insight into how he names his characters in this post on his blog called Westerblog.
But Uglies takes place 300 years in the future. Names probably won't be the same as now. So I needed something that's not a current name, but that doesn’t make your brain fritz when you read it. So I chose a regular word in English.
That's right: "tally" as in "count." As in "Hey, Mr. Tally-man, tally me bananas."
Thus, the little spell-checker in your brain doesn't ping every time your eyes scan across those letters. (And the real-world MS Word spell-checker doesn’t draw a squiggly line under it.) "Tally" is capitalized, of course, so you know it's a name, but otherwise "tally" reads as a perfectly normal word.
But not too common. When’s the last time you actually used the verb "tally" in a sentence, like "Let me tally those Scrabble scores for you, Old Chum?" Too common could be very bad, like if you named a main character Ask, or Her, or The. (Actually, "Said" would be the worst. Even writing about the late writer Edward Said can be quite tricky.)
Scott Westerfield is the author of young adult science fiction novels. His current series -- The Uglies Trilogy -- takes place in a futuristic society (see Uglies, Pretties and Special. His post about character names ended up being boingled -- which means the Boing Boing blog blogged about it.
Posted on January 25, 2007
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Bid Your Way Into A Bestselling Novel
Several bestselling authors are allowing readers to
bid on character names on eBay in an effort to raise
money for the
First Ammendment Project (FAP). 100% of
the proceeds will go towards FAP. Here are a few of the
character name offerings:
Stephen King: "One (and only one) character name in a novel called Cell, which is now in work and which will appear in either 2006 or 2007. Buyer should be aware that Cell is a violent piece of work, which comes complete with zombies set in motion by bad cell phone signals that destroy the human brain. Like cheap whiskey, it's very nasty and extremely satisfying. Character can be male or female, but a buyer who wants to die must in this case be female. In any case, I'll require physical description of
auction winner, including any nickname (can be made up, I don't give a rip)."
Lemony Snicket: "An utterance by Sunny Baudelaire in Book the
Thirteenth. Pronunciation and/or spelling may be slightly 'mutilated.'
An example of this is in The Grim Grotto when Sunny utters 'Bushcheney.' Target publication date is Fall 2006."
Michael Chabon: "Your name or the name of your choosing will appear at
least once in the next novel I write. I reserve the right not to use the name
if it is offensive, mischievous, ill-intentioned or inappropriate."
Neil Gaiman: "My next novel will be called The Graveyard BooK. It's a children's novel, and will be published, er, when it's published. Maybe in 2007 or failing that, 2008. It will have lots of gravestones in it. Your name, or the name of someone you love (who won't mind) can be on a gravestone."
John Grisham: Your name or a name of your choosing will appear as a fictional character in my next novel. The character will be portrayed in a good light. My next novel should be published either in 2007 or 2008. The name you choose cannot be that of a real person other than yourself."
Nora Roberts: "Your name or the name you choose will be used for a character in my novel to be published in 2006."
Here is the schedule of character name bids:
September 1-10: Michael Chabon, Amy Tan, Peter Straub, Andrew
Sean Greer, Karen Joy Fowler
September 8-18: Stephen King, Lemony Snicket, Dorothy Allison,
Jonathan Lethem, Ayelet Waldman
September 15-25: John Grisham, Nora Roberts, Neil Gaiman, Dave
Eggers, Rick Moody, ZZ Packer
A complete list of the authors and what each one is offering
can be found here on eBay.com.
Neil Gaiman, who came up with fundraising idea and suggested it to
author Michael Chabon, has also posted information about the character name auctions here in his journal.
Posted on August 16, 2005
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