Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "characters"
Sandscript Names Names
What’s in a name? A baby has been born and the parents cannot decide upon a name. Neither can the author. Choosing a name for a new baby is often difficult and the considerations to be taken into account are often as unique as the tiny new person. Family tradition or outrageously original, which names will go with the surname, what will the resulting initials spell?
Will the name suit them when they are adults? Dante Gabriel Rossetti swapped around his Christian names, but either way his name sounds more romantic for an artist than if he had been called Fred Brown. Would the music of Monteverdi or Palestrina (taking his name from the town of his birth) sound as sweet if we knew them as Smith or Jones? Mass murderer or leading statesman, who can predict what their child will be and choose an appropriate name?
Novelists are advised never to give their characters names that are similar, lest the readers get confused; each name to start with a different letter of the alphabet, so no more than 26 characters, 24 if Xanthe and Zachariah don’t suit the story. Even with very different names, too many can confuse the reader, so lesser characters remain anonymous; John’s father, the vicar, the doctor, the police sergeant.
Pity the leading character in a novel.
‘We wanted to have more children, but the readers would have been confused.’
‘I hardly know the neighbours, there wasn’t room for them in the plot.’
Whatever names an author chooses, statistically there will surely be a real person somewhere in the world called the same, though you can Google to check the name that popped into your head is not the celebrity of the moment, Prime Minister of New Zealand or a television detective.
Rules are made to be broken and I have broken some in my novels, so in ‘Brief Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘Three Ages of Man’ you will find a list of characters before the story starts. In the meantime I must think of a name for the new baby in ‘Lives of Anna Alsop,’ third in the ‘Brief Encounters Trilogy’.
Will the name suit them when they are adults? Dante Gabriel Rossetti swapped around his Christian names, but either way his name sounds more romantic for an artist than if he had been called Fred Brown. Would the music of Monteverdi or Palestrina (taking his name from the town of his birth) sound as sweet if we knew them as Smith or Jones? Mass murderer or leading statesman, who can predict what their child will be and choose an appropriate name?
Novelists are advised never to give their characters names that are similar, lest the readers get confused; each name to start with a different letter of the alphabet, so no more than 26 characters, 24 if Xanthe and Zachariah don’t suit the story. Even with very different names, too many can confuse the reader, so lesser characters remain anonymous; John’s father, the vicar, the doctor, the police sergeant.
Pity the leading character in a novel.
‘We wanted to have more children, but the readers would have been confused.’
‘I hardly know the neighbours, there wasn’t room for them in the plot.’
Whatever names an author chooses, statistically there will surely be a real person somewhere in the world called the same, though you can Google to check the name that popped into your head is not the celebrity of the moment, Prime Minister of New Zealand or a television detective.
Rules are made to be broken and I have broken some in my novels, so in ‘Brief Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘Three Ages of Man’ you will find a list of characters before the story starts. In the meantime I must think of a name for the new baby in ‘Lives of Anna Alsop,’ third in the ‘Brief Encounters Trilogy’.
Sandscript on Holiday
What does a writer take on holiday? Some might say nothing to do with writing, if it is supposed to be a holiday. Away for nearly a month, driving around the north of England and Scotland, the first essentials were clothes of every description to cater for any kind of weather. Then the other essentials, cameras to record our travels, including card readers and battery chargers, kindle, knitting and a bag of toys (electronic) to keep the rest of the party occupied while I wrote.
Fresh air, walking, seeing new cites and remote rural areas, meeting interesting people and getting inspiration for settings and characters, all important ingredients of a trip.
At a secluded cottage one can pretend to be a writer who has cut themselves off from the world. But with the right equipment an author can write anywhere.
Take a clockwork lap top and at least one memory stick with the current novel and all other writing. If wi fi is available the blog can also be kept up to date.
Always have a notebook handy for those pleasant times when the sun shines as you sit by the river with your coffee, or on the cathedral green with afternoon tea.
Take the paper manuscript of the novel in progress; if the electronics fail you can read, edit, check the plot lines…
Did I do all these things? Yes.
I downloaded photographs every day onto the lap top ready for my website and Facebook and when rain or mist descended I typed up the notes scribbled in the sunshine.
I’ve edited my novel and knitted a scarf for a family member visited on the way home.
Of course the other advantage of taking manuscripts, paper and electronic... if one should arrive home to discover the house blown up in a gas leak or flattened by a meteorite, at least the writing has been preserved.
Luckily our house was still standing when we returned.
And did the driver complain that I had taken too many bags on holiday? Yes.
You can see some pictures of places visited on my website; in the picture quiz and in Beachwriter’s Blog.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...
Fresh air, walking, seeing new cites and remote rural areas, meeting interesting people and getting inspiration for settings and characters, all important ingredients of a trip.
At a secluded cottage one can pretend to be a writer who has cut themselves off from the world. But with the right equipment an author can write anywhere.
Take a clockwork lap top and at least one memory stick with the current novel and all other writing. If wi fi is available the blog can also be kept up to date.
Always have a notebook handy for those pleasant times when the sun shines as you sit by the river with your coffee, or on the cathedral green with afternoon tea.
Take the paper manuscript of the novel in progress; if the electronics fail you can read, edit, check the plot lines…
Did I do all these things? Yes.
I downloaded photographs every day onto the lap top ready for my website and Facebook and when rain or mist descended I typed up the notes scribbled in the sunshine.
I’ve edited my novel and knitted a scarf for a family member visited on the way home.
Of course the other advantage of taking manuscripts, paper and electronic... if one should arrive home to discover the house blown up in a gas leak or flattened by a meteorite, at least the writing has been preserved.
Luckily our house was still standing when we returned.
And did the driver complain that I had taken too many bags on holiday? Yes.
You can see some pictures of places visited on my website; in the picture quiz and in Beachwriter’s Blog.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...
Sandscript
I like to write first drafts with pen and paper; at home, in busy cafes, in the garden, at our beach hut... even sitting in a sea front car park waiting for the rain to stop I get my note book out. We
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