The next several months will bring author commentaries on all six stories contained within the Tales from Portents collection. My hope is to offer insight into the decisions made in putting the project together and the challenges therein. It’s also fun to point out the little Easter eggs throughout. (I love that crap.) So, SPOILER WARNING is in effect for the duration.
Naming Characters
Finding the right name for each and every character in your novel is a difficult task. Stretch that out into dozens of novels and it can be downright frustrating. Sometimes I find it is my biggest hangup when outlining a draft.
Series can actually help because for the most part the principal players remain consistent. New characters come and go but the majority of the cast is already in place. This held true for Greystone…
Until Loren decided to move to Chicago for three months in Eyes in the Storm.
Loren’s New World
With his return to Chicago there came a need to introduce an entire new world to the Greystone series and to Loren himself. Colleagues, family, neighbors, threats… anyone that had an interaction with Loren suddenly needed a backstory (some more extensive than others) but also a freaking name!
The secret behind the names in Eyes…
I could not for the life of me figure out how to name anyone in this story. It took days to figure out a theme behind them and it only came to me while taking my kiddos out for a morning stroll.
Street names.
I know, ridiculous, right?
Kendra GIRARD, Noah SOMERTON, Blake EISEMAN, Martin SHEPPARD – all are nearby streets. Once I settled on one, I believe Eiseman was first, it just clicked for the rest and became a lot of fun to insert that connection in the story.
If I’m being all literary I could also say it played into the theme of Loren returning home and not knowing anything about his old neighborhood, something I feel as well when I walk down the streets waving to perfect strangers. But that would be a happy coincidence to the whole thing.
Name resources
I have used a few nice resources since then to come up with names in my work:
Oh, Baby Names – I was on here anyway a few years ago so I bookmarked it and have since come back time and again to find a name (and appropriate meaning) for any new or recurring character introduced. The site has a great directory, including unique baby name ideas and the most popular names.
Behind the Name – This is important, especially when trying to tie theme or a character’s arc to their name and this site offers a unique search into different thematic categories that names fall into.
Alejo was one such name I pulled from a site like this when coming up with the character and I’ll be talking more about that next year in more detail. I will say, that the meaning shaped how Ruiz’s role turned out in the series so I’m very glad sites like this exist.
A special thanks to The Write Life for posting the original article where these resources came from. They also give other great tips for coming up with names.
My important takeaway is this: naming characters is a tough racket but, thankfully, there are plenty of different avenues to explore when coming up with the perfect name for your characters. (Get it? Avenues? Street names? No? Yes? Maybe?)
Next time
The Consultant begins. A look at the research side of things when developing a plot.
Thanks for reading.
