Naming your Love Interest

Whenever I hear a good name, I try and memorise it in case it fits one of my future characters, much like some people do with future children. There's nothing I love more than finding the perfect name for my protagonist and knowing it's "the one." (It also provides hours of procrastination instead of actually writing...) But how do you find their perfect name?

When naming the love interest, I used to try and find a name that "went well" with my protagonist’s, but I quickly realised I was going about it all wrong. Your love interest will only work if they are a well-rounded character of their own BEFORE they meet your protagonist. Which means they need to have a name that stems from them (or their parents) rather than anything to do with your protag. Of course, if your protagonist is obsessed with a certain name, then your love interest's name might actually stem from them, but that's a rare event that I've only ever seen used in the genius play, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Choosing a name

Parents
Your character's full, official name would have come from their parents or legal guardians (we'll come back to nicknames), so you need to consider their heritage and parents' backgrounds. That includes race, religion, geographical background, social status, parents' values and even trends at the time when your character's parents would have been choosing their child's name. There's nothing worse than a 'Zane' popping up in a historical period novel.

Surname
British surnames often stemmed from old professions, so they are very important to consider when naming your characters. Even in fantasy, you have to know where your characters' surnames come from. Different cultures have different naming systems, such as "firstname" of "family name" or "father's name." If you do your research before choosing your characters' naming system, you can make sure their heritage is properly represented through the positioning or lack of a surname.

Nickname/chosen name
This is where you can solely look at your character and show what they think of themselves. Do they flaunt their given name, instead takeing a ludicrous nickname in rebellion of their parents/cultural expectations/ social standing/ political alignments? Are they trying to be ironic? Do they want to stand out so take an unusual nickname? Or are they in fact trying to blend in? A character's chosen nickname can reveal a lot about his or her personality in just one word. Contrast it to their given name and you open up another revealing window into their world view.

Given nickname
For obvious reasons, any nicknames that are given to your love interest (or any character) by others reveals how they are perceived by the world and therefore can hint at their character traits to the reader without having to expose them completely right away.

Character
Although your love interest will have realistically been named by someone else, you can do a Charles Dickens and hint at their personality through their given name. After all, most people suit their names, right? Think about sounds and connotations when trawling through that baby names website. Soft sounds like "S" and "F", will evoke different ideas of a character's personality than harder sounds like "K" or "T". Same rule with vowels and consonants.

Of course, you might want to invert all of this and call your character something that totally flaunts the rules! But the point is, you'll know why you're doing it, and that will show through in your writing. And as you might have noticed, this post could be related to any character, not just the love interest, but it's February and the theme is love so...... enjoy!

Reasons to be thankful this time of year

As the theme of November is thanksgiving, I thought I'd share a few reasons to rejoice the winter season as a writer:

Black Friday: This Friday (24^th) it’s Black Friday! This festive treat only made its journey across the pond to the UK (where I am) a few years ago, and it was pretty wild. But the shops have toned the hype down now for safer, funner and much more merry Black Friday sales. Let’s be thankful we can stock up on all our writing essentials, whether that’s a brand new MAC (a girl can dream) or a beautiful soft leather writing notebook, ready and waiting to hear all your brilliant ideas.

PitMad on 9^th December: Brenda Drake’s famous #PitMad Twitter Pitch Party will be hosted on 9^th December. Kick off your December in style by pitching your finished manuscript on the hashtag #PitMad #YA, and hopefully get it favourited by agents to earn yourself a request!

There’s a magical atmosphere: OK, so by January the short days and early nights are a reason to grumble, but these long winter nights pre-new year are perfect for snuggling in front of a crackling log fire with your pen and notebook. Outside, the air’s crisp and sharp, perfect for walks to clear your mind. At this time of year, the bars are busy, the shops are full, and everyone seems on the precipice of something exciting. Relax and soak up the festive air, admire the twinkling festive lights and get some inspiration for your new WIP.

It’s party-season! Even if you prefer staying at home to a night hitting the town, the party season can be great inspiration for writing… the shop displays tend to get more opulent at this time of year, and everyone out for their festive work parties will be glammed up, meaning it’s the perfect time to draw inspiration for that party scene or elaborate renaissance masquerade ball you’ve been dreaming about!

German Market arrives: Every writer knows a cup of coffee and a cookie are writing essentials, but once the German Market hits town those transform into a mug of mulled wine or hot chocolate and a fondant-covered fruit skewer! Make sure your fervent writing doesn’t get interrupted by a grumbling belly, by stocking up on all the goodies that market has to offer. (OK, OK, I admit, this is just an excuse to go to the German Market, but we all need a break sometimes, right?)

Sunrise: With those early nights, come late mornings, and what’s better than watching the golden sunrise over a frosty view? Even late-risers can enjoy a December sunrise, so set your alarm and get your notebook ready (freshly bought in the Black Friday sales, of course).

Experiment with Something That Scares You

October is the perfect month to prepare yourself for NaNoWriMo (if you partake) or just another month of writing for those who don’t, so why not… scare yourself?

I don’t mean by saying Bloody Mary three times in front of a mirror – although if you do that, would you let me know if it works? - but by tackling something totally out of the ordinary for you, within your writing.

For us YA writers and readers, we tend to stick within our own preferred age-range (I know it’s a bad habit of mine anyway) so occasionally I’ll make myself read books aimed at younger or older markets than YA. It’s amazing what branching out with your reading and writing can do for your writing skills. This October, try your hand at a paragraph or too of writing for a different age-range. 

Even if it’s not your cup of tea, you’ll be able to identify what it is that makes YA, YA, and why you love writing it so much, and either stick to it, or invert it some way that puts a new spin on your writing.

Then we have genre – personally, I love anything fantasy, sci-fi or thriller, which means those are naturally the books I’m drawn to at the book shops/libraries, as well as the ones I’ll pick up first from my bookshelf. But this October, I plan to shock myself and pick up some literary fiction or cosy mysteries. Maybe I’ll even dabble in some horror on October 31^st.

Because we all remember that amazing scene from “Bring it On” when the cheerleaders combine a range of dance styles to create a kick-ass dance routine (…. oh… only me then?) and I like to think experimenting with genres is a sort of the writing equivalent to creating that dance routine. As we read and write, we come to learn the expected tropes of a certain genre, which means we can use them, or invert them within the genre we prefer. You’re more likely to create that gobsmacking-ly original, cross-genre, industry-redefining novel if you’re well read in every genre there is out there, so get cracking!

Experimenting with tenses, POV, age-range, story-length, and genre means that you might discover a new style of writing that you absolutely love, but even if you don’t, you can combine all your new knowledge to make that sizzling dance routine. What makes that horror so scary? That thriller suspenseful? Romance swoon-worthy?

You’ll have fun finding out, discover new authors and genres that you love, and your writing will develop as a result. So, get out of your comfort zone and into that Halloween outfit! (and then do some reading and crazy writing.)