Author Resources: Names

When you're writing a book, one of the first things you need are character names. Why? Because you need to know who you're writing your story about.

I tend to start my notes with characters named B1, G1, B2, G2 etc, which stand for Boy 1, Girl 1, Boy 2 and Girl 2 and so on. Then, once I've got my basic plan of who the characters are going to be and what their personalities are, I can just do a full document replace. So, if I decide to call B1 Nathan, I can do a direct switch.

Once you get to that stage, you'll be looking at which names to use.

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Where do you find these names? There are a lot of choices:

Watch a movie. If you choose a foreign movie or one filmed in various countries, you can usually find some really good unusual, foreign names that will give your characters some authenticity. Or, just go for the super normal ones. But, don't just look at the characters or the actors who play them. Nope, your best bet for unusual names is to check out the cast and crew in the really tiny small print.

If you don't have time to watch a movie, try out the Internet Movie Database.

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Go through your old yearbook. Write up all names into Boy, Girl and Surname. Then, mix them up and you'll have a handful of names that you can use for characters. They're likely to be normal, every day names that will come in great for characters local to your area. If you're British and plotting your story in the same country, then the names from your yearbook are likely to be normal British names. If you're American and plotting your book in America, then your names will be normal American names.

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Think back to all your own favourite movie stars. The really amazing, 1920's, Golden Era of Hollywood stars. You'll often find that some of their stage names or real names won't be commonly used in our time. But, they can be great names for your characters.

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You can also search names by their specific country, if you have a foreign character you want to add 

to your story, or someone who has changed their name for whatever reason.

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Here are some generators you can use, online and offline:

Behind the Name

Fantasy Name Generator

Generate a Random Name

Donjon

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Here are some names from various films, yearbooks and movie stars that I've dug up for you:

Female

1. Greta
2. Lori
3. Jono
4. Sabine
5. Taea
6. Clotilde
7. Yolande
8. Mady
9. Valèrie
10. Monette
11. Marie-Laure
12. Karine
13. Valèriane
14. Pauline
15. Jona
16. Beatie
17. Pip
18. Fenella
19. Phyllida
20. Haydn

Male

1. Marion
2. Guillaume
3. Marton
4. Cameron
5. Brent
6. Fabian
7. Urbain
8. Serge
9. Ticky
10. Amaury
11. Geoffrey
12. Tristan
13. Raji
14. Aidan
15. Rolf
16. JJ
17. Art
18. Tariq
19. Ewan
20. Adie

Surnames

1. Makoare
2. Ulyatt
3. Dungey
4. Rhodes
5. Monaghan
6. Mortensen
7. Elsworth
8. Tautou
9. Cravotta
10. Csokas
11. Boyd
12. Nanty
13. Kassovitz
14. Bénichou
15. Pinon
16. Holgado
17. Babault
18. Zarrouk
19. Descoureaux
20. de Villeneuve

Character Casting: Courage in the Kiss

Today, we'll be taking a peek at the dream character casting for Courage in the Kiss, by Elaine White.

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Maxx

God, the man was gorgeous. In sunlight or in shadow, he was the most attractive man she'd ever met. He turned, on hearing the door open, and his features never changed. There was no smile or even an arch of those impeccably looked after eyebrows. Just nothing...as usual.

Still...Hadley almost lost herself to those blue eyes, to that natural upward tilt at the corner of his lips and the intensity of his gaze.

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Hadley

Maxx smiled, looking forward to the game of cat and mouse he'd unwittingly begun to play with her. He caught her thick brown hair in his hand and pulled her down, until he could kiss those pink lips.

It was the first he'd noticed that she wasn't wearing any make-up. Yet, she was still, easily, the most attractive woman he'd ever known. He kissed her with desperation and need, devouring whatever he could of her.

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Others

Other key players include:

Maxx's father, Emerson, who would be played by Ed Asner.

Micah, Maxx's little brother, who is seventeen and a keen observer. It would be awesome to have Callan McAuliffe play him.

As for Micah's troublesome best friend, Rowan, Colin Ford has the right attitude to bring off this character.

As a new addition, late into the story, the character of Ronnie creates an interesting development and is there to support Hadley through a difficult transition. Douglas Booth would be perfect for this side character.

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Character Casting: Parker's Proceedings

Today, we'll be taking a peek at the dream character casting for Parker's Proceedings, by Genevieve Scholl.

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Parker

 

“A young man, likely in his early twenties, dressed in business-casual attire, is heading in my direction. Dark brown hair is wind-blown and falling over his almost black eyes. Tanned skin is stretched across his tall, slightly muscular form. He is simply beautiful.”

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Ashlee

Ashlee Rosenthal is a 40 year old divorce attorney. Her life is boring, and her friends are few and far between. She feels dull and frumpy at her age, with average looks. Her blonde hair and brown eyes are lifeless and ugly, in her mind. But when Parker comes into her office and her libido takes a notice for the first time is nineteen years, something shifts in her point of view and he makes her feel beautiful once more.

*Author note: Diane Lane is not blonde, nor frumpy, but she fits the part more than any other actress. For the movie adaptation, I would be able to sacrifice details for her amazing skills.*

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Others

Other key players include, Dorothy, Ashlee's assistant, played by Molly Quinn.

And Christina, Parker’s soon-to-be ex-wife. The perfect actress to play this flawless character is Anne Hathaway.

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Character Casting: Crossroads

Casting characters for a book is a tricky business. First, you have to take into account all the little descriptive details you've woven into the story. Then you have to think about how those features translate on film/TV. It's said that blue eyes really pop on screen, but what if your character doesn't have blue eyes? What if the ideal actor to play that character does? That's what make up and contacts are for.

In this day and age, you can have your perfect actor and make them look the part. Now, if you've ever read Harry Potter and seen the films, you'll notice that Harry is all wrong, as an actor, because they didn't make him wear the right coloured contacts. Trust me, this is important. A lot of people love Daniel Radcliffe as the right Harry actor, but fan-hards know that the eye colour is wrong and point it out all the time. You don't want that.

So, we'll be taking a peek at the dream character casting for the Eternally Yours series, by Sophie Slade.

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Lance

I walked out of the examining room and noticed a dark shadow, a tall man standing at the end of the

hallway. It was hard to tell, but he was extremely attractive with dark, wavy hair that just touched his

collar, brilliant, green eyes, and a regal air—a true Renaissance man.

His black Armani suit with a pristine, white shirt open at the color and no tie was evidence that he was a hospital benefactor, a businessman.

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Leila

I laughed to myself. Even though I was only twenty-nine, I had been a doctor for two years now, which included four years of pre-med, four years of medical college and two years of residency, but my long blonde hair and blue eyes made me appear younger.

O’Malley let his eyes travel up and down my five foot, six inch frame and smiled.

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