By Celise Downs

So you’ve got your plot outlined, a title lined up and research is done. You’re ready to start writing your novel. But wait. Now comes fun part: creating names for your characters. One of best things about being a writer—besides innate ability to create imaginary worlds—is giving birth to a character and then bestowing a name upon him or her. True, you didn’t carry character in your womb for nine months (especially if you’re male). But he or she could’ve been in your head for nine months…or nine years. So choosing a name for your characters seems almost as important as one you would give your own child.

The name you decide on will dictate reader’s perception of that character, so select wisely. If your character is an agoraphobic scientist, he or she should not be named Brittany or Rick. Does this bunch of hoo-hah sound familiar to you? Raise your hand now, don’t be shy. I thought so. Now let me remove rose-colored sunglasses so you all can see harsh light of reality. The reality being that having a common name conjures up a stereotypical image. What picture forms in your head when you hear name Tiffany? Pretty, popular, blonde-haired cheerleader? What about name Melvin? Skinny guy with glasses and a pocket protector? Now what comes to mind when you hear something unique like Lyric? Or Dax?

We as writers have been blessed with a wonderful gift. We are a rare species unto ourselves in such a way that we can build alternate realities for public to enter. We are storytellers that pull ideas out of our bu-that is-minds, invent our own language even, and only names we can come up with for our characters are Johns, Susans, Kathleens, and Sams? Unacceptable. These are perfectly good names, don’t get me wrong, but they’re safe names. I used to be in an online critique group and someone said that if your main character has an unusual name, secondary characters should have more common names; that way, it won’t be so confusing to reader. My initial response wasn’t printable, but I can tell you that it sort of went a little like this: “Who died and made you Ruler of Writing World? Heaven forbid we throw our readers a curve ball every once in a while.”

It’s called variety, folks. In Dictionary, this word is defined as “the quality or condition of being various or varied; diversity.” If you don’t step outside your comfort zone and offer your readers some different flavors, you’re not going to sell any books. I decided from get-go that all characters in my books were going to have unique names. I wanted to stand out from pack and dance my own little jig. So here are some suggestions on finding primo names for your characters:

1)Books, Magazines, and Newspapers – These are wonderful sources. In magazines and newspapers, a story, a self-help column or even a product ad could house a name that would be worth writing down. People use baby books to choose names for their children, so why not do same for your characters? These books can be very in-depth, stating meaning of name as well as its origin. I’ve used The Writer’s Digest Character Naming Sourcebook (1994, Sherrilyn Kenyon with Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet). It features more than 20,000 first and last names and their meanings from around world: Norse, Slavic, Teutonic, Arthurian Legend Names, and more.

You may be thinking, "I'm not a writer. I don't have required talent. I've not written anything in past."

One thing you must understand is you need not be a professional writer to write an informative article consisting of about 300-500 words. All that is required is your knowledge about given topic which you want to write. This knowledge can be attained through your own experience and reading through other articles.

The best thing to do is just browse through articles in various ezines. Pick up topic of interest to you and start reading as many articles as possible preferably at a stretch. You will be amazed to know that you too can produce such simple articles.