{"id":33970,"date":"2017-01-07T06:30:22","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T17:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33970"},"modified":"2017-01-06T22:45:46","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T09:45:46","slug":"picking-the-perfect-names-for-my-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2017\/01\/07\/picking-the-perfect-names-for-my-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking the Perfect Names for My Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"daughter-of-blood-by-helen-lowe\"<\/a>

USA<\/p><\/div>\n

In the mid part of last year I posted a few thoughts on names in both my fiction and Fantasy literature generally, including my enduring love affair with the long names of the genre and the use of names in both world-building and character development.<\/p>\n

In rereading those posts recently, I also recalled that I was specifically asked about picking names for my characters in an interview with Fresh Fiction<\/a>, not long after Daughter of Blood<\/em><\/strong><\/a> was released (into the reading wild. \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n

The question was:<\/p>\n

Fresh Fiction:<\/strong> “You have some amazing character names. How do you pick the perfect names for your characters?”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"UK\/AU\/NZ\"<\/a>

UK\/AU\/NZ<\/p><\/div>\n

In case you missed it then, here’s my answer again:<\/p>\n

HL:<\/strong> I keep working on them until I get them right for the character! One of the main players in Daughter of Blood<\/em> is Myr, whose full name is Myrathis, but who is also known as \u201cLady Mouse.\u201d The \u201cMouse\u201d part was a constant from my first creative glimpse of the character \u2013 but I had to do a great deal of writing and rewriting of the opening scene to get her full name and diminutive \u201cjust exactly right\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet because Myr is a leading protagonist who appears throughout the book, as well as being a nuanced personality, I knew I had to get her name \u2013 and its character \u2018flavor\u2019 \u2013 spot on from the outset.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, too, a name will contain a \u201ckey\u201d to the character. For example, the nickname of \u201cmouse\u201d is important to the development of Myr\u2019s character through the Daughter of Blood<\/em> arc. And the name of the Wall series\u2019 main character, Malian, is based on a Greek root: \u201cmal\u201d, meaning \u201cdark\u201d \u2013 and it is not chance that Malian is also the Heir of Night. <\/span><\/p>\n

As for Raven, whom another character calls \u201cthe Raven of Battle\u201d, I hope his name speaks for itself \u2026 In short, a great deal of thought does go into the character names, not least because I find it helps the story to ‘flow.’ “<\/span><\/p>\n

To read the interview in full, click on:<\/p>\n

Fresh Take: Meet Helen Lowe<\/a><\/h4>\n

To check out those other posts on names, click on:<\/p>\n

Use Of Names: Worldbuilding, <\/a>Part 1 <\/a>\u2014 The Wall Of Night Series<\/a><\/h4>\n

Use Of Names: Worldbuilding, Part 2 \u2014 Thornspell<\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

Use Of Names: Character & Identity \u2014 When Names Have Deeper Meanings<\/a><\/h4>\n

Having Fun With Epic Fantasy: My Love Affair with Long Names, Part 1<\/a><\/h4>\n

Having Fun With Epic Fantasy: My Love Affair With Long Names, Part 2<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the mid part of last year I posted a few thoughts on names in both my fiction and Fantasy literature generally, including my enduring love affair with the long names of the genre and the use of names in both world-building and character development. In rereading those posts recently, I also recalled that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-epicfantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33970"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33973,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33970\/revisions\/33973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}