Read Hugh’s latest episode in the Grammar Black Market escapade.
Part 3 of The L.A.W out tomorrow.
The L.A.W Knocks ’em Dead in Lubbock.
Writing
NaNoWriMo Time
NaNoWriMo
Yes I said it out loud and it sounds awesome. I signed up once but was to shy to actually do it. I hate myself for it to this day but it was write after my accident and I wasn’t really up for it I suppose.
JoRobinson, Author and Goddess of writing and self-publishing gives awesome advice. Go check her new article out on LitWorldInterviews.
I took part in the NaNoWriMo event in 2012, and completing that crazy, epic sprint to the end taught me more than I expected about the job of writing. First and foremost is the daily word quota. The more you fall behind, the less chance you have of catching up, and writing just under 1 700 words a day seems daunting. The thing is, that most of us write more words than that every day without thinking about it. We blog, we interview, we write bits of our works in process. It’s absolutely doable though.
The beauty of the NaNo is that you get to leave chunks out. You just pop over anything you’re not sure of and write on, because editing during NaNo is death. The urge to go back and at least read over what I’d written so far nearly took me out, but I knew that if…
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Covert World-Red Storm Q&A with @ThomasATate
Thom Tate, author of now 5 novellas in the Covert World series is the guest today on Lit World Interviews. Action, Thrills, Dark Ops, Fast Paced. That’s his books not the interview, although the interview is pretty fast paced now that I think of it.
Covert World: Red Storm
Thom Tate
“Great pace, great characters, great plot – a great story.
If you like a good dose of James Bond, Jason Bourne or Will Robie – then you’ll love this new Blake Mackay story. You’ll be engaging with the characters, the antagonist ‘Petrovich’ being a personal favourite, while the thought out plot pulls you along without problems to the very end.”-Amazon Review of Red Storm
“A great read !. Blake is Hero in every aspect of the word with a fantastic taste in high-tech toys, too!”-Amazon Review
Fast paced action and thrills. I’m talking about the books of my guest today, not necessarily the interview, but hopefully you’ll find that entertaining as well. 5 novellas, one lead character. Seriously, what more could you ask for? Let’s get this things started and have me be quiet. Meet . . .
Thom Tate
@ThomasATate
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One Late Bloomer’s Journey to Publishing
PS Bartlett is an award winning author who works as part of the team for my Lit World Interviews site. Here she tells how she came to be that award winner and beyond. Great advice. Great story. I took notes as I secretly read it before it published. (It’s good to be the admin on the site 😀 )
Two and half years ago, I was walking on a treadmill at the gym and a memory came to me of how I’d always wanted to write a book.
I’ve been very busy for the past thirty or so years, so I suppose calling myself a late bloomer is appropriate. On this particular night, however, I felt something come over me as if I was possessed. I’m not sure what triggered it or whether the thought came from somewhere internally or I saw or heard something that brought it to the surface. All I knew was I had a story to tell. I didn’t know it then but apparently, I had many stories to tell. Here I am three published stories later with no end in sight—thank goodness.
Here’s how it all started.
In February of 2012, my life was a lot different than it is right now. My son…
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Procrastination
A great article by Jo Robinson on the LitWorldInterview site. People are loving it.
I believe that procrastination is always caused by fear – not laziness. I’ve always really wondered with what ears we hear our inner voice. That’s assuming that all of us humans operate pretty much the same way and have these little guys yammering away at us all day long about one thing or another. I’ve also always wondered why my particular inner voice is sometimes as harsh as it is. I think that that little nag in your head that says things like – Why on earth would you think you could write a book? Why are you such a lazy sod? You should have written two thousand words by now – slacker! You’ll always be mediocre, because you never finish what you start – because it’s trying to protect you from failure, ridicule, and pain.
Most of our fears and general weirdnesses really do stem from our childhood. Thank…
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Marketing – Your Way
Author Jo Robinson and marketing in today’s book world.
There have been quite a lot of articles around lately about how free and very low priced books are creating a large band of readers who are not prepared to pay for regular priced ones, thereby swiping the food out of “legitimate” authors mouths. That’s fine. People who are never going to pay for a book don’t matter, and probably wouldn’t buy your book even if it suddenly became illegal to ever give one away for free anyway. You’re in charge of the pricing of your work, and if somebody wants to read it they will buy it. Regardless of what all those intrepid freebie hunters get up to. So don’t be shouting at hardworking people simply doing their best to get a new product to the eyes of people who would otherwise never have a clue who they are. Indie authors who started publishing eBooks with Amazon seven to…
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How to get in a poetry groove.
Talking about how I write a poem today. I don’t mean as in line by line or how to rhyme.
I was having a conversation with Florence from LitWorldInterviews about my poem ‘Caught in the Deed’ and how the last line totally twisted the entire meaning of the poem and how I was getting some nice feedback for it. That has been a nice thing to have. If anyone who writes say they don’t care about feedback and compliments, I would question that a bit. And I say that simply for the fact that for the things I write there is often a lot of, and I mean a lot of emotion behind it so feelings evoke feelings and it’s nice to hear that those feelings came across. Of course I mean that in regards to other poems, not necessarily ‘Caught in the Deed’.
The truth of the matter is I had no idea what that last line was going to be. She asked what was the other possibilities, and I honestly said there were none. I seriously just had a thought of “I’m sneaking out to get something to fill my needs and I don’t want anyone to catch me.”
This turned into a conversation about how we both write. I am a go for it type. Some play it safe. Let me explain why I can be a go for it writer.
I can delete anything I write and not share it.
Interesting concept, eh?
One of my more popular poems is “Would you . . .” When I first started writing that day I was writing one of my more typical lame poems and I just was not feeling it, and I should not have been feeling it. So I hit enter a few times to space down to a clean area, closed my eyes, paused for a few moments to get that lame garbage out and just center on the first emotion that came to me, and then began to type.
I’ve told people before to just type with their eyes closed and don’t stop. When I say that I literally mean don’t stop for typos or anything. You are going to type words you never use and sentence structure that is completely outside of your normal style. One sentence may not make any sense in the stream of things but keep going. Nothing is wrong at this point, nothing is off limits.
Once you have exhausted it all, open your eyes and take a look.
Other than typos there are few things I change. I might change the length of a line because it ruins the flow of the poem, or I will change a word that is just a glaring horror to the rest of the poem.
What you accomplish when you use the no eyes technique is you rid yourself of all those outside visual distractions and you tap into inner images and emotions.
Another example of letting the worlds flow is the lyric poem “Look what you’ve done to me, oh oh”. To tap into a more primal/sensual feeling I had to close my eyes and just climb inside of my thoughts. For that one I had to ‘see’ what I was writing, but in order to ‘see’ I had to close my eyes to my humdrum surroundings and picture inspiration for those words.
Eventually you will be able to write without closing your eyes. I don’t. I actually play my laptop keys like a piano when writing at times. I even actually move my hands that way and groove to the feel. I know a real poem is happening if that is how I am writing.
Am I a professional or expert at poetry? Far from it, but I do enjoy it a great deal and use it to get a lot of feelings out that I need to get out. “Writing for Therapy’ is one of my things I say repeatedly. I guess if you look at those poems mentioned you’ll get a glimpse into what I need help with. Also, don’t look at my poetry as what poetry is suppose to be like, because as I said, I am not an expert. I am just a hack who has to get it out.
Much Respect
Ronovan
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com
Quote of the day from The Fritz Chronicles site.
A most excellent quote for all writers.
Sure you can see it all here but click and like it there and show some love and support.
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt.” Sylvia Plath
Writing Tip: Should you try to write in a genre style?
What genre do you write in? When you sit down to start your novel, what is it going to be able as far as what area of the book store or category on Amazon will it show up?
I could make this a long article, but I won’t. An author friend of mine and I were talking about a Romance I wrote, or two actually and that I wrote them having never read a Romance. The stories were really Love novels to me, but as for genre they would likely be called Romance.
I set out to write a Romance as a challenge to do something outside of my comfort zone and have discovered I love the basic ideas of the genre, but I had no idea what elements went into a Romance. I simply wrote the novels.
You see what you do is sit down and write your story. Pour everything into it, and then when you finish . . . find out what your genre is. The book will fall into some genre. Just tell your story from your heart. You can tell a science fiction robot story from the heart because you are putting all you have into a piece of your work. If you’re not doing that then I’m not sure why you are writing. I can’t write a novel, a poem, or short story without putting feeling it. I can’t even write this tip article without feeling emotions. If I don’t feel the pain of a character or have to walk away at times because of a decision I had to make in the book, then I shouldn’t be writing that story. (No characters were harmed in the creation of this article.)
Well those are my opinions. My opinions don’t mean there aren’t other ways to do it. Obviously people are doing it other ways and beings successful.
But for me and my tip today;
Don’t worry about your genre, just tell your story.
Get that genre thing out of your mind. It holds you back and is like some type of choke collar that keeps you from being creative because you think that something doesn’t fit right. No two books are alike, and no book is perfectly situated in one genre. A science fiction book, as an example has love, adventure, thriller and more in it, but it’s called science fiction because of the setting. So get out of the way of your words and write.
Much Respect
Ronovan
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com
Jo Robinson #Kindle #Books #Free and .99 #Amazon !!!! @jorobinson176
GET HER BOOKS NOW!!!!
2 are only .99 and 2 are FREE!! #Kindle.
Support our WordPress friend and author!Much Respect
Ronovan
Jo Robinson,
@jorobinson176
Blog
one of our interviewees, has marked her books at .99 for the first time and some are
FREE!
This will not last forever, so click it and get it . . .
NOW!
Fly Birdie
FREE!
The Visitation
FREE!
Shadow People (The Finding Book 1)
For .99
African Me & Satellite TV
For .99
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved by litworldinterviews.wordpress.com
The Writing Tip
I haven’t written any writing tips in a while. I think the last I did where all in a series about developing your characters. What one does as a writer is look at what work of theirs people read and then either write more of the same or work to make the less read stuff better because they are annoyed at a perceived weakness.
I just haven’t had the time to rework my annoyances.
I do have a writing tip today that is simple. It’s one we’ve all seen and take for granted that perhaps we do, but we really don’t.
Write.
Keep writing.
Write all the time.
Write something of everything.
We writers become snobs. We think as we classify ourselves as those who write stories, novels, or whatever . . . poetry, we believe we are above the advice to write. I have written for over 20 years in story form. I have written numerous books that are now yellowed paper manuscripts in stacks and taking up space on computers in several homes.
I write, I send, I receive, and I retry.
For years I kept rewriting the same thing, over and over and over again. I have four versions of one book on the computer I typing on now. Each a little different, a little different in a level of mediocrity.
Why?
Because I do not write, or rather I did not.
I have discovered over the past year that I can write. I can write humor articles, poetry, parody, interviews, and of all things . . . romance novels. In the past year alone I have written at least three novels. Two of them romances.
I was never a romance writer, or so all of my writing tells me. Some of you will understand what I mean by that. However as I stepped out of my comfort zone and challenged myself to write things I had never written before, as I have written over 600 blog articles in 5 months time, I have been writing and discovering that . . . I . . . can . . . write, because I am writing.
You may be reading this and are thinking you are different than I am. You are correct. I am wearing a black t-shirt sitting in a particular house where you are not located. There the difference ends.
Write. Do not be a snob or you will find yourself rewriting the same books for 20 years.
Write blogs, write poetry, short stories, fairy tales, fantasy, science fiction, YA, romance, mysteries, and even spy thrillers. Do it all. The more you do, the more you find your voice. And that, my friends, is why you keep writing . . . to find that voice . . . your voice. When you can write something and not sign it and people say “That’s my friend’s work.” then you are ready.
Much Respect
Ronovan
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com
2 Literary Agents Looking For Clients
All below originally from:
Chuck Sambuchino
Editor, GLA and CWIM
You all need to go and sign up for his emails.
2 Agents Seeking New Clients
Click on any name below to see the full mini-profile on the GLA Blog (with submission instructions). Good luck querying!
1. Mark Gottlieb of Trident Media Group
He is seeking: In fiction, he seeks Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, Comics, Graphic novels, Historical, History, Horror, Literary, Middle Grade, Mystery, Thrillers and New adult.
In nonfiction, he seeks Arts, Cinema, Photography, Biography, Memoir, Self-help, Sports, Travel, World cultures, True crime, Mind/Body/Spirit, Narrative Nonfiction, Politics, Current affairs, Pop culture, Entertainment, Relationships, Family, Science, Technology.
2. Soumeya Bendimerad of the Susan Golomb Literary Agency
She is seeking: She is actively seeking to represent literary fiction, upmarket/book club fiction, and select young-adult and middle grade. She is drawn to intelligent literary fiction with a fresh voice, coming of age stories, novels with elements of travel or stories set in other countries, family sagas, experiments with form, and complex but sympathetic characters. In non-fiction, she is seeking topics in popular culture, music and art history, unconventional business, politics, narrative non-fiction, sociology, cooking, travel, and memoir.
The Character Series Part 5/5: Character Beyond the Internal
The Character Series Part 5/5: Characters Beyond the Internal
VISUAL TRAITS AND TAGS
You are wondering what a Visual Tag (VT) is. A VT is a visual thing that you identify with the character. It could be a nervous tick such as an eye twitch or a swagger or how they wear their hat a certain way or even how they walk around with their shoes untied with short laces. The VT gives a distinction to the character and should enhance the connection and description of the character and serve a purpose. For me, the shoelaces would be for a younger person who is perhaps attempting to be cool or unique or trying to fit in with a certain crowd.
Dialogue Tags are things most writers now about, but don’t often consider being character related. We think of them as he said or she said. But there are affectations a character may have that you can mention, or how they whistle on certain letters or cannot pronounce certain words or letters properly. Once established you don’t overuse the tag any longer.
DIALOGUE: BOTH VOICE AND PHYSICAL
Dialogue is the key to your characters and often times the accepting or rejecting of your novel to be signed. I’ll get into Dialogue in another series because it is such a large subject but how one speaks externally and internally tells you everything you need to know about a character. Dialogue tends to be my stronger point, or so I believe, while I need to focus on a lot of the external and sensory things. Dialogue cannot be the book but it is a huge part of the book.
Body Language is something we forget about. The tension in how someone holds their shoulders drawn up so tight that they almost reach their ears.
PERFORM
What is another way to know a character? You need to see them in action. Seeing them react in certain situations and those reactions staying within character you have created. It’s an interesting thought but think of someone like Mr. T as B.A. on A-Team. Quiet for the most part, but his actions said enough. A tough guy with a heart. You didn’t really need any words. And it isn’t just action heroes this works with. You need to have the tender moments shown by the characters as well. Even a man on the witness stand at a murder trial has action.
Part 1: Creating Character Names
Part 2: What to Avoid when Creating Character
Part 3: Giving Your Characters Their Character
Part 4: Creating Believable Characters
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com
Female Feature Friday: Featured Female Blogger Blog Site-Jen’s Pen Den
Today is
Female Feature Friday
on
RonavanWrites
Today I want to introduce the first Female Blogger Blog Site Feature.
There are many sites out there that I enjoy for various reasons. And some of those have been included in interviews. One has not but I have a commitment for one and will hold her to it, but as a writer not a blogger.
This lady finds and shares the best writing advice from the best there is out there. She also gives her own advice from her own experience. I admire her. I enjoy calling her friend. She makes a smile cross my face every time I see her name because she is just such a nice and sweet lady.
Another reason I am featuring her today is that her 1 year Blogiversary was on the 12th. You need to read her article “One Year Blogiversary-How My Blog Saved Me“.
Another reason? For all of you NanoWrimo people she has great articles for that as well. Just click that link.
Everyone go and follow her blog today as soon as you read this. You will not regret the advice you will get on writing. And follow her on Twitter as well @JensPenDen.
Jenna Willett
of
(Just so everyone knows . . . I made the gif below and I think it might actually annoy her a bit so don’t mention it. I call it the Jenna Kent to SuperWriter look. And don’t laugh, one of you is next.)
A partial from Jenna’s About Jen Page:
“I write because I must. It’s not a choice or a pastime, it’s an unyielding calling and my passion.” -Elizabeth Reyes
Jenna Willett is a native of Denver, Colorado. Currently, she’s working as a Lead Copywriter for a Denver ad agency, while pursuing her ultimate dream as a traditionally published author. In 2011, she optioned one of her young adult manuscripts to Envision Media Arts, a film, television and commercial production company based at Paramount Studios. She also enjoys writing the occasional short story or flash fiction piece (Jen’s Pen).
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com
The Character Series Part 4/5: Creating Believable Characters
The Character Series Part 4/5: Creating Believable Characters
STAY WITHIN CHARACTER
Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird was a noble and honorable man. Imagine if you will if you saw him drunk and groping a waitress who was saying no.
I don’t think you would have the same respect for him. I know I wouldn’t. A character, good or bad, needs to stay in the character that you led the reader to believe he or she was unless you have a very good reason for a surprise change. Sure characters have a change of heart in the end, but perhaps there at some point along the way needs to be a glimmer, a hint of something in them.
BALANCE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
No character is usually completely perfectly good or bad in the aspects of either just morals or perhaps self-control or habits. To make one so is unbelievable.
I have a character in a Romance/Love story I’ve written, a trilogy. He’s the hero type. Almost perfect. But he does have flaws in him that show up if you are paying attention and realize it. The story is told from the viewpoint and voice of the woman. We see and hear what she does, but we interpret what she sees and hears differently. His flaws aren’t exactly negative, but they are to some extent.
PROBLEMS READERS CAN RELATE TO
Playing off the character above, you need to have problems the readers can relate to. The character above is in love with the woman but she’s engaged, and his problem is being in love with a woman younger than he is and trying to be a good man when he really wants so badly to tell her the truth. But he believes if he does then he is a bad man, and he always promised he would be a good man like his father.
I think we have all been in a situation where we like someone that is already spoken for and we can relate to how much that hurts. You instantly want to root for this man.
There are so many things that go into creating a character that it’s really the most difficult part for me. Writing a story, the idea is easy for me. Nailing down all of this is the hard part. But once you do it then things are so much smoother going.
Part 1: Creating Character Names
Part 2: Things to Avoid when Creating Characters
Part 3: Giving Your Characters Their Character
Part 5: Character Beyond the Internal
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com
#FREE Webinar today at 6:00 PM New York Time. BOOK PUBLICITY IDEAS!
How to Generate Story Ideas for Your Book Publicity Campaign
Everything here is from the registration site. Click above.
Your book is done. And you’re exhausted. Now it’s time to launch your publicity campaign and continue full speed ahead. But there’s no gasoline left in your tank.
The Publicity Hound to the rescue! Joan Stewart will give you ideas galore on how to generate story ideas that will promote your expertise and your book. You will learn:
–What questions you should ask yourself that will lead to a good beginning batch of story ideas.
–How to incorporate checklists and cheat sheets into your campaign.
–Tips for authors who write fiction–often the most difficult kind of writing to publicize.
–Typical story ideas the media love.
–How to newsjack, one of the easiest ways to generate publicity.
–The importance of promoting your expertise, not just your book.
–Why you shouldn’t overlook commenting on controversial topics.
–The danger in relying on everyone else’s media outlets for publicity.
–Examples of great ideas from other authors.
The Character Series Part 3/5: Giving Your Characters Their Character
The Character Series Part 3/5: Giving Your Characters Their Character
CONTRASTING CHARACTERS
What if Batman and the Joker were exactly the same? What if Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler were exactly the same? it wouldn’t be very interesting. What’s the fun in two competing characters that are the same? There is no conflict, you have no idea who to choose.
When you create the protagonist and the protagonist . . . give them contrasting characteristics that are obvious to the reader even if they aren’t to the heroine or hero.
LOVE AND HATE
To go along with Contrasting Characters you need to have one for the reader to love and one for the reader to hate. Again you have Batman and Joker. In Gone with the Wind, who or what was the antagonist? Something to think about. Was it the Yankees, the carpetbaggers, the scalawags, the old guard South, or was it even perhaps Scarlett? Could it have been a mindset, ignorance? Yes, there are more characters than just living, breathing things, but let’s not get into that now.
SENSE OF PURPOSE
No matter how much you want your reader to love a character or hate a character those characters have to have a sense of purpose to be characters. Just existing will not work. Batman wants to rid the world of crime. Joker wants to maybe just rid the world of the world. But what makes the two long-lasting and beloved characters is that they continue to have a sense of purpose and the purpose is something people can identify with on some level, no matter how fantastic it may be.
Creating a character that is lasting, memorable, and connects with a reader is more involved than we think. Groundwork in the beginning not only makes the characters memorable for you, but it makes for easy writing as you will know the characters so well.
Part 1: Creating Character Names
Part 2: Things to Avoid when Creating Characters
Part 4: Creating Believable Characters
Part 5: Character Beyond the Internal
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com
The Character Series Part 2/5: Things to Avoid When Creating Characters
The Character Series Part 2/5: Things to Avoid When Creating Characters
CHARACTER CLUTTER
Cut down on the number of characters you have by having one character take on the roles of others. You don’t need your heroine to have five girlfriends that keep appearing. One girlfriend is enough with two at the most. Make it simple for the reader in regards to characters to remember. Put their focus on the story and the main characters, and make it easy on yourself as well. The fewer the characters the easier it is for you to have to remember while writing.
I have a Romance/Love story novel where the leading lady meets up with her high school team for lunch. In this case, it’s okay to have several characters, but not as recurring characters. Maybe two or three show up again.
SIMILAR CHARACTERS
Along with Character Clutter, you have characters that are basically the same. You don’t need that unless it is specific to something in the storyline. When I read Gone with the Wind there are a few too many characters in the beginning for my liking, but slowly it dwindles then it picks again to similar characters in Atlanta. Yes, there is a party in the beginning so I get it, but it is still a touch difficult to keep up with at the party itself. In Atlanta, there are the matriarchs of society that are almost impossible to keep up with. They all become a blur, and perhaps that is part of the story. They are all the same. Scarlet is different and Belle Watling is different and that is why you remember them.
METAPHORS AND SIMILIES
You have the characters and you need to describe them. Be original.
A simile is when you describe something in comparison to something else.
Her skin was as pure as the white of a Magnolia petal.
A metaphor is when you say something is something, you transfer the characteristics onto the person.
Her lips were sweet red berries and he needed to taste them at least one time.
One very important thing to remember. Don’t do the literary version of the mistakes people look for in time period movies. The digital watch on the Civil War soldier. Make sure when you metaphor or simile that you keep in mind what you are using and the words you are using, they need to be time period applicable.
Part 1: Creating Character Names
Part 3: Giving Your Characters Their Character
Part 4: Creating Believable Characters
Part 5: Character Beyond the Internal
Much Respect
Ronovan
2014 © Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com
The Character Series Part 1/5: Creating Character Names
The Character Series Part 1/5: Creating Character Names
You have a great story idea then you begin to write and you come to that moment . . . what is the name of the primary protagonist? The problem continues as you come to each character thereafter, including secondary and incidental characters. It’s a bear of a problem even if you don’t think so right now. You may even have written the novel and now realize you have name problems.
Following are some things to consider when naming characters:
CORRECT NAME FOR THE TIME PERIOD
There are a lot of names that can be used in present-day novels because people are becoming creative or retro in naming their children. However, when writing one easy way to help immediately let a reader know if your story is in the present-day or in the past is by the names you choose to use.
Example 1
Khloe looked out over the sloping green lawn down to the path below. Would he be there this morning . . . as every morning? Would Jayden ignore her father and still pass by regardless of the threats? Did he love her that much?
Think for a moment what time period these names bring to mind.
Example 2
Mildred looked out over the sloping green lawn down to the path below. Would he be there this morning . . . as every morning? Would Edgar ignore her father and still pass by regardless of the threats? Did he love her that much?
The First example includes popular names for 2014, while the last includes names from the early 1900s. Even not knowing this information you would know the first should be set in modern-day by the names, they are not names to fit into The Great Gatsby. And Mildred and Edgar are not common names these days. Sure you could use them in a modern setting but just keep in mind how easy simply choosing names will help in having to not explain a lot more in your writing about the time, era your story is set in.
REGIONAL NAMES
We talked about using names to help set the general time period of a story, now how about the place, the region, or country? In the United States names are slowly mingling but on the whole, you can use names that will give the reader a feel for where you are headed.
Missy looked out over the sloping green lawn down to the path below. Would he be there this morning . . . as every morning? Would Billy ignore her father and still pass by regardless of the threats? Did he love her that much?
I get a rural feel from the above names. More than likely in the south.
Khloe looked out over the sloping green lawn down to the path below. Would he be there this morning . . . as every morning? Would Jayden ignore her father and still pass by regardless of the threats? Did he love her that much?
This pairing gives me a feel or the urban, probably a larger city as well.
I know, all of you could and are coming up with better examples than I am but you get the point.
BE ORIGINAL
When you do create names, even Regional ones, be original. You don’t have to go with Billy Bob to let people know the man lives in the South. Beau is a Southern name and so is Luke. One of those is a little stereotypical and the other less so. It is all up to you how you want to do it, maybe Beau is the name you want to use and it fits somehow. You want the name to stand out but also to be comfortable for the reader to say. Make sure to say the name out loud while using it in a sentence. I like the name to feel good coming off my tongue.
AVOID GENDER CONFUSION
If you really want to mess with your readers’ minds then use names that can be either male or female. As the years pass by this is becoming more of a thing. If you say Logan one may think of Wolverine the superhero or they may think of the little girl that was best buddies with their son in preschool and he pushed her in her little walker thing in between two baby beds and said “Bye-bye” as he looked around and saw his parents had arrived. Ashley and Paris are two other examples as well as Sandy. Add Morgan to that as well.
Don’t cause confusion to your readers. Make them comfortable as quickly as possible. You don’t want them to even have to think about gender, you want them falling into the story.
NOT THE SAME LETTER
Don’t have your main characters all having names starting with the same letter. You want distinction for them quickly and no confusion with any other character, especially a protagonist and antagonist.
Next:
Part 2: Things to Avoid when Creating Characters
Part 3: Giving Your Characters Their Character
Part 4: Creating Believable Characters
Part 5: Character Beyond the Internal
Until Next Time,
Much Respect
Ronovan
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Inspiration Today
Inspiration
This is an excerpt from Aeneas Williams’ 2014 Football Hall of Fame induction speech. It is great for everyone in that the message is universal. Please take the time to read it and be inspired and motivated. This not about me and this site, this is about you and what’s ahead.
“Hey, let me tell you first thing, begin with the end in mind. People say what’s it like to be up here? I’m going to tell you what it’s like. I learned write down what’s in your heart. See, growing up I grew up in church, but I never gave my life to Christ. I didn’t understand how God related to everyday life. When I was growing up, I thought church was a religious deal. You go sin for six days, then on the 7th day, empty your sin bucket and go do it again.
But I’m going to tell you something, I was on pace to graduate with my degree in accounting in three years and I don’t even like numbers. My brother Achilles graduated with his degree in accounting in three and a half years. He called me back and he said little brother, slow down. You’ll be working the rest of your life.
Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, it was at that time over the two years, freshman and sophomore year my uncle William and a guy named Michael Lindsey who was on Southern University’s football team who also played with me in high school. He would always, and my uncle would always say, they called me Nicky in New Orleans, so if I hear 
Nicky, I know you know you’re from New Orleans. And they would say, why don’t you play football? I’m going to tell you why I didn’t play football because I didn’t know how God talked to you. I would hear people say God talk to me. I was standing next to them; I didn’t hear anything. I tell you how you know. A week before the season started my junior year in college, it was different. Unlike the freshman, sophomore year.
In September, you football guys know when the weather changes. It goes from dead hot summer to the fall. We all know because it’s getting time right now. We’re itching right now on this stage. We know it’s getting ready to be football season. Yeah, you fans know it’s getting ready to be football season. So how do you know? Some people say you got to be a Christian to know God talks to you. No! God is talking to us all the time.
How do you think I got on defense? Troy Descano, when I was playing 95 pound ball, and we decided I was a big bad running back. I emulated Larry Csonka. I went out running, and we decided we hadn’t lost a game, and we decided we’re big and bad, we’re going to play the 110 pound guys, and Troy Descano was at the 110 pound guys. I came through the hole, Troy hit me so hard. I was on the ground wondering when I’m going to catch my next breath. It was at that time God spoke to me. You know what he said? He said, “You got to be better hitting people than getting hit.”
So I’m telling you pay attention to the signs God’s giving you. Back to the story, all of a sudden when it comes down to God talking my heart changed a week before the season started. That’s what happened. All of a sudden, it entered my heart to walk on the football team a week before the season starts. Made no sense, but the first sensible thing I did was didn’t tell my parents. I’m already on my parents’ dime. I’m getting ready to finish, and I didn’t tell my home boys who were from New Orleans. I walked on, started my fifth game Bayou Classic, that’s right, Bayou Classic, all you State people, it’s Southern University. God’s favorite color is blue.
It was after the Bayou Classic after my second year playing, I read in the newspaper one of my coaches said, “Aeneas Williams is a good player, but I don’t think he’ll ever go pro because, at best he runs a 4.6, 40.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the difference when I learned the difference between facts and truth. Facts were I did run a 4.6, 40. The truth is I found my teammate Brian Thomas, and Brian, if you’re here, if you could stand up. Brian was the fastest guy on Southern University’s track team and the fastest guy on Southern’s football team. He was a wide receiver, and he was our Usain Bolt, 6’3″, and Brian wrote on his practice pants siren is speed, and speed kills. I couldn’t cover him. I’d lineup ten yards off Brian and he’d run right by me.
Brian had thing when he’d run by you he’d make this noise (imitating). So when I read that I didn’t get bitter. Some people spend their whole life to prove people wrong. The goal is not to prove people wrong. The goal is to reach your
potential. The first thing I did was went to Brian Thomas because mentors are critical. You have to find credible others. I didn’t go to the offensive line. I went to Brian. I went to Brian after we had upset Grambling. I said, Brian, can you help me get faster. Brian Thomas looked me in the eyes like I’m looking at these Hall of Famers. He said, Aeneas you can run a 4.3, 40. It baffled my mind because all my life I’ve been a long distance guy. They said you can’t have speed, you either got it or you don’t.
I said, Brian what do I do? He said Aeneas, walk on the track team. Now I’m in graduate school. I’m going into January. I’m going to finish my final season while in graduate school in the fall. I said, Brian, what do we do? He said get next to me because more is caught than taught. I said, Brian, and we running, we working out. All of a sudden we’re finished running, and Brian is walking like we hadn’t worked out. I’m on the ground and my legs are telling me, Aeneas, you can keep this up or we through. Ladies and gentlemen, by April of that spring, the scouts came and I ran a 4.3, 40. I was the number two rated cornerback in all the country.”
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