Writing a Book-on-tape Part 1: I suck at names
I’m writing a book-on-tape. I’m skipping the book and going straight to the tape. I’m writing exactly what I would have loved to read at age 13. In fact the hero is even named Luke and has long red hair. I’m aware of how self-indulgent this whole thing is. It is a fantasy, there are flying airships. So don’t take it too seriously.
In addition to not being able to remember people’s names in real life, I am terrible at making up names. (Unless of course we’re talking about puns, then I’m the champ. I have a friend named Bronwyn. She has the best name ever for punning. Bronwynsaurus, like Brontosaurus. Bron-loser, change the wyn to loser. Etc.) I think I have all of the characters and locations figured out, but I do not have names for all of them.
I’ve only got four characters out of 11 named. It’s hard. I don’t want to give them stupid Fantasy names…
(Back to my story…)
The Hero, Luke. I’m back and forth on this one. Some days I feel too vain, other days I just don’t care.
An old captain, Malcolm Reynolds (Stolen directly from Firefly.) It is supposed to be an homage but I might have to change it a bit. Maybe I’ll change “Reynolds” to “Reyn” or “Renn”. Although that is starting to sound a little bit too Fantasy.
An upper class lady, Clare. Named after a contestant on Australia’s Next Top Model.
A scientist, Colin. Named after a contestant on Make Me A Supermodel.
I know… two people named after modelling-reality-show contestants. It’s just that I was watching these shows a lot while I was making up the story and these two fit the characters quite well. Although both characters have to be older in the story than they are in real life.
I still need names for an old Princess (40ish), a soldier, a tough-young-lady, a grumpy old man, a handful of bad guys and a few others.
Don’t worry, the Princess won’t be named Tyra.
