I’m not positive, but I think every writer picks
character names a certain way, using the same method time after time. Perhaps
they imagine what the person looks like and then search for a name that seems
to fit. Have you ever been introduced to someone and you thought their name was
going be one thing and it was another? Along the lines of “She looks more like
a ‘blank’ than a ‘blank.’ ” Please don’t confuse “blank” here with “bleep!”
Years ago, a guy I worked with always called me Dave. Whenever I’d correct him,
he’d say, “Yup, okay,” then say, “See ya, Dave!”
Go figure. At least he didn’t call me late for lunch. Ba
da duh dum.
Here’s how I decided on the name for my main character
Tom Dunn: I wanted a one syllable last name, probably due to all the Bond movies
I’ve seen. No, really, I do mean that for whatever it’s worth. After I came up
with Dunn, I tried on for sound a variety of first names. I don’t remember now
what they were (that was eleven years ago, folks), but here are some I imagine
I came up with:
William (Bill) Dunn
Robert (Bob) Dunn
George Dunn
So you get the idea. In the end I liked the combination
of syllables of Thomas Dunn, although he is most often called Tom, unless
Pamela is pissed off at him.
My first novel, Operation
Devil’s Fire ended up with 89 named characters! This led me directly to an
Excel spreadsheet to keep track of them. I use that Excel file for many things,
daily word count, plot, notes, and others. I just copy the whole file for the
next book and add a column for the new book’s characters (like below - sd4).
This way, I have all
of my creations in one place, which keeps me out of trouble with using the same
name, and prevents me from relying on my memory. Squirrel! (If you don’t know what
this reference means, watch the movie Up.)
Behind German Lines, Brutal Enemy, and book 4 (which I’m
writing currently) have 51, 56, and 37 (so far) named characters, respectively.
Since this is a series, there are lots of repeaters, but there are 167 distinct
names across the four of them.
My Sgt. Dunn books are all set in Europe, so I have
characters from these countries:
·
United States – 52
·
Britain – 37
·
France – 20
·
Germany – 44
·
Italy – 11
·
Japan – 3
Which leads me to an interesting article I read recently:
I guess it’s important to know what the laws are in your country.
I confess, I never check for my characters!
Thanks for stopping by.
Ronn
