Writing Mania discussion

This folder is pretty much for brainstorming help. You can post ideas for your story under these categories and request help for your story here.
This particular topic is for characters in your stories. What they look like, their personalities, why you crated them specifically, etc.

Help please! I am trying to find the perfect name for a female character. I want her to have a nature name. Any suggestions?

Melody? Fern? Violet, Rose, Daisy, Lily? Sky?

Ooooh! I love Fern! :D I'll think about using that. Thanks! ;)

Any time! :D

;)

Okay this time I'm being a little more broad. I just need a female name. So, go ahead and tell your favorites, or even just random names that pop into your head.

Tasha. Love that one.
Lissa is a good prissy girl name.
Clara.
Alana.
Amy.

Mari.
Bay(Baylee).

I usually start with a letter and work from there.

These are good! :D Bay reminds me of Switched at Birth, though. XD

What's that?

A drama TV series. Bay is the name of one of the girls. Switched at Birth, Avatar the Last Airbender, and The Legend of Korra are pretty much all I watch on TV. Books are better, though. ;)

I like going to a baby book of names online to help come up with names. It also helps to tell you the meaning of the name so you help match it up to the character that you are making in your book.

Oh, believe me, Tiawni, I do that all the time. Whenever my mom sees me she's like, "Planning your kids' names already, eh?" It's very annoying. But my characters are like my children, I suppose. Most of them not born yet.

That makes sense. I like that idea.

;)

That is why I keep a book and write down the names and what character I think they will be good for in my books. It helps me that way. Plus then I can always keep track of everything as well too. Go to maps and look at place where I might want something to take place at as well.

That's what I do. I have a plastic globe in my room I and use pieces of tape to track my characters' locations. I also draw up profiles for my characters, but I can't draw worth a flip so they all look exactly the same, except for their hair.

I used to try drawing my characters, but they never came out even a little close to what they looked like in my head. I do silhouettes of them, though. I'm really fond of painting silhouettes.

Silhouettes are fun to do. I sometimes do a scene with silhouettes and write catchphrases under them from the story I'm illustrating. Kind of like a less advanced Nancy Drew illustration.

I found pictures of people and I cut and paste the parts I think my person should look like. Then I blend them in photo shop programs to try and get them to look like I want them too.

That's neat! :D I'm not very good with computers. I'd never be able to do that.

I try to get creative when I am writing my book and to see if I can bring them to life.

Yes. If you can make the reader feel something for the character or relate to the character, you're doing well. That's what I believe and strive for.

I ditto that philosophy. Of course, if a character dies and everyone starts crying, then that's the ultimate test. But there's also the pesky chase you might feel something for your own character, and then killing them makes you feel guilty. (Sorry. I recently killed off a character in my novels who had to die, there was no way around it, but I'm feeling kinda sad about it.)

Who died?!?!?!

Aw! *sniff* )':

You know The Water Angel? Well, I killed off (view spoiler)[Kiah. (hide spoiler)] And now I feel horribly guilty for it. She was one of my favorite charries to write, and now I'm finding myself stuck with immense writer's block after this latest development. I might also kill off (view spoiler)[Molly, Aaron's little sister, but I feel less awful about that one. (hide spoiler)]

YOU WHAT?!?!?!?!!? ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!?!?!?!?!?! YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!!!! AND WHEN CAN I READ THIS??!?!?!?!?

Later. When I'm done editing it.

Mel wrote: "Okay this time I'm being a little more broad. I just need a female name. So, go ahead and tell your favorites, or even just random names that pop into your head."

Bethany. I've always liked the name Bethany, I'm not sure why. You almost never read about Bethanys in books.

That name makes me think of that movie, Aliens in the Attic. There's a girl in it named Bethany. XD "It's the Po-Po. Be cool." XD XD XD

That was a weird yet strangely funny movie. XD My kind of film...

I love that movie. It's hilarious. XD

I hate it when the main character of the story is good at drawing. It's like, they have to have some sort of talent, but why can't they have something more original?

This may be how I feel purely because I can't draw. I'm not sure, but if it is then don't worry.

I like characters like that. I just don't like characters who are good at EVERYTHING. There is no such thing as a perfect person. It's more realistic if characters aren't, either.

It's funny when I read a book about flying houses or fire-breathing trolls and all I can think is "The main character was too perfect, it made it unrealistic"!

Exactly!!! Sara used to be Aaron, and a boy. Now she's a girl and her boyfriend's name is Aaron.

The following is a first person view from a character. If you're feeling helpful, have a read and let me know what you think they should look like.

I am awake. Probably. I’ve been wrong before, and even though this feels pretty real it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

For one thing I’m not in my bed. I’m not in any bed at all, actually. I’m lying on something hard and cold, and rough, like concrete. I’m not sure what it is, but it is definitely not meant to be slept on.

For another thing, I have no idea how I got on this not-a-bed. Usually, when you’re awake, you remember things like driving across town or walking through a doorway and lying down – you know, the boring things that you edit out when you’re dreaming. But I’ve got nothing.

Also, I can’t see. Either I’m imagining that my eyes are open, or it’s really dark in here. Really, really dark. I’ve never been anywhere this dark before.

If I am asleep, and therefore dreaming, then I think this might be becoming a nightmare. Pitch darkness, cold creeping through my back from the not-a-bed, an ache in my head like a bad rock concert – okay, I’ll deal. Not the most interesting dream but not so bad. What scares me is the soft, incessant noise coming from my left.

The sound of breathing.

Someone or something, probably a large animal of some sort. I can feel its eyes boring into me, watching me, getting ready to strike, it’s just waiting on some movement on my part before it gets me! I try to breath as quietly as possible, but with each second that passes my pulse rises and I get louder and louder and I start wishing that it would just go ahead and attack because I can’t stand just waiting for it to get me. It doesn’t make any difference but I screw shut my eyes and wait for the worst to happen.

Minutes pass. I may have overreacted.

That's very one paced. And that's good!

I kind of like 'all-evil' characters. As long as you make him evil in new and intersting ways it will be fun to read.

Ditto Taliah. :)

Whoa. Big word alert. I gotta read that again...

Sorry, Ducky's having problems tonight. XD JK, JK.

I, for one, think an all-evil character would be very amusing to read about in a story, as long as you can add depth to them. No one really connects with the characters that only do what they are designed to do... you need to give them a personality, other than just "evil." Maybe this villain is particularly devious or clever in some way, or has an interesting background. You can play with it a little to make him more than just "the bad guy," without excluding the all-evil trait.

Yeah, interesting evil guys are fantabulous. I'm still working on getting my evil on with my book charries and all that jazz. And I'd like to do more RPing with Silvanus on Unknown Awesomes. I need the practice. :)

That sounds brilliant!!! Lot of character depth. I like. XD

@Mel. The Impossible tasks, not Unknown Awesomes. And speaking of so, I'll try and write something up for you.

Oh yeah. *face palm* Impossible Tasks...It's been too long! :()

I like Dawn.

Sammeh! Yes! ^-^