Writing 101: Everything You Need to Know About Character Names

It's not always great fun to come up with character names. In fact, for many authors it's more of a hassle. The protagonist is one thing, but when you have to come up with names for that guy in the hallway, that random next door neighbor and everybody's brother, of course you're going to get a little cross-eyed. Figure out everything you need to know about character names, and make it easier on yourself. 

By Any Other Name

Pretty much every character is going to need a name, but the most important belongs to your main character.  With every main character, keep a few points in mind: make it easy to remember, easy to spell and unique enough to stand out. You want your main character to be memorable and sharable, and for that you've got to have a name that trips right off the tongue. 

The same rules don't apply to all the other characters in your books, with the exception of the main supporting cast. Love interests should also be fairly easy to spell and remember, yet still interesting. Nicknames are a good way to make names more original. In The Neverending Story, the character Sebastian is often called Bastian as a nickname. Get creative with your nicknames, and your characters will be more unique and much more memorable. 

Using celebrity names is dicey business. If it's somehow relevant to the character, you might want to name your hero after a celeb. Use the first name only and at all times avoid using a celebrity's name unless you're simply referencing them (example: "Don't you love that new Katy Perry song?"). Never use a celeb's name negatively. Otherwise, you're risking a lawsuit.

Look for names through baby naming sites. You'll find hundreds of them through a general Internet search, and I swear by them. They're especially good if you don't have any ideas for names. Try searching by meaning, by origin or by first letter, and you're sure to find some likely candidates.

Writing 101: The Secret Life of Social Media

Indie authors need social media to promote. You hear it all the time, but what you don't hear is that sometimes it's a waste of time. What you don't know about the secret life of social media could be hurting you. Or at least, it could be wasting all your best efforts.

Sunday Always Comes Too Late

When you tweet links, do you know which ones get clicked? Or do you just post and post, waiting for it to work? Do you write Facebook statuses, and can't figure out why they don't trend? And what about that YouTube channel that looks as desolate as a ghost town in a Western movie?

You aren't a bad marketer. You just don't know the secret of social media: it's different every day. Focus your efforts and tailor your links not to your audience and not to your genre. Let the day of the week determine how you're going to promote.

Because here's what you don't know: it already does.

Monday, Monday

Start out every work week strong, and start driving traffic to your YouTube page on Mondays. Why? This is YouTube's biggest day for traffic. If people are already going, get them to go check out your trailers. Debut new videos on Monday, because this is your best chance to get clicks.

Include links to your blog, your book pages and your Twitter in every video description. Otherwise, what's the point?

Terrible Tuesday

Spend a little more time on Facebook every Tuesday, because everyone else is. Tuesday is the most popular day for Facebook, so you should post status updates and drive your Twitter followers to your profile. Be more active on the site every Tuesday as well. Check out your feed and comment on the posts that others make. 

In the Home Stretch

Social media activity is normal on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so spread your efforts out however you like. But if you're going to tweet, do it between 3pm and 5pm. This is when Twitter is most active every day, so this is when you want to focus your marketing efforts. 

Friday, I'm in Love

And Friday? Well, if you're going to choose a day to take a break make it this one. Twitter gets the least amount of traffic on Friday, TV gets the lowest ratings, even the Internet is relatively quiet. Don't launch a new contest on this day, or post your best blog, or spend a bunch of time marketing on Twitter because it won't be at all successful as doing it on Monday instead. 

When you know what's really going on with social media, you'll know how to customize your marketing plan. It's a lot easier to sell your message when you know the secret life of social media.

Writing 101: An or A?

There are 9 parts of speech in the English language, and all sorts of rules about how you ought to use them. But when it comes to a and an, maybe we could use a few more...because sometimes, knowing the rules won't help you pick the right article.

Articles...And Other "A" Words

A or an? This seemingly simple question plagues all writers at some point. 

There is a rule (isn't there always) that is meant to be followed: use a before words beginning with a consonant; use an for words that start with a vowel.

So if you write An antique chair would best suit this room, it's right. So is A contemporary chair is the only option.

But if you say A hour ago, you're wrong.

Yes, I know that h is a consonant...but it's not pronounced in hour so it stops existing (not really, just grammatically). The same thing happens when you ask for an honest opinion, but normal rules apply when you want a ham sandwich. Yes, it's confusing. 

The easiest way to tell if you're supposed to use a or an is to say it out loud both ways. If it sounds harsh to your ears, it's probably wrong. Most grammar problems can be solved by reading out loud, and a or an is a perfect example.

Writing 101: Do You Over-Use Pronouns?

"You've been following me," Ariel looked at Sheila, and she smiled.

Who am I talking about up there? When you over-use pronouns, you confuse readers. Learn the tricks of spotting excessive pronoun usage, and eliminate it from your writing.

He Said, She Said, They Said

Eliza looked at Mary. She shuddered before she spoke. "They're coming for us."

There are so many pronouns in the example above, no one can tell what's going on. Did Eliza both shudder and speak, or did Mary? Maybe Eliza shuddered, and Mary spoke. Or it could be the other way around. Maybe there's a third she involved in this mix. 

The point is, I don't know. And you know what? I'm not going to try to sit here and figure it out. When I'm reading a book, the last thing I want to do is play the Match the Pronoun game. If I have to stop reading to ask "wait -- is that 'he' Marcus or Dave?" then you aren't doing your job as an author.

Grammar is always difficult to figure out, and the best way to keep your pronouns in check is through careful editing. But there is a hard-and-fast rule that I like to use that does help: don't repeat the same pronoun in a sentence. If there's a she, use it just once. Same with he and all the rest. And if there is any confusion at all, use a proper name. Sometimes, you might need to add pronouns to once sentence and take them from another. But I like to eliminate pronouns entirely when there's confusion.

Eliza looked at her. Mary shuddered before speaking. "They're coming for us." 

Eliza looked at Mary, who shuddered before she spoke. "They're coming for us." 

You have to be particularly careful of pronouns when two or more persons of the same gender are interacting, because tracing all the he and she stuff shouldn't be difficult. Make your book easy to read, and don't make reader play the pronoun game.

Real Justice

"The characters were so rich and real, I felt like I was watching a movie."

"It was so well written, the plot lines flow beautifully and the characters are so real."

Find out why the reviewer at Eastern Sunset Reads loved Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) when you visit the blog!

Writing 101: Mixing Metaphors

You know that expression you're mixing your metaphors? For a long time, I didn't know what it meant. It's totally okay if you don't know what it means, either, because I made it a point to figure it out...and now I do. 

 Mixing It Up

By its very definition, a metaphor is a little ambiguous. Basically, it's a figure of speech. Metaphors do not make literal sense. For example, writing love is a rose in full blossom is a metaphor. When you say learning is a journey, it's a metaphor. To apply a word or phrase to something that doesn't really fit is to create a metaphor.

So what the heck does it mean when you mix metaphors? You've heard the phrase we have to tighten our belts. It means that you're going to be cutting back on expenses to save money. You've also heard the phrase empty pockets. Even if your pockets aren't literally empty, this metaphor means they're empty of money. So if I were to say we have to tighten our belts because our pockets are empty, I'm mixing metaphors. It comes across as being nonsensical when you mix metaphors like this. Other examples are even more comical: 

I smell something rotten here, and we have to nip it in the bud.

If we cut off our noses to spite our faces, we won't have a clear avenue of escape.

It's sink or swim. You'll either stand on your own or you won't. 

The three mixed metaphors above just don't work. In the first example, we go from smelling something foul to cutting something off. You can't nip a smell, so it just comes across as silliness. In the second mixed metaphor, everything is tangled. First you're bringing up an image of noseless faces, and now we're suddenly scrambling along paths with no end in sight. Why? And the third example is the most ridiculous. Are we swimming or sinking or standing or what? 

Mixed metaphors are unclear, and sometimes they end up reading as pure nonsense. Unless you're writing Mother Goose-style or Dr. Seuss-inspired books, I suggest you shy away from mixing metaphors. A single metaphor per sentence is more than enough. When you try to use two metaphors in the same thought, you're going to get in trouble. 

So look over your writing, look at your metaphors...and eliminate the ones you don't really need. Metaphors are best when used in moderation.

Writing 101: No, It's Not Easy

I've made mention of the fact that I read a lot of forums and other blogs...and it's no secret that I am frequently frustrated by what I find there. But I've noticed a certain theme cropping up, again and again, to which I must (once more) take exception. There's an idea out there that writing books is easy, and it's really the promotion that's hard. I beg to differ on both accounts.

Wrong.

Anyone who's ever had writer's block knows that it isn't easy to write a book. Some have even said that it's something anyone can do.

That's wrong. Some people do not have the imagination to create a brand-new story out of whole cloth. Others haven't the vocabulary. And still more cannot write in a way that's comprehensive to others. Some people have great ideas for stories but never finish them, while others run out of ideas so they can't finish either. Writing a book takes a certain degree of stubbornness that just isn't present in 100 percent of the population. 

It also takes a great deal of time. It's much more fun to watch that TV show or go out to that party with your friends. It's much less fun to sit home on a Friday night behind a computer screen, but that's where you're going to find me. Some people don't want to make that sort of commitment, so they don't. 

And let's say you do want to take the time to write the thing. Now you've got to know about sentence structure, and formatting, and whether or not you should give your chapters titles. And let's not forget coming up with like, a thousand names for all the characters and places that are going to appear in the book. It's bloody hard work, is what it is, and lots of people aren't willing to put that much work into something that always starts out as a hobby. 

So no, writing isn't easy. You have to research and you have to study. You have to imagine and you have to create. You have to stay motivated to stay with it, and you have to make it all run together smoothly. And then you've got to edit the darned thing, which is miserable and tedious and practically neverending (and I'm just trying to make it sound good).

Promotion isn't hard, and I know because I manage to get that done on a daily basis. What don't I do on a daily basis? Work on my new book. Because sometimes the mood isn't right or the time isn't, or maybe I'm stuck on a scene and I'm not done thinking about it. Promotion is writing tweets and blogging and interacting, and it's a whole lot easier than sweating over whether or not the title character should slap the guy or kiss him back. I find it a lot easier to tweet about the show I'm watching than to sit and stare at my outline for the fiftieth time this week. And sometimes, marketing is mercurial. Sometimes it doesn't work and you don't know why. Sometimes you screw up and people notice. Sometimes you forget, and you notice a change in sales. There are a ton of things that can go wrong. 

It's not ever easy, and it isn't going to be easy. Even if you get that big book deal and all those fans, it's going to be hard because now you have something to live up to. There's going to be more work because you have to answer letters and answer to other people. So when you see someone say that it's easy to write a book, they're wrong. It's not easy, and it certainly isn't supposed to be easy. The harder it is to write, the better the book.

So you keep sweating over the keyboard...not what the other authors are saying about writing.

Writing 101: Leaving Clues

As a writer of mysteries, I have to drop clues into my books. But in any genre, authors often include clues deep inside stories that hint at certain plot points. It's not hard to add clues to a book. What's difficult is hiding them.

Elementary, My Dear Watson

I'm a lifelong fan of mysteries, which is where you're supposed to find the most clues in stories. I am not a fan of Sherlock Holmes, perhaps the most famous literary investigator of all time. Why? Because the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, didn't leave clues. Holmes mysteries are invariably solved on the last page, when Holmes reveals all the keen observations he made throughout the story.

I always started shouting every time I finished. If I had been told about the muddy pants on page one, maybe I could be Sherlock Holmes, too. But that's not the way it was written...ever.

You need to give your audience clues, because half the fun is in guessing at what's coming, what's really going on, what's that person thinking and where is this all going. It's always fun to try and guess at the end, so give the audience clues that allow them to do just that. 

It's okay to make them hard to find (nigh impossible, even). I like to add them in with dialogue. Have the characters mention a book or a movie, maybe a song or a place, that is really a clue. Bury the clue in a letter or a diary entry that also contains other information, or a long monologue with a lot to digest.

There are lots of ways to leave clues in your books. Use them, and keep readers guessing. They'll keep reading for the fun of seeing if they're right.