[Stylist] Changing character names

[Shelley Alongi]

There happens to be an article in the writer magazine for September on  naming characters. There are some interesting suggestions so if you have a bard account go to the magazines and look for the writer and download the September issue. Having personal experience with thisquestion I know when I published my first novel that I had based my protagonist character name on someone that was close to me at the time and then as I published the novel and that date came closer I decided to change the name so I did and it was perfectly fine. I kept the same last name because it wasn’t related. The last name came from one that I had written down when I worked for Disney. I liked the surname so much that I said hey I think I’ll use that for a character. And then I had named a character in my book as kind of a side character and I decided that I preferred his first name for the name of my protagonist. So names are kind of personal. But there are some really good tips and ideas to consider in this magazine for September 2021. I thought we could talk about that tonight but since you won’t be there you’ll miss that discussion but you can read the article if you have Bard. You might be able to find an abstract of it on writermag.com 

Shelley, Queen of Bells Out!
President, NFB Writers’ Division 
Editor Slate and Style 
See my self published books at Apple Books, Amazon and Barns and Noble 


> On Sep 26, 2021, at 5:18 PM, Sherry Gomes via Stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Personally, I wouldn't change the names of my characters. I put a lot of time in to creating my characters and their names are part of that. I write documents about each major character before even starting to write, figuring out their likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, what music they like, what they eat and drink, if they watch TV and all kinds of other things. By the time I'm ready to start telling their stories, they are that person with that name to me.
> 
> 
> Sherry
> Find out about my book Haven by checking out my web site:
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> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stylist <stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Vejas Vasiliauskas via Stylist
> Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2021 1:18 PM
> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Vejas Vasiliauskas <alpineimagination at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Stylist] Changing character names
> 
> Hi, 
> Hope everyone is having a great Sunday! Unfortunately I can't make it to the writers' division gathering because I'll be coming home from a trip, but I look forward to the one next month! 
> I just have a quick question about character names. Let's say you had a main character named, as an example, Amelia, but then later, in real life, you met and became closer to someone named Amelia. Would you keep the name, or change it? Some names are very common, so I was just curious to see what others thought. 
> Thanks, 
> Vejas  
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