Main character--movie star--Katey Michaelsson. Already named, but I think the name sounds a little fake, so...yeah. Not much to say about her...she's forced to be the hero through a bunch of circumstances that are too complicated to mention here. Oh, the book is a horror-adventure, by the way.

Leading role--sort-of-a-bounty-hunter-but-not-really--right now, I'm calling him Buck, but I hate that name. Has a "contract" with Hell, Satan granted him immortality because he's so good at taking out unruly demons who make it to the surface, but in exchange he can't mention the nature of Hell to anybody and his healing system is out of whack (basically, it takes him 70 years to heal a paper cut). He was born shortly after the middle ages of Europe, if that helps at all.

Another good guy--monolithic humanoid golem--been calling him Monolith, but...well, basically, nothing in Hell has a name except for Satan himself. The only reason Monolith has a name is because Katey named him. I was thinking of naming him after a famous golem from literature, but I can't think of any names that sound right. (I.e. Rock-biter from Neverending Story. No.)

Monolith also has a partner/pet undead drakeling named Drakeling, that's probably a little silly but he was named after a girl, after all

I can't think of a name for the bad guy, either. Basically he's a demon embodied by a scorpion, long story that I'm too embarrassed to say...but he makes it to the surface and that's where the trouble starts. I really have -no- idea what to name this guy, but I know it's probably something that the newspapers come up with. You know, "The Scorpion Killer" only less retarded (I swear, I don't know what to call him!).

There's also a gigantic ethereal horse demon whose stomach is an abyssmal prison, but I don't think I should name it. It's scarier to leave it unnamed, do you think?

Sorry, maybe I'm still way too new to be posting this, but...any help really would be appreciated...I can cite you or something if you want, too. Or any ideas. Really, just..anything. Ideas, names, criticisms...let me have them.

-Thanks!

From your character list, the only thing that springs to mind is "cliche."

I recommend you practice writing short stories if you're serious about being a writer. Short stories can be used to hone individual techniques.

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Cleo had this to say about John Romero:
Basically I got a stellar new idea for a book I want to write, but I am the suxors at naming characters. So if you could just throw some ideas at me, I would be most obliged ^-^ Don't worry, I'll tell you a bit about each character.

Main character--movie star--Katey Michaelsson. Already named, but I think the name sounds a little fake, so...yeah. Not much to say about her...she's forced to be the hero through a bunch of circumstances that are too complicated to mention here. Oh, the book is a horror-adventure, by the way.

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Angelina Nolan.

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Leading role--sort-of-a-bounty-hunter-but-not-really--right now, I'm calling him Buck, but I hate that name. Has a "contract" with Hell, Satan granted him immortality because he's so good at taking out unruly demons who make it to the surface, but in exchange he can't mention the nature of Hell to anybody and his healing system is out of whack (basically, it takes him 70 years to heal a paper cut). He was born shortly after the middle ages of Europe, if that helps at all.

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Mason, Coal, Pale.

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Another good guy--monolithic humanoid golem--been calling him Monolith, but...well, basically, nothing in Hell has a name except for Satan himself. The only reason Monolith has a name is because Katey named him. I was thinking of naming him after a famous golem from literature, but I can't think of any names that sound right. (I.e. Rock-biter from Neverending Story. No.)

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Emet, for the Hebrew word 'Truth' that was inscribed on the forehead of a golem to bring it to life. You had to erase the E in it to form the Hebrew word for 'Death' to destroy the Golem.

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Monolith also has a partner/pet undead drakeling named Drakeling, that's probably a little silly but he was named after a girl, after all

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Drakel?

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I can't think of a name for the bad guy, either. Basically he's a demon embodied by a scorpion, long story that I'm too embarrassed to say...but he makes it to the surface and that's where the trouble starts. I really have -no- idea what to name this guy, but I know it's probably something that the newspapers come up with. You know, "The Scorpion Killer" only less retarded (I swear, I don't know what to call him!).

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From the bible in Revelations, demons are described as stinging and plaguing mankind like scorpions and have scorpion like tails. The king of them (Satan) is called Abaddon in Hebrew or Apollyon in Greek. Might want to use one of those for this guy. Also the Arabic name for the Scorpion is "Al Akrab", while the New Testament Greek name is "Skorpios". If you wanna go the constellation route, "Antares" is the star at the heart of Scorpius.

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There's also a gigantic ethereal horse demon whose stomach is an abyssmal prison, but I don't think I should name it. It's scarier to leave it unnamed, do you think?

Sorry, maybe I'm still way too new to be posting this, but...any help really would be appreciated...I can cite you or something if you want, too. Or any ideas. Really, just..anything. Ideas, names, criticisms...let me have them.

-Thanks!

---

Sounds like a nifty story from what you've described. ^.^

Main character: stage name Katey Rain, real name Catherine Redmond. If you figure the name you gave her sounds off, this should work.

Leading male: Dirk Carter, Judas Rivers, Leonard Baker, Cedric Hunter... last names came from professions, so if the guy's English from the middle ages, these are your probable naming schemes. Decide what culture he's from before you name him, because it makes a big difference.

Golem: Rocky or Stone. You said you're bad at naming things. How about making your actress bad at naming things?

Undead drakeling: Shard, Draco, Lechelaurian. Which one depends on where the name came from. If you choose Lechelaurian, your main character would probably shorten it to Lecca or Lia (for a female) or Lechy (for a male, which would annoy him greatly).

Villain: Sounds like your villain will have an ego.
Real (self-given) name: Terminus Panton
Street (disguise) name: Tom Platinum
Tabloid name: The Black Scorpion or The Red Scorpion

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Check out the big brain on Mr. Parcelan!
Name them yourself, otherwise, it's not totally your work.

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Indeed. In fiction of any sort, a character's, well, character is always influenced by the name they have; if you don't delibrately fit the character to their name in some way, then your audience will unconsciously. If you let someone else name your characters, you let someone else determine who they are.

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Nobody really understood why Bloodsage wrote:
Neverending Story is not "literature." If you borrow a name, for God's sake do it from a work whose copyright has expired!

From your character list, the only thing that springs to mind is "cliche."

I recommend you practice writing short stories if you're serious about being a writer. Short stories can be used to hone individual techniques.

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I like to think that a good writer can take a cliche plot and still make it great. And believe me, I barely listed anything about the actual plot Anyway, I've written many, many short stories and sent them in to contests, etc. My dad is also a writer Ah, forget it.

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Bloodsage had this to say about Cuba:
Neverending Story is not "literature." If you borrow a name, for God's sake do it from a work whose copyright has expired!

From your character list, the only thing that springs to mind is "cliche."

I recommend you practice writing short stories if you're serious about being a writer. Short stories can be used to hone individual techniques.

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And I know it's not literature, it's just a movie But I really wanted an idea more from literature than a movie, I just couldn't think of any golems at the moment.

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Katrinity got all f'ed up on Angel Dust and wrote:
Sounds like a nifty story from what you've described. ^.^

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Thanks so much! Your ideas rule!

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`Doc probably says this to all the girls:
The story does sound rather contrived. But you didn't ask about that.

Main character: stage name Katey Rain, real name Catherine Redmond. If you figure the name you gave her sounds off, this should work.

Leading male: Dirk Carter, Judas Rivers, Leonard Baker, Cedric Hunter... last names came from professions, so if the guy's English from the middle ages, these are your probable naming schemes. Decide what culture he's from before you name him, because it makes a big difference.

Golem: Rocky or Stone. You said you're bad at naming things. How about making your actress bad at naming things?

Undead drakeling: Shard, Draco, Lechelaurian. Which one depends on where the name came from. If you choose Lechelaurian, your main character would probably shorten it to Lecca or Lia (for a female) or Lechy (for a male, which would annoy him greatly).

Villain: Sounds like your villain will have an ego.
Real (self-given) name: Terminus Panton
Street (disguise) name: Tom Platinum
Tabloid name: The Black Scorpion or The Red Scorpion

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Great, great. I really like the concept of her being bad at naming things. I can just see Cedric (I really like Cedric Hunter) trying to build up the nerve to call him by name. "Um...S-Stone...Rock..guy, come help me with this." Hehe.
I like the ideas for the drakeling, too. I thought about Draco, but I didn't appreciate the Harry Potter reference. Tom Platinum sounds like a pimp name, haha Now I have to go sleep on it again. Sigh!

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Gunslinger Moogle's account was hax0red to write:
Indeed. In fiction of any sort, a character's, well, character is always influenced by the name they have; if you don't delibrately fit the character to their name in some way, then your audience will unconsciously. If you let someone else name your characters, you let someone else determine who they are.

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Well, will it make you feel better if I tell you about the lengths I go to when finding a name? I'm extremely picky when I go about naming my characters, which is one reason I have so much trouble. Then again, Holly Lisle (hollylisle.com) argues that naming your character should be one of the last steps, as your perception of what a character by that name should be like tends to limit you during character creation. I try to find a happy medium between the two views...I name my chars right off so I have something to call them, but if a better name presents itself to me, I accept it. Generally, anyhow. Occasionally I will fall in love with an obscure name for no reason at all.

Press random keys on your keyboard, then add letters to make the gibberish into readable names.

Hero main guy: He needs a manly-man name that isn't too ridiculous. Hence: Kurt, or Curtis Stonesmith. I like "Kurt" because it's easy to just sort of grunt out, it IS a manly-man name, and it isn't as awfully ridiculously laughable as Lance or Buck. Plus, more good guys need to be named Kurt or Curtis. Teehee.

Scorpion demon guy and horse demon: Give them lots of different names. Have them referenced as more than oen thing by different people, giving each person a different name for the guy. Thus you can be silly, ominous, dark, cynical, whatever you want with the name. Also, you get to directly reference them without letting on that you're directly referencing them. Which is always awesome.

I'm not going to say anything about the plot, as I've long since learned that every plot ever sounds completely different when you're summarizing it to when you actually read it.

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A sleep deprived Cleo stammered:
Well, will it make you feel better if I tell you about the lengths I go to when finding a name? I'm extremely picky when I go about naming my characters, which is one reason I have so much trouble. Then again, Holly Lisle (hollylisle.com) argues that naming your character should be one of the last steps, as your perception of what a character by that name should be like tends to limit you during character creation. I try to find a happy medium between the two views...I name my chars right off so I have something to call them, but if a better name presents itself to me, I accept it. Generally, anyhow. Occasionally I will fall in love with an obscure name for no reason at all.

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Get yourself a book of baby names and go off that, picking, choosing and combining names as you see fit.

edit: Tired error.

Azymyth fucked around with this message on 08-31-2004 at 06:23 AM.

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ACES! Another post by Cleo:
I like to think that a good writer can take a cliche plot and still make it great. And believe me, I barely listed anything about the actual plot Anyway, I've written many, many short stories and sent them in to contests, etc. My dad is also a writer Ah, forget it.

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Sorry. I didn't realize you were perfect and had no need of competent help. Carry on with your adventure in cliched mediocrity.

I had no idea that a) entering contests was the same as winning them, or b) literary talent was hereditary.

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Bloodsage thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
Sorry. I didn't realize you were perfect and had no need of competent help. Carry on with your adventure in cliched mediocrity.

I had no idea that a) entering contests was the same as winning them, or b) literary talent was hereditary.

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Geez, I'm not saying that I'm perfect, I just meant that I've been working at this a while. And Nicole had a good point, when she said that "every plot ever sounds completely different when you're summarizing it to when you actually read it." And about the contest, you're right, it's not the same, and that's the weird part. I don't know if I won or not, they never wrote back telling me anything about the contests and their websites don't mention the contests either :\ It's all very bizarre and smells of scandal And I mentioned my father because he helps me with the process of being a writer, and showing me what a writer's life is like. Sorry to give you the wrong impression.

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Azymyth stopped staring at Deedlit long enough to write:
Get yourself a book of baby names and go off that, picking, choosing and combining names as you see fit.

edit: Tired error.

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There's a website for something called the Kebalarian (sp?) Theory, that basically states that the way your name is pronounced decides what sort of person you are. I think that part is a load of bull, but it gives me lots of ideas. For instance, I was recently looking for a new character whose concept was "a rainy, melancholy day." I knew I wanted her name to start with M, so I went to the M category and looked down the list until I found interesting names, then I would see how it described the names to see if they matched my character concept. Eventually I found the perfect name, Miaceli I doubt that was the intended purpose for the website, but at least it -has- a use.

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And I was all like 'Oh yeah?' and Densetsu was all like:
If you need names, you could always use Ferrett's method of generating names:

Press random keys on your keyboard, then add letters to make the gibberish into readable names.

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That's how my friend Saviira got her name! *guffaw* Actually, Saviira was the name of her father's favorite D&D character, a half-elf thief. But the way they would come up with names is they would take random magnet letters and stick them with their eyes closed on the fridge, then rearrange them until it looked like a name. Everyone thinks Saviira's name is Mexican, though, because she's Mexican

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Cleo had this to say about John Romero:
That's how my friend Saviira got her name! *guffaw* Actually, Saviira was the name of her father's favorite D&D character, a half-elf thief. But the way they would come up with names is they would take random magnet letters and stick them with their eyes closed on the fridge, then rearrange them until it looked like a name. Everyone thinks Saviira's name is Mexican, though, because she's Mexican

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... lord, that's funny. Sorry, but if for some deranged reason I end up with a kid, it's not getting my D&D characters' names... well, if only because I use names like Ylsa and Ursula and Findabhair and I'm not going to inflict them on anyone.

I'm a fan of using unorthodox names myself, hence the Ylsas and the Ursulas. Which actually gives me a big bloody problem when trying to choose NICKNAMES for my characters - I don't want them to be too obscure, nor do I want them to be too common, and any time I think of a really good one it fits the character so damn well that it could not have possibly been bestowed by an outside source. Bleahahah.

As for scam contests: Who cares. If a contest inspires you, great, go for it. If the contest is a scam, it gets a big whopping MEH from me, and I move on. Anything that gives you inspiration and the motivation to write is a good thing, in my books. Well, except if they steal your work. In those cases they get a lawbook thrown at them. But in any others, go for it .

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Alek stopped beating up furries long enough to write:
Postulio

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For whom? And that sounds like posterior :\ Or was that your intent?

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Nicole had this to say about Reading Rainbow:
... lord, that's funny. Sorry, but if for some deranged reason I end up with a kid, it's not getting my D&D characters' names... well, if only because I use names like Ylsa and Ursula and Findabhair and I'm not going to inflict them on anyone.

I'm a fan of using unorthodox names myself, hence the Ylsas and the Ursulas. Which actually gives me a big bloody problem when trying to choose NICKNAMES for my characters - I don't want them to be too obscure, nor do I want them to be too common, and any time I think of a really good one it fits the character so damn well that it could not have possibly been bestowed by an outside source. Bleahahah.

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I generally don't have problems with nicknames, as my characters almost never have one I think it stems from the fact that my D&D group sucks, they're pretty much all amateurs (except for, maybe, a few) and I'm no expert myself, but it's hard to get better when the competent people have all their time occupied with explaining why dwarves are not the best candidates for rogues, etc.

On top of that, Gee is usually the DM recently and he's really really scary. I can't ask anything, because his response is invariably, "Look it up!! You've done this sort of thing a bazillion times already!" Scary O.O

Totally off-topic...anyway. My real name is Penny, and I dealt with so much torture throughout my years because of it. But, you know, it's nice to learn early on that humans are jackasses but that they really have no power over you unless you let them (the exception to this is when they have guns, but even then it's the gun that's powerful, not them). So I'm all for naming a kid something beautiful, because it's the first real gift you can give them. And if they reeeally hate it, they can always change it when they get older.

Some examples of names I have picked out: For a girl--Burgundy, Artemis, Accalia. For a boy--Apollo (but not if I already have an Artemis, and visa versa), Liam, Cedric. Yay names!

If only I was good at naming -characters- ...