I've changed the name of my main character's best friend...6 times altogether. Now I think I've settled on his name, but I've already gotten about 3 chapters in and I still don't have a name for my villain.
Do any of you change your characters' names in the middle of writing?
Amb_writes (is writing again)
Favorite Answer
I hardly ever change a characters name after I originally name them. When I'm writing, I often leave the characters nameless until the perfect one pops into my head. I don't bother with fussing over what to call them. (Though last names are sometimes hard)
With the book I'm currently working on - Jamie was the name in my head since I first formed the idea for the plot. Even though people tell me to choose a name that isn't unisex, I can't. I love Jamie. She's my baby :) Same with the other names like Leon which isn't very common and stands out, but I love it anyhow !
?
I have the blessing of being able to think of my characters visually. So the names are secondary to me. I want their names to fit them of course, but I realize I'm probably not going to be able to do that 100%, and what seems like the perfect fit for a character might not make sense to everyone else. So I just stick with the best thing I can come up with, and maybe if I find something better, I'll go back and change it. In the story I'm working on, there's a dark wandering shaman named Rasha. But he used to be called Solomon. And Draycuu before that. And when I was a young kid, I had a character called 'Clonevexx' which you could say was the early stage of the same sort of character in my mind. I guess my point is, you'll always have your storytelling ability, and the -names- of characters can sometimes come and go. But I think it's good to make the name 'sound' like the character's personality, or something like that.
Ghostwriter
One of my characters has had a name change. His first name has changed only once since I started writing and his last name stayed pretty much the same for a long time, then I started kicking around ideas for a new last name for him and finally settled on something I thought fit the character. Other than that, my characters have had the same monikers since the beginning :)
Sarah
yes i so have!! for me it just doesn't feal like i can find a name that fits until im really far into the story. and i've started writing before without knowing some of the characters names. i think with one of my stories i didnt even have half of the names that i needed before i started but it wound up working out. i just hate when im like houndreds of pages into it and i finally diside on a main characters name that i've used at least five times ever chapter and then i have to go back and fix it @.@ that really sucks and ironicly whenever i'd finished changin everything i found a way on microsoft to change everything in like five seconds.
anyway dont give up and im sure your story will be awesome
♥ƒυηку~gιяℓ♥ <give me a second go>
Yes, all the time. The main character in my novel-in-process had the name Aria at first. Then it changed to Sophia, then to Sophie, then to Tori, then to Toni, and now it's Tori again. But I have a feeling that it will change again... lol ^_^ I'm just waiting for the right name to come. I'll know when it does.