Pollage

[icepixie]

A poll! Brought about by my inability to come up with a good name for a character in something I'm writing. I think I like science fiction and fantasy because usually you can make up your own frickin' names, instead of thinking of a good one (or finding a good one on a list somewhere) and then going, "Ack, one of my friends/relatives/pets/stuffed animals is named that, and it would be weird!"

Maybe that's just me. Hence, poll.

[Poll #827840]

Comments

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure how to answer your poll because I'm not clear on the name context. Are we talking full name? I would never do that as much because of privacy issues as anything else. But I see no reason to avoid naming a character Sarah, for instance (my best friend's name). For one thing, I like the name a lot, and have for longer than I've known her, and for another, it's not like using the name has to mean that the character is anything like her--after all, there are plenty of other people in the world named Sarah ;) If I knew she was likely to read it, I might ask if she had any objection, and probably explain that the character would or wouldn't be like her in certain ways but that it's no kind of comment on her, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it, or anything.

Mostly, though, my characters tend to tell me what they want to be called. And lemme tell ya, sometimes they pick doozies. I've got a Jerome in the novella I'm working on. I kept trying to come up with something better, but Jerome just wouldn't go away, so...Jerome it is. I've learned better than to fight too much with my characters--they tend to be both insistent and smarter than me.

[icepixie]

I meant just first names (or last names, I suppose, if both the RL person and the character are/would be referred to by it). And I added (and voted for) the "only if it's common" option for the reason you mention: I know a million Sarahs and Kates and Elizabeths and Johns. Eliminating those names from the pool of potential character names would be silly. *g*

But there are some names I'm reluctant to use because I know people with them, and I would constantly have two people with that name in my head when I'm trying to write a character called whatever it is, particularly if it's a less common name. My parents' names are definitely off limits, and so are several of my relatives'. (Mostly the older ones. I'm usually okay with stealing names from my cousins, most of whom, to be fair, have common names.) I consider the names of my ten or so closest RL friends off limits unless I have to have that name, for whatever reason.

It struck me as a bit weird when I ran across my name in a story from a person in my fiction seminar last semester; I briefly thought, "There are only six girls in the class, could you not have chosen something else?" before I put it aside and went on reading. But I think my name probably falls into the "common" category, so while it was a tiny bit odd to see it in a story written specifically for us to read, I didn't get bent out of shape about it or anything. Anyway, I know my own reaction to seeing my name in something by someone I know personally, so I like to avoid it where possible to avoid causing similar reactions. Also, again, it makes things easier for me as a writer.

*is totally using an icon containing a character named Rebecca. Hee!*