How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?

Creating characters are fairly easy for me. When characters pop into my head, they’ll have one of two tags attached: Throwaway and Keepers. Throwaway characters are those who appear for the first time and then disappear. Keepers tend to require a bit more thinking and are generally the only characters that I do research for, but even then it tends to be quite shallow research such as name, appearance and a culture.

Most of the names I make up for my characters are throwaway names. Generally when a character pops into my head, I already have an idea of what they look like, what they would answer to, and perhaps most importantly, what are their motivations. For characters like bratty Rosselius, they usually manifest as these shadowy beings for a few days before they decide to stay or go. This is especially prevalent when I’m playing around with scenarios in my head. Which means during Nanowrimo, there’s a higher chance of these beings appearing and disappearing. It’s now quite rare for me to get a character that isn’t already named with a personality or a function.

It’s writing place names that usually drive me insane. Places like Jiat and Zhamato made me research and create the backstory for those places even if they were supposed to be described in only one sentence. These places usually hold some sort of special significance for my characters, and the names chosen need to reflect that. Sometimes it comes easy, sometimes it doesn’t. Most times it just drives me crazy.

1. Tell us about your favourite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?
4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!
5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?
6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol’ pen and paper?
7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?
8. What’s your favorite genre to write? To read?
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!
11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?
12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of worldbuilding? Any side-notes on it you’d like to share?
13. What’s your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?
14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?
15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!
16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? 😉
17. Favorite protagonist and why!
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What’s the most interesting way you’ve killed someone?
25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.
26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!