Reddit Reddit reviews The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook

We found 5 Reddit comments about The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Words, Language & Grammar
Words, Language & Grammar Reference
The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook
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5 Reddit comments about The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook:

u/J_Webb · 6 pointsr/rpg

I have several methods depending on if I am the Dungeon Master or the player.

If I am the player, I will ask if there are any cultures unique to our own world within the DM's campaign. If my character is from that region or culture, I will refer to real world names. I use the Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

If I am the Dungeon Master, I use my own home-brewed campaign that I have been shaping and refining for the past few years. It has its own local languages with variations of real world names. I will usually make lists of these local names to hand out to players creating characters.

When I make non-player characters, I will either develop the character around their name or the name around the character. For non-important characters, I use custom 100-name charts. Roll some d10 dice and pick out the results from the charts.

Here is an example of one of my recent characters to use as a DM. I have a local language I am working on in my language with surnames based on Scottish surnames. The surname 'Dour' in Scottish means 'from the water.' I changed it up using my languages grammar to 'Dorve.' Lowborn men and women in my setting rarely earn family surnames. They usually are referred to as x from y. Think Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo of Vinci. I do the same in my setting with its language. Dorve don Vestavia. Dorve of Vestavia. From the water of Vestavia. Vestavia is a city in my setting with a very large river, so this character lives in the city near the river.

Sorry if that was an overload of information, but I am one of those people that likes realistic names in a setting. To accomplish that as I DM, I use custom languages. Otherwise, I research real world cultures and languages to name my characters.

u/ysadamsson · 3 pointsr/fantasywriters

Obligatory

Obligatory 2

Depending on how dedicated I am, I'll (a) make a naming language and give my characters meaningful names or (b) generate a bunch of feasible-sounding names by hand, in Python, or with Zompist's /gen/ and assign them to characters as I see fit.

There are some questions to be answered: How are people's names structured? For example, Swedish naming convention is three given names referred to as "forenames" and a family name, and a person can choose to go by any of their forenames casually and by their family name formally. In Japan, it's just one given name and a family name, and people almost always are referred to by their family name with an honorific title outside of close friends/family. In Arabic, it's traditional given name followed by a bunch of optional parts with cultural significance. In the U.S. your given name is your default name, but if you hate it you can go by a middle name or a nickname. In Thailand people usually have a one-syllable nickname that they almost always go by, but people can conceivably have long-ass Sanskrit (?) names too.

What's important to your people? That's what their names will be.

Otherwise I'll open up my copy of The Character Naming Sourcebook and knock off some mythological Polynesian name.

u/vinkunwildflower · 2 pointsr/FanFiction

The Negative Trait Thesaurus, with the Emotion Thesaurus, Positive Trait Thesaurus and the Emotional Wound Thesaurus.

Also Careers for Your Characters: A Writers Guide to 101 Professions from Architect to Zookeeper which "Provides over one hundred descriptions of occupations that can be used for writing fiction, detailing the daily life, jargon, and salaries of such fields as dentistry, entertainment, law, and architecture."

And The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook is good for times when I can't get online to find names.

Master Lists for Writing is also a good one.

The Psychology Workbook for Writers

Creating Character Arcs Workbook

Thinking Like A Romance Writer: The Sensual Writer's Sourcebook of Words and Phrases A friend got me this for Christmas, mostly to laugh at, but I thought I'd add it anyway.

u/Contero · 1 pointr/gaming

I bought this book for that very purpose.

Even if you don't use any names directly out of it, it's a good starting point to help you realize what kind of name you want.

u/righthandoftyr · 1 pointr/writing

I have a name book (this is the one I have, but it's pretty easy to find lists of baby names online for free if you don't need names for different cultures), so I just try and find one that sounds nice and rolls off the tongue. Past that, as much as possible I just try and make sure I don't have two main characters with names that start with the same letter or sound very similar, just so it's easier for the readers to keep them all straight.