The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sherrilyn KenyonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-21
ISBN: 1582972958
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Book Reviews of The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook
Book Review: A Quick-Fix Character-Naming Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Anyone who has been writing for some time knows just how difficult it is to come up with meaningful character names. Yet having a meaningful name, one relevant to the story, is as integral a part of the plotting process as the actual outline itself. Naming a character who is a free-spirit Todd is just wrong; it reflects nothing but laziness on the part of the writer. Francis, which actually means free, is a much better alternative, and matches almost perfectly.
Another thing this book is good for is for fantasy writing. How many of you have a read a fantasy story and found the names of characters so strange that it could only have been made up? This book actually tells us to use established names and warp them or combine them to give more suitable fantasy names.
This book also has a huge selection of nationalities, from African to Welsh, and everything between, including dead languages such as Latin, as well as Asian nationalities like Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. It provides male and female names as well as their meanings, along with common family names.
Though The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook obviously isn't meant for every writer, it's definitely an important book for fiction writers. It helps to legitimize a story's plot or theme by providing meaningful names, and also shows that a writer is willing to do some research in order to succeed in his or her writing. So, if you you're a genre writer, I'd highly recommend this book, and put the phone book back where it should be: next to your phone.
Summary of The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook
The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Character Names
Back in print and better than ever, The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook has been updated and expanded to help you find character names and their meanings quickly and easily!
This one-of-a-kind resource was specifically designed with the writer in mind. Inside you'll find:
- 25,000+ first names and surnames, and their meanings, listed by origin
- Names and surnames from more than 45 countries
- A reverse lookup of names by meaning
- An alphabetical index of names
- An explanation of naming practices and historical context for each origin
- A list of the top ten most popular names in the United States every year from 1880-2003
- Instruction on how to create believable names that fit your characters and your story
This exciting new edition also includes advice from a number of best-selling authors, including Elizabeth George, Alexander McCall Smith, Homer Hickam, Marian Keyes, Big Fish author Daniel Wallace, and others. You'll get the inside scoop on their naming methods, plus the stories behind the names of their most famous characters.
So throw out your old telephone books and baby-naming guides - The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook meets all your naming needs!
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