Names

I have always been amazed by names. Weird, right? But seriously, they are so cool! When I meet someone with a name I have never heard before, I can barely wait to go home and see what their name means.

On that note, I'm a pen name addict as well. Especially on the internet. I don't think my actual name exists on even one of my emails. Paranoia at its best.

Seeing as I have declared this a writing blog recently, I should probably get to the writing point of this entry.

When I make a new chapter story, I rarely just make up names for a character from our world. I'll search through my book of names and my favorite naming sites to find the perfect fit. How do I know it is the perfect fit? Easy. I like my "Earthian" characters to have names that suit their personality or cause foreshadowing most of the time. Though out of all the chapter stories I have done, my favorite has almost all the characters named after stars or constellations - Vega, Deneb, Aquila, Bellatrix, Antares, etc.

But I really think a name is important. I mean, if a guy named Sally came up and told you the earth would be destroyed in fifty hours, would you seriously believe him? I wouldn't. So, names are important to me, at least.

The annoying thing is I have so many short and chapter stories I can't possibly remember all the many characters' names. I have to look through my collection of 200+ stories if someone asks a question like that. I actually had to count that up yesterday, whilst working on a new story outline and editting a friend's piece. Grawr.

So, being stereotypical, I have:

• 40 major protagonists
• 17 minor protagonists
• 32 sidekicks
• 58 minions
• 124 random minor characters
  
• 23 antiheros
• 109 main characters
  

I also have seventy five villains. The good type. I hate villains who are just there to cause mayhem without any good reason. Villains are people too. Unless they are Death, they need motivation of some sort to do their heinous deeds. And no, going insane doesn't count.

By the way, I'm trying to find a copy of Paradise Lost. Such oppositions regarding angels and devils interest me. Though I hated The Screwtape Letters for the mere fact I couldn't get into it. And I like the mythical angels' and devils' names as well.