Oct 21 2008
Things I learned about writing from NaNoWriMo #2 (#nanowrimo)
#2 Don’t bother with naming characters, places or anything for that matter.
I used to waste so much time looking a baby name site trying to find character names, especially because I wanted them to mean something. Nothing sped up my writing faster than when I stopped naming things. Now, if you have a character name in mind, by all means use it but if it takes more than a few seconds to come up with one, move on.
My stories read like “Well,” said GUARD1 to SLAVE3, “Do you think the SPECIAL ARMY NAME will make it through EVIL SCARY PLACE?” Find and replace will be your friend later when you come up with the names for things but, for now, just give them a placeholder name and move on with the story.
Story is king. The names of places aren’t as important as they feel.
Hillary is an award winning playwright, fiction and non-fiction author best known for her play, The Love of Three Oranges which has been performed around the world. A Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo ML, she loves connecting with other writers no matter what their experience levels. For the business side of blogging, publishing and selling, visit Hillary at The Whine Seller. See a complete list of Hillary’s blogs and books here.
