The problem I find with that, is that you tend to make the character live up to the name, or live it down, and it can taint a character's natural development. Think about our own names... my name is Ian... if I were to choose a name more in line with my personality, it would be, Angus. I'm more of an Angus kind of guy.
Which, Angus, is certainly a pit-fall I recognise, and have seen others fall into. However, if stylistic choices are affecting ones ability to write, then I'd just label that character X or Y until I finished their story arc. Speaking of, I had a Joan of Sark in a short story once who sacrificed herself so that her people could live freely from the dominion of the King of the Channel Islands.
Why on Earth would you choose to neglect the naming? Especially of the lead cast? What do you have to gain from doing that?
What do you have to gain from spending a lot of time on the naming process? If spending that time on that activity feeds your creative process, great. The reader benefits from anything that feeds the author's creative process. But I don't think the reader benefits from the name, at all. So if fussing over the name doesn't feed me...meh. I'll grab a magazine, look at the masthead, and find names. That's my naming process.
An iconic name. Luke Skywalker. Han Solo etc. When the name's right you just know it. As opposed to Beaufort Swan, or Dave Skywalker. The right name flows right and is something one wants to say.
Is Star Wars iconic because of the awesomeness of Luke Skywalker's name or is Luke Skywalker iconic because of the success of Star Wars? I think his name could have been Tony Rigatoni and the film and franchise wouldn't have suffered.
A cast of characters that are relatable to the reader, and whose names are appropriate to the time period in which they exist. Most people have rather pedestrian names anyway.
That's not what sets a name apart. It's the story the character inhabits, they're worth remembering only because of the story.
Having an idea/plot that I actually like and want to write, and not hating it. Or, if I come up with a character, scenario, world, something I really love, I can't plot the ending well and don't have a clue how to finish it, and this puts me off starting as I don't want to start something, spend months writing, only to go "well this is shit, i'll start again"... Maybe I should just write it and see where it takes me
How do you know that? Fantasy name generator names are obvious and practically always suck and I have never once included one in my work. They're simply not good enough. I'm of the school of thought that as long as I don't definitively know for a fact that the name doesn't matter - and believe me anyone who claims to know that for sure is full of crap - I'm going to give my characters every edge they can get to succeed. Why not? You only need to name a character once. Taking only ten minutes even with lead characters... I don't understand that level of apathy at all. And if the name doesn't matter, why did Lucas change it from Starkiller to Skywalker? Only if one is writing slice of life ordinary fiction should one go ahead and choose names randomly out of the baby name book or a random magazine. .
How many fictional hot girls do you see named Marge or Phyllis? How many hot guys are named Dilbert or Seymoure? If names didn't matter, parents wouldn't make such a big deal naming their children.
I wouldn't say names don't matter but on the hierarchy of important story requirements I'd say they're relatively low. Do we have examples of great stories that were torpedoed by lame names? Or lame stories that were elevated to greatness by awesome names? To use another Lucas example, how was the quality of Howard the Duck affected by the name of the MC?
Just tuning it all out, letting myself immerse. Sometimes it's a lot like trying to fall asleep while the gears of your brain are spinning at grease-smoking speed. You know that feeling. You just want to fall asleep and let the dream world take over, but the car payment is late and you forgot to buy dog food and there's a certifiable nut-bag running the country. You just want to put the blinders on and see nothing past the page, but the other half of your brain is accusing you of sticking your head in the sand. That.
No idea. Back when I was into getting altered, I just called my weed/roll dealer like any good university student.
I don't know that anyone has suggested a randomizer. My method--grabbing a magazine and looking at the names of the editorial staff on the masthead--generally gives me several pleasing names with two minutes' effort. Another five minutes checking the meaning and origin of the names to make sure I haven't unintentionally made some sort of pun, or an unlikely international mix with my first/last name mix-and-match, and I'm done. That's when the character doesn't arrive in my head pre-named, which happens fairly often.
Because names can't singlehandedly make a lame story great that means names don't matter much? That's a false dichotomy. How many story elements have the power to do that to begin with? If names can stand out as praiseworthy: That's quite a name! - Elven Candy. https://www.writingforums.org/threads/share-your-first-three-sentences.145670/page-56 (post #1388) Or stand out as bad: "Dooku sounds like Dookie, and dookie means shit. - Amazing Atheist" Why would you not care much what your character is named? So it's like I'm going to painstakingly design my MC's choreography, visual design, and characterization but the name? Nah that don't matter much! It's only the thing that's going to be on her poster if she ever gets popular. It's like running a Marathon and deciding to hop the home straight.
I'd suspect you probably could but it wouldn't be a good idea - the heat would release the VOCs from the grease and the effect would be about like doing buties (sniffing canisters of butane lighter gas)... brain damage a go go
For me, the hardest part of writing is when I get an idea in my head and i just can't get the words out. People tell me just to write down words to describe my idea, but I feel like I want to word it just right. I'm working on a fantasy novel so the wording of my narration is important, because I want it to reflect the linguistic rules I'm creating for my story world.
For me, the hardest part is writing out dialogue. I suck at dialogue in real life, let alone making up a conversation and writing it out! Also I suck at describing buildings, hopefully I'll improve at that with practice...
It's sort of like that notion where what you are saying out loud sounded better in your head. As I write an idea out I start to feel like I'm not doing it justice.
Discipline. I know you're probably thinking in different terms with your question, but seriously, discipline. Finding the time. Making yourself do it. Shutting out Facebook and other distractions. Discipline.
