I'm entering a short story writing competition and I'm really stuck on which name to settle on for my heroine. I'm basically just trying to decide between surnames, although any suggestions are welcome! So far I have: ~Rosamund (Rose) Wood - yeah, I know there's a pun there and it was kind of deliberate. I just can't tell if it's the good or the bad kind, I don't generally let people know what I'm writing. ~Rosamund (Rose) Drake ~Rose North I really struggle when it comes to dishing out names to my characters. I can imagine them in my head and I'm really satisfied with the person I've come up with, but then my stupid brain gives them a name that belongs in a purple prose :redface: That said, I'm fairly happy with my shortlist above. The second part of my question is about who I should base the 'villain' on. I say 'villain' because he's more the kind of bloke you can hate and love at the same time and has a tendency to coerce some innocent, young, thing into bed. I quite like to base my characters on real people as (for some reason) it just seems to help with the flow of the story since I have a real life grounding I can always refer back to and I don't get my characters too mixed up . . . yeah. I'm bonkers Can I just stress that the character is only based upon these people. I generally just use them for basing appearances and occasionally mannerisms Anyway, who do you think would make a more imposing, threatening villain? David Boreanaz, Bradley Cooper or Richard Armitage? I know this may seem like a bit of a looney question, but it genuinely helps when I have writers block to throw a DVD on, get a feel for what I'm basing my character on, and then - crack on! Thanks a lot!
Why "base" your character on anything that already exists in fiction? (I presume fiction because I've never heard of those character names) I like to take a small piece of someone I know in real life and blow that characteristic larger than life. Some of my favorite characters have been created that way. (i.e. - I knew someone who was a persistent talker, no matter what was going on they needed to be chatting to someone.) I took that quality and made it into a spiller of secrets in a story. They didn't mean to they simply talked themselves into a corner and the investigator was smart enough to realize this person had this tendancy, so they pretty much kept quiet and let the silence drive the character crazy and into spilling secrets.) Relying too much on already created characters gives them too many rules, too much confinement. Break those barriers and make them your own.
Personally, I see Richard Armitage as more the villain type, especially as his performances have included playing characters who either straddle the line between good and evil - as it sounds like your proposed 'villain' could do - or out and out bad. David Boreanaz's role in Angel had both sides of the coin too, with the Angelus character being the evil half of his personality. As for the name of your heroine, consider her personality and decide whether one name fits it particularly well. For example, just reading the names leads me to these thoughts: Rose Wood might be a slightly shy person, but with hidden strengths she discovered when being tormented over her name at school Rose Drake makes me think of the lead character from Ashes to Ashes, Alex Drake, so I got the image of a policewoman Rose North is probably my favourite as a heroic name, as North could be considered as identifying someone who is honest, i.e. has a personality that is 'upstanding', that they are morally 'upright' and that they are a 'straight arrow'. Their life has direction, focus and a plan. Another thing you could try is a technique I just read about in a book I'm reviewing, whereby you write the letters of the character's name vertically on a piece of paper and use each letter as the first letter of a word describing the character, for instance: R - Romantic O- Obstinate S - Serious E - Energetic ...and so on for your chosen surname
