Writing Names needed for story.

[Guest NIKI12345]

Well I have been writing a book and I was wondering if anyone could help me make up characters names for my story. It?s an old time Japanese story so I need Japanese names. If you have meanings to those names please list. Thanks. :animesigh

[Doublehex]

[quote name='NIKI12345']Well I have been writing a book and I was wondering if anyone could help me make up characters names for my story. It?s an old time Japanese story so I need Japanese names. If you have meanings to those names please list. Thanks. :animesigh[/quote]

Maybe you should tell us a bit about the characters first.

[Guest NIKI12345]

[quote name='Doublehex']Maybe you should tell us a bit about the characters first.[/quote]

Well its on like a warrior gathering. Here is the first paragraph.

It was a sunny day in the village of Gondo and Nikara was going to start her journey to become a warrior. As she was crossing the giant gate that kept her village hidden from the world for so long her dad ran up to her. ?Nikara take this before you go,? said Nikara?s father. When Nikara looked at it she saw a golden sword. ?Dad you shouldn?t have,? Replied Nikara. ?Shhh,? he said to Nikara as he pointed to the gate. Then Nikara walked past the gate ready to become a warrior and protect her village from the greedy invaders. That was her life vow!

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]I'm not sure that that's what [COLOR=DarkRed]Doublehex[/COLOR] meant. I know that it's not what I would have meant. But that's cool.

Anyway, what I want to know is:
[list][*]Do you have personalities set for these characters yet?
[*]Have you been playing around with the minor (and I hope major) characters inside your head to see what they'll do in certain situations?
[*]Do you want their names to reflect something specific, like their personality or a particular item/mood/thing?[/list]

I ask these because it'll be much easier for people to help give you names if you kind of lay out what you want or need in a little more detail.

In a separate issue, look at your story carefully. Anytime you write something, listen to it in your head, reread it, and think [I]"Does this sound sappy? Can other people see what I see with what I wrote? How can I make this work?"[/I]

And always:

[I]"Is my grammar/syntax good?"[/I]

Please, please, [I]please[/I] don't ever belittle yourself by telling yourself that it's okay to sound dumb because you're young and inexperienced. I know. I was there. You do that just once and you consign yourself to being inferior, and that's never a good compromise. I say this because because I don't want you to be another person who just throws down words and says "Wah-lah! Story!" (Incidentally, that's [U]voila[/U]. It's French. (^_^) Just so you know.) I don't know how I can say this without endlessly stumbling over myself.

Make it real.

And yes, I know its fantasy. I have characters (allamorphs) who can shift into other animals (only one each), and can go halfway to become nastie-looking beast warriors (only under certain conditions). I have a character (a druid) who has milky eyes and cobalt-blue hair (all of his hair, everywhere) and can destroy your mind by looking you in the eye in just the right way. I even have cyborgs, but they're all real people with real emotions and real flaws and real limitations ([B]I[/B] think, anyway), and if anything starts to feel contrived about someone I've created I get nervous.

Don't mistake me; I support you in your endeavor. I want you to write if you want to write. I just want to see you do it well.

And just so you know, I'm stuck on a Japanese name, too. :p [/FONT]

[Redemption]

[size=1]If I need any names for my characters, I usually go to this website.

[URL=www.babynamesworld.com]Click me![/URL]

You can search names by meaning or nationality, which really helps if you're looking for something specific, or if you just can't think of anything and want something unique.[/size]

[Guest NIKI12345]

[QUOTE=Allamorph][FONT=Arial]I'm not sure that that's what [COLOR=DarkRed]Doublehex[/COLOR] meant. I know that it's not what I would have meant. But that's cool.

Anyway, what I want to know is:
[list][*]Do you have personalities set for these characters yet?
[*]Have you been playing around with the minor (and I hope major) characters inside your head to see what they'll do in certain situations?
[*]Do you want their names to reflect something specific, like their personality or a particular item/mood/thing?[/list]

I ask these because it'll be much easier for people to help give you names if you kind of lay out what you want or need in a little more detail.

In a separate issue, look at your story carefully. Anytime you write something, listen to it in your head, reread it, and think [I]"Does this sound sappy? Can other people see what I see with what I wrote? How can I make this work?"[/I]

And always:

[I]"Is my grammar/syntax good?"[/I]

Please, please, [I]please[/I] don't ever belittle yourself by telling yourself that it's okay to sound dumb because you're young and inexperienced. I know. I was there. You do that just once and you consign yourself to being inferior, and that's never a good compromise. I say this because because I don't want you to be another person who just throws down words and says "Wah-lah! Story!" (Incidentally, that's [U]voila[/U]. It's French. (^_^) Just so you know.) I don't know how I can say this without endlessly stumbling over myself.

Make it real.

And yes, I know its fantasy. I have characters (allamorphs) who can shift into other animals (only one each), and can go halfway to become nastie-looking beast warriors (only under certain conditions). I have a character (a druid) who has milky eyes and cobalt-blue hair (all of his hair, everywhere) and can destroy your mind by looking you in the eye in just the right way. I even have cyborgs, but they're all real people with real emotions and real flaws and real limitations ([B]I[/B] think, anyway), and if anything starts to feel contrived about someone I've created I get nervous.

Don't mistake me; I support you in your endeavor. I want you to write if you want to write. I just want to see you do it well.

And just so you know, I'm stuck on a Japanese name, too. :p [/FONT][/QUOTE]

Yeah for each character I have a whole page with desirptions. It talks about their age, there goals in the warrior gathering, their past, and what they look like. My best friend who is a really great artist is drawing my pictures of them too on a different page. Like I have Nikara-main character Nato-major character Toree- major. Hino-minor, but has her moments in the next season when I want her to become a major. Sean and Seth the trouble brothers from the open eye clan- minor. Kabutu- minor the leader in Sean and Seth?s team. Oh and the little brown mouse which I don?t have a name for yet-minor. Most of these names I just made up in my head.

[Raiyuu]

If I were you I would ask myself: if I don't know enough about Japan and Japanese culture to name my characters well, why is my story set in Japan at all?

Also, discussion about fiction goes in the [b]OB Anthology[/b]. Always check through for the relevant forum before posting a thread, mmkay?

[Hanabishi Recca]

[quote name='Raiyuu']If I were you I would ask myself: if I don't know enough about Japan and Japanese culture to name my characters well, why is my story set in Japan at all?[/quote]

*laughs* Even though that would be logical, most people think that Japan is the easy-est place to hold a story. I mean, if you really look at it then you would probably base it in America or so. But, most people don't think. I'm not talking bad about you Niki. *crosses eyes*

Sometimes people base things with a different culture because they think that it would lengthen their storys and make it better. I know most people would think that Japan is a very easy place to set a story because of how popular it is. *silence* And thats that...

[Lady Asphyxia]

[font=Arial Narrow][size=2][color=DarkGreen]I don't know if this is very helpful, because I'm not very familiar with japanese names, but I use the [b][url="http://www.behindthename.com/random/"]Behind the Name Random Name Generator[/url][/b]. You can choose the nationality of the names you'd like and they will pick some. Also, you can then click the name to see if you like the meaning, which means you can co-ordinate it with the personalities of the characters.[/color][/size][/font]

[Revelation]

[size=1][color=#4B5B5B]You know, I'm not too sure myself if this site'll help you any. It's called [URL=http://www.20000-names.com][B]20000 Names[/B][/URL] and I've used it to get some ideas for interesting, outworldly characters as well as simple and modern ones too. It's sort of like the site Lady A provided only this one just lists categories and nationalities. It's still a good site to go to, if you want to that is.[/size][/color]

[Boo]

[quote name='Lady Asphyxia][font=Arial Narrow][size=2][color=DarkGreen]I don't know if this is very helpful, because I'm not very familiar with japanese names, but I use the [b][url="http://www.behindthename.com/random/"]Behind the Name Random Name Generator[/url][/b]. You can choose the nationality of the names you'd like and they will pick some. Also, you can then click the name to see if you like the meaning, which means you can co-ordinate it with the personalities of the characters.[/color][/size'][/font][/quote][size=1]This is awesome. I just spent too much time on randomly generating names in all kinds of languages.[/size]

[Guest NIKI12345]

[quote name='Revelation][size=1][color=#4B5B5B]You know, I'm not too sure myself if this site'll help you any. It's called [URL=http://www.20000-names.com][B]20000 Names[/B][/URL] and I've used it to get some ideas for interesting, outworldly characters as well as simple and modern ones too. It's sort of like the site Lady A provided only this one just lists categories and nationalities. It's still a good site to go to, if you want to that is.[/size'][/color][/quote]

Thank you so much. The site really helps alot. :D

[Revelation]

[size=1][color=#4B5B5B]I'm glad I could help. Also a great way to look for names is if you Google "Baby names" and you can specify whether you want female or male. But I prefer to use 20000 Names.[/size][/color]