How do you name your characters? Do you just pluck something out of the air? Do you use an automated character name generator?

Here are a few ideas for coming up with meaningful, original names for your characters...

Look up baby name meanings

It's very simple to find a baby naming site, enter in a leading trait of your character and then browse the list to see if any of them suit. Of course, this tends to work more for goodies than baddies, as names with negative connotations are much more rare. Can't think why.

Foreign words

Why not enter some of the character traits into Google translate and see what some foreign words look like as names. You may need to try a few synonyms to get the right thing, and obviously the language itself needs to sound appropriate.

Scientific names

Like the infamous Katniss, names of plants and even rare animals can bring depth and meaning to your character and even add layers to their history.

Maps

Maps are full of weird and wonderful names, especially the small places around the outskirts of the cities or deep into the counrtyside.

How do you choose names for your characters? Do you think it's important to get the right name, or that it doesn't really matter? Do you have any other ideas for discovering interesting names?

This short writing exercise is based on one suggested by Margaret Geraghty in her excellent book – The five-minute Writer, which we highly recommend.

Sometimes the hardest thing about being a writer is just knuckling down and writing. And many writers live in fear of the dreaded blank page.

Writing exercises can help get the juices flowing and will also help hone your writing skills, preparing them for when you want to apply them to short stories, novels, or whatever else it is you write.

Writing about rituals

Rituals are not just all about religion and festivals, we all have all kinds of rituals in everyday life, many of which we’re probably completely unaware of – until they become interrupted and we find ourselves feeling unsettled or irritable.

When we read stories, the worlds and characters described on the page are not built entirely by the words that are supplied by the author, we use our life experience so far to fill out the details. If this didn’t happen, then authors would need to write reams of words in order to build an entire character or setting. As it is, they can use a few broad brushstrokes and know that the reader will apply stereotypes and personal life experience to fill in the rest.

We can use rituals to the same effect, by describing a common ritual that somebody might be familiar with, such as morning ablutions or making a first cup of coffee. It might be gathering all the things required for a yoga class or a dog walk, or preparing for a short or long trip.

The way in which the character carries out a common ritual will provide the reader with impressions of their character, as well as tone and atmosphere of the scene.

For example:

Janice bounds out of bed and splashes refreshing ice cold water on her face. She hums as she brushes her teeth and sweeps a bit of light make-up on, before heading downstairs for a crunchy breakfast of muesli and bananas with skimmed milk.

Nicole drags herself out of bed and swears at the perpetually flickering bare bathroom light bulb that she still hasn’t got round to fixing. She grimaces at herself in the mirror, squeezing spots of blood out of her gums. There’s no time for breakfast, as usual, so she slams the door behind her, stomach grumbling as she jogs down the road, not noticing the stain on the leg of her jeans.

A short writing exercise about rituals:

Think about the rituals you do in your life – this can be anything you do regularly, you don’t have to feel spiritual about it, or particularly attached, it’s just something routine. It may have a calming effect, but it may not. Write for fifteen minutes about your ritual. 

Try to write with specific detail, but there’s no need to over describe. For example, rather than saying ‘the dog lead’ say ‘the steel choker chain’ but don’t write 500 words when 300 will do.

Stuck for inspiration? Here are some of my favourite inspirational ideas for writing a short story:

1.  Find a poem and rewrite it as a story. (If you’re having trouble finding a poem, search for ‘The Nation’s Favourite Poems’ and browse through) 
2. Choose a limerick and turn that into a full blown story. (Search for Edward Lear for the master of limericks and delightful nonsense)
3.  Ask five random people to give you a noun, an adjective, a verb, colour and a random object, and write a story that incorporates them all. (or search for an online random word generator) 
4. Write a single scene story which describes one of your most painful of embarrassing memories. (the more painful it is for you to write, the better)
5.  Read synopses of poorly rated movies and base your story on one. (You can browse Netflix – even if you’re not a member – or browse the DVDs in the library or rental store – assuming those places still exist…) 
6.  Open a book at a random page, find the first new sentence and use that as the first line of your story. (Or just use it somewhere if you’re feeling wishy washy)
7. Write a story about change from the point of view of a fruit. (Or a plant or an item that is sitting on your desk) 
8. Write a story about loss from the point of view of your youngest child (regardless of whether you have any children).
9. Write a story about a terrible crime from the point of view of the criminal, so the reader sympathises with them. The greater the level of sympathy and empathy, the better. 
10. Find an idiom, such as ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ and write a fable to explain the ‘origin’ of the phrase.

If you enjoyed this post, then you should probably check out the Novel Factory. 

All stories need conflict – it is their life blood. Without conflict, you have no story, full stop.

Before we go on, it’s important to note that conflict isn’t the same as challenge, such as a big fist fight. A serious lifetime addict not having a cigarette when pregnant is more of a conflict than a martial arts expert beating up twenty baddies.

In this article we’re going to explore four potential areas of conflict: Inner, relationship, organisation and external.

Inner Conflict

Based on the conflicting desires of the protagonist.

For example, Annette wants revenge for her brother’s murder, but the murderer is her own father, who takes care of her vulnerable mother. The conflict comes between the desire for revenge / the familial love for her father / the wish to protect her mother.

The protagonist ostensibly has full control over inner conflict as it is solely up to them to make the decision.

Relationship Conflict

Based on the opposing desires of individual characters.

For example, Betty wants to go out with Carl, but Carl fancies Darren, and Darren wants to marry Annette to get hold of her mother’s fortune.

The protagonist has some control over relationship conflict, though how much depends on their situation and strength of character.

Organisation Conflict

Based on the conflict with organisations in the wider world. A common one is the police or EvilCorp, but it could be a school, boss, publisher etc. It’s usually characterised by a David and Goliath type relationship, and ruthless, faceless opponent.

For example, Emma wants to publicise the fact that EvilCorp is dumping poisoness waste in the water and the local children are being afflicted with horrible diseases that the parents can’t afford to treat and EvilCorp puts publicity, lawyers and hardmen in her way.

The protagonist has a small amount of control over how they can navigate the towering obstacles thrown in their path and force the hand of the organisation.

External Conflict

Based on conflict with random, uncontrollable factors. Such as weather, freak natural phenomenon,

computer malfunction, accidents etc. These are usually better used as incidental factors or to assist with initial story set up, rather than as main story conflicts, because there is so little control, it can feel a bit hopeless or arbitrary – and it’s hard to get real passionate hate for a mindless things that have no emotions or desires themselves.

For example, Freddy wants to get to the hospital where his wife is having his baby, when a freak snowstorm closes all the roads.

The protagonist has no control over how external conflicts play out.

Summary of conflict

Now you’ve read about four different areas of conflict, think about how you use them in your story. Are they all present? Could you make your story stronger by introducing more of them?

For more articles about creative writing and novel writing, visit The Novel Factory website.

Bring to mind someone you have strong feelings for, someone you’re indifferent to and someone you hate. Try to think of what kind of circumstances could swap those positions around.


For example, you’re out for dinner with your spouse (loved one, hopefully) when they tell you that they’ve been cheating on you – with the waiter (who you were indifferent to, but now hate). Your overbearing boss (hated one) happens to be in the same restaurant and comes over, whisking you away and comforting you with brandy and kind words. Huddled on their sofa under blankets, you notice for the first time that your boss actually has the most beautiful sparkling eyes, and seems to have the exact same love of jazz as you…

Now you try.

For more articles about creative writing and novel writing, visit The Novel Factory website.

It has recently come to my attention that there are some new writers out there that aren’t sure how they should be formatting their manuscripts.

So this post is going to be dedicated to explaining the basic nuts and bolt of fiction formatting – basically how the text is laid out.

It’s important to stress that we are referring to fiction formatting, because formatting for fact based essays follows a different set of rules.

So, here we go:

Font

There is no standard font that you have to use, but as a general rule, if you’re writing for print, you should use a ‘serif’ font, and if you’re writing for a digital medium then you should use a ‘sans-serif’ font.

Serif fonts are ones with little tails and flicks at the end of the letters (such as Times New Roman or Georgia) and Sans Serif fonts are those without (such as Arial and Verdana).

This is because the font affects the readability of text, and for reasons too technical to go into, that is the way that works best.

Personally, I like to use Courier New, which looks like what comes out of a typewriter, because it just looks more writerly.

Also, don’t make the font too small – it’s not just painful for people whose eyesight isn’t perfect, it’s uncomfortable for people with 20/20 too.

Paragraph

Don’t leave line breaks (vertical space) between paragraphs. They should be snug above and below each other, with the exact same amount of space as there is between lines of the same paragraph.

Indents

New paragraphs should be indented by about a finger’s width – except the first one of a chapter  (I know, who comes up with this stuff? But that’s the way it is buster, so get used to it).

Line spacing

Use 1.5 or double line spacing. Otherwise the text ends up looking too dense and people’s eyes get lost while trying to read it.

Column width

This is more relevant for digital publishing, but make sure your columns aren’t too wide. Newspapers use narrow columns because they are easier to read. If the eye is forced to travel too far from left to right, then it loses its place and ends up skipping lines or rereading the same one twice.

Read about time and weather and how they relate to theme and variations in your novel here. 

We achieve great things by standing on the shoulders of giants, so here is a collection of some of the best writing quote by great authors throughout history.

Some of them are moving, some are inspiring and some are just darn funny.

Especially the one about beating Jane Austen over the head with her own shin bone. 

Quotes about being successful as an author

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
- Winston S. Churchill


“Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.”
- A. A. Milne


“There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money either.”
- Robert Graves


“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
- Ernest Hemingway

Quotes about how authors find inspiration

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”
- Orson Scott Card


“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
- Madeleine L'Engle


“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
- Maya Angelou


“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.”
- Lloyd Alexander

Quotes about the rules of writing

 

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.“

- W. Somerset Maugham

“You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money’s in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.”- Larry Niven 

“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.”- Edgar Rice Burroughs 

Quotes about the nuts and bolts of writing

“The first draft of anything is shit.”- Ernest Hemingway

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.”- C. J. Cherryh

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”- Douglas Adams

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”- Mark Twain

“Always be a poet, even in prose.”- Charles Baudelaire

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
- E. L. Doctorow

“My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.”- Anton Chekhov        

“Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.”- Henry David Thoreau

“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”- Flannery O'Connor

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”- Jack Kerouac

Quotes about the perils of being an author

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.”- Erica Jong

“The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.”- William Faulkner

“I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.”- Gustave Flaubert

“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”- Oscar Wilde

Random quotes about writing

 

“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.- Stephen Kingthat.”- Stephen King

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.”- Isaac Asimov

“People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy.”- Joss Whedon

“I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”- Mark Twain

 

Have you tried The Novel Factory? Novel writing software written for writers, by writers.

If you're having trouble coming up with a good idea for plot, or if you're just starting out writing and you're not sure what constitutes a decent plot - one option is to take an existing story that you like, and transpose it.

This gives you a proven working formula for your novel, meaning you can concentrate on learning skills such as character development and writing tight prose. And by using one of the greats, you can learn a lot about the elements that are involved in a good plot on the way.

What do you mean by 'transpose a novel'

When talking about transposing a novel, we usually mean changing the location or era (though there are no laws, so you could switch the genders of all the characters, or turn them into ferret colony). Most commonly, an old classic such as something by Shakespeare will be moved into the modern day.

Transposing a story in this way brings a variety of challenges and opportunities. When using an established plot, you'll still want to make it your own, and to do so, you can take advantage of elements that exist in the new surroundings, that wouldn't have in the original. It can be fun to look for parallels between the two worlds, and if you're really smart, you can make interesting insights about how the world has changed or stayed the same...

For example, the rich feuding families ancient Verona in Romeo and Juliet were morphed into warring gangs in modern day New York in West Side Story (see below for more examples).

Remember that if you chose to follow this route, you're not bound by any rules about what you have to stick to and what you can change - it's completely up to you. You can be as faithful or deviant as you like. You could even change the ending to one you find more satisfying. The main objective is to ensure you breathe new life and flavour into the story, don't simply create a weak copy with only the names of places changed. Be ambitious and create something unique from the ingredients.

Examples of novels and movies that have been transposed:

Probably the most well known story to have been transposed many times is Romeo and Juliet, which has been brought into modern New York Gangland with West Side Story, as well as the Disney movie, High School Musical.


Sherlock Holmes has recently been rebooted by the BBC, who have taken the unusual step of retaining the exact names and characters and simply plopping them down in modern day England. The stories have remained somewhat faithful, but with the addition of modern knwoledge of science technological advancements and some bowing to the local customs (thich less hallucinogenic drugs).


Tess of the D'urbevilles was wrenched out of its rural English home and replanted in modern India, where it flourished as the film, Trishna.

Suggestions for further transpositions:

• Star Wars in a medieval village
• The Hobbit in modern day London
• Les Miserables in futuristic space

What are your favourite modern adaptations of old classics? Do you have any suggestions for transpositions you'd like to read?

If you liked this article, you're love our novel writing software - click here for a free trial.

Picking the right names for your characters can make a big difference to the feel of your story.

There are some names from literature which are unique and feel imprinted on our memories, such as Heathcliff, Hannibal, Simba and even Cinderella. Would these names immediately bring to mind a single entity if they were Jack, Peter, Mohammed or Claire?

Here are a few tips to help you find the perfect fit name:

Reflect the character's personality in the name

You can be obvious about this (surnames like Moody, Love, Nice and Right all exist in real life), but you may want to be a bit more subtle. This is a lot easier if your character is from a foreign country. It's great fun to use a meaning of name website (these are often in the guise of baby name websites, even though adults have names too) and search for a trait you feel is strong in your character. This is much harder when it comes to villains, because there are far fewer names around that deliberately invoke negative characteristics. If there aren't any real names, then make one up.

Make sure they aren't too similar

There's nothing more frustrating for a reader than getting mixed up between characters and having to go back and reread to check who really did what. Use first letters, length and contours to make sure the names are instantly visibly distinguishable.

Research the era and location

If your book is set in a particular time or place, then make sure you do your research and not accidentally use an innappropriate name - for example a Chinese name instead of a Japanese one, or a name that didn't exist in that period.

Or, if you're really not having any luck, then give up and use a character name generator.

If you want more help in developing characters, seeing the story from their point of view and general novel writing advice - then click here.