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That time a barista changed how I name my characters
I used to name all my characters super fancy names like Percival or Cordelia because I thought it sounded more literary. Then last month at a coffee shop in Portland, the barista told me she names her dogs after her favorite breakfast foods and laughed about a pug named Waffles. She said readers remember a character named Pancake way more than one named Augustus. Now I write a list of silly names from cereal boxes before I start any story, got any weird character names that actually worked?
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charles6782mo ago
Oh, @kevinc84, people still bring up "Digger" years later? That feels wild to me, like a magic trick.
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kevinc842mo ago
Oh boy, I've been there. Here's the thing that worked for me - I had a character named "Digger" once in a writing group piece and people still bring him up years later. Simple names stick in your head way better than fancy ones.
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