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Post the name and age of your MC
Lucy Silag - Book Country Director
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2015 11:49 AM
Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356


This discussion got me curious about what everyone is naming their MCs, and how old they are. Post below!

 

Mine are:


Holly Grant, 30

Melissa Winters, 30

 

(From a WIP that isn't on BC . . . yet.)


nate1952
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2015 11:59 AM

I grew up as a Bible Kid, so a lot of my lead characters have Bible names:

 

Apphia, Eli, Jonah, Miriam, Noah, Rebecca, etc.

 

But I have at least one book set in India, where two sisters have Sanskrit names:

Anandi (meaning "joyful"); and

Kiran (meaning "light").

 

Anybody else mining the Scriptures for names?

 


Amber Wolfe
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2015 12:50 PM

Here's my main characters, in my WIP Destiny's Bond:

 

Destiny, 20

Arashi, 220 (26, if you want mortal maturity)

Karissa, 23


Lucy Silag - Book Country Director
Posted: Monday, June 1, 2015 12:35 PM
Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356


@Nate--I love biblical names, but I haven't used many. Great idea!

 

@Amber--"mortal maturity" LOL!


Amber Wolfe
Posted: Monday, June 1, 2015 10:01 PM

--edited by Amber Wolfe on 6/1/2015, 10:06 PM--


Charles J. Barone
Posted: Tuesday, June 2, 2015 3:32 PM
Joined: 7/18/2014
Posts: 121


For my series character.

 

Frank Cirilli, 54 yrs old

 

Melba Ortiz, 27 yrs old

 

Melissa Montoya, 30 yrs old

 


JoycieRuss
Posted: Thursday, June 4, 2015 8:06 PM
Joined: 11/5/2014
Posts: 2


Mine are:

Jade  28

Jasper 30

 


hmjmdeleon
Posted: Thursday, June 4, 2015 10:38 PM
Joined: 3/13/2014
Posts: 26


Devon Sawyer 27

Carmen Calderon 26

 

When Demons Hide. Just finished writing, one pass editing. Letting it smolder for a while

 

My new one, as yet untitled, the MC is Vaughn Ryder. 25 (ish) I can't decide yet.


Lucy Basey
Posted: Monday, June 8, 2015 6:28 AM
Joined: 4/23/2015
Posts: 38


Abigail Chambers 16

Nate Spencer 18

Has anyone ever created a character and then made friends with someone the same name as your character? It happened to me with my last project and I couldn't change my character's name, because she'd become that name in my head, but every time I spoke to my 'real life' friend I'd feel a bit odd that I'd created a character with her name.


Lucy Silag - Book Country Director
Posted: Monday, June 8, 2015 12:21 PM
Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356


Hehe, Lucy, this happened to me!

 

Originally Holly in my WIP was named Tara. But since then I have become friends with *2* ladies named Tara. So I had to change it.


Lucy Basey
Posted: Monday, June 8, 2015 2:51 PM
Joined: 4/23/2015
Posts: 38


It happened with the name Amy for me. I'd completed the novel when I met and befriended a real life Amy and I couldn't bring myself to tell her that I had written a story about a girl with the same name nor could I change my character's name. I just have to hope that if it's ever published she won't think I'm a crazy stalker!
Lucy Silag - Book Country Director
Posted: Monday, June 8, 2015 2:57 PM
Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356


@Lucy, hehe. I actually accidentally workshopped a story in a class using a last name of someone in the class who I didn't know well. It was very embarrassing and awkward, because the name was a distinctive one. It was an accident, but also taught me: DO NOT name your characters on the fly! So now I am much more careful about all my names.

 

In one of my projects, I had 2 MCs, Alex and Aaron, and my first readers kept getting them confused: 2 A names, both 2 syllables. I changed Aaron to Zack and it felt SO strange. But now Zack could never be Aaron. Remembering that always gives me comfort when I am deciding whether I should change a name.

 

However, in that same project, if someone had told me I should change Alex's name, I would have never, ever let that stand. Sounds like Amy is your Alex--she just HAS to be named Amy!!



Lucy Basey
Posted: Monday, June 8, 2015 3:39 PM
Joined: 4/23/2015
Posts: 38


Ah sounds pretty cringe-worthy! Amy would definitely be my Alex in that sense, she just couldn't be called anything else. I'm flexible with most of my character's names but there was something about that character, and most of my main characters, that meant I just couldn't go around changing things about them without it altering who they were in my head. Having said that, I did change my MC's best friend's name in Losing Time from Holly to Beth when I realised I had used the name of a psychiatrist's daughter I was hoping to ask to proof read it. It didn't seem in good taste to ask him to read the novel checking for correct use of symptoms when a character with the same name as his daughter meets an untimely and brutal demise part way through :/ :s
TheresaReel
Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2015 8:14 AM
Joined: 10/7/2013
Posts: 65


 Warlock Love:  Elise Rhinehart-period of time between 29-late 40's

                          Ian Warwick-who knows?  His earliest memory is a chariot race.

 

I'm currently working on a manuscript where the main character is half Anglo/half Mexican; her name is Roseamaria Hagan-21 .  For the plot to work, she has to be in her late teens/early 20's; but I am very concerned about women my age having no characters they can identify with age wise.  It seems the problem isn't just limited to Hollywood actresses of a certain age.  Things tend to dry up for real and fictional women once they reach 40!

--edited by TheresaReel on 7/9/2015, 8:15 AM--


Lucy Silag - Book Country Director
Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2015 11:31 AM
Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356


@Theresa--I love that you're keeping age-ism in mind for your characters!

 

FWIW I read a really fascinating book this spring called THE HUSBAND'S SECRET--and all 3 MCs were women over 40. I loved it.

 


curtis bausse
Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2015 1:21 PM
Joined: 11/13/2014
Posts: 37


Well, my MC is Magali Rousseau, who's 46. Recently divorced - her husband was a jerk. A bold choice, perhaps, but hopefully one that women can relate to. I mean, all husbands are jerks at some point, aren't they? wink
 

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