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Q&A What should I do when I am stuck on names during freewriting?

Keep a list of names Early in Time Clare's writing podcast Couch to 80k he sets the reader a task of spending 10 minutes inventing names. I loathe and detest coming up with names, and was dreadin...

posted 6y ago by Bob Tway‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:15:12Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34139
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Bob Tway‭ · 2019-12-08T08:15:12Z (over 4 years ago)
 **Keep a list of names**

Early in Time Clare's writing podcast [Couch to 80k](http://www.timclarepoet.co.uk/tag/couch-to-80k/) he sets the reader a task of spending 10 minutes inventing names.

I loathe and detest coming up with names, and was dreading it. But I found that approaching the job as an end in itself, with no particular goal in mind, very liberating, and I easily jotted down a page full.

He then invites the listener to look over the list and see if any of them suggest a character. But he also points out that such a list is extremely useful to have around if you're writing and suddenly need the name of an incidental character.

So: write a list. Keep it around. You might find it more fun and more useful than it sounds.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-03-09T14:10:13Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 4