mostly my mind will think of one scene, a fight scene, a love scene, a plot twist, just that ONE scene thats played in my head, can start an avalanche of ideas for me.

I also need music while writing, just have to be careful to listen to the type of music that goes with the mood of what I want to write, otherwise I'll start writing in a different mood when I don't want to, like example: I want to write a sad scene, but I'm listening to hard rock - scene goes from being sad, or maybe angry? XD lol.

My best ideas come randomly, so I think that works best for me ^^ And yeah, writing badly is better than no writing.

Like I said - names are easy because if the character is likable - the name will become that character and in turn become just as likable. I think.

Example - Cloud from FFVII. Squall from FFVIII - both horrible names to the untrained eye, but to those who like those characters, those names are just their names. lol.

I fully agree that you do know when you've got the name that suits the character, i don't know why but actually coming up with names has always been the most difficult aspect of the writing process for me.

I tend to come up with boring names that really don't match the char, so until i do come up with a name i think suits them i usually use my friends/family's names.

ah, well, for me if I can't figure out the right name at first - I pick a random one and by the time I'd think of something else, thats already his name and you don't want to change it XD maybe thats just me tho, I don't usually change characters names, specially after writing about them for a long period of time.

/Start funny name story:


once upon a time, I was driving to town and saw a sign, or SOMETHING that made me think of a name that would be PERFECT for a character I was about to introduce - It was PERFECT - No other name would have been that perfect, I was very pleased in the 5 minutes I spent thinking in silence how awesomely perfect that name really was for that character.

I went through a dry writing season - aka: I didn't feel like writing for 2 months -

Finally wrote the character in, stopped and remembered that I had found the PERFECT name... PERFECT I tell you. I remembered that much and that was IT. I could not.... did not... and NEVER will from this day until forever. I remember there was a perfect name, but nothing about the name comes to mind. Not the sign, the letters, the day I thought of it. Nothing.

I will always and forever drive myself crazy with the inability to remember that name. I will probably say it, type it, think it a million times, but never remember it was THE perfect name.

So he is named something else, that I am far happier with now - since I can't remember the perfect name - the name he was actually given will be called the the perfect name the second! lol

Even if I remembered the perfect name now tho, I wouldn't change it.

/End funny name story.

I wish i could just pick a random name and it would grow on me but i usually know immediately if the name fits the char or not.
Or maybe it does fit but its just my crazy over obsessive brain that picks at it not suiting the char.

Shame (or maybe not) that you couldn't remember the name, i have a list of interesting names that i've heard or read somewhere.

My fav char name is one i found in my year 11 biology text book. Simian, i just thought it sounded like a great name, and its one of the names that i actually had in mind for the char before i started writing.

That is a cool name, lol.

As far as names go, I go between making them up, picking common names, and then picking common names. if you do a variation of those three name chosing devices, maybe it'll help.

like one story, the guys name is Kai - which I saw on an internet name site - and I made up his sisters name, Iasha pronounced eye-shaa lol - and the main girls name was Selene.

I like to type randomly until a name pops up that sounds cool - or go to online sites to find a name or find variations to create my own name.

Yeah i like to do a bit of mix and matching as well, especially with place names.

Isn't it weird, i have trouble deciding on a name that suits my chars but i have absolutely no trouble picking a name for places.

lol, maybe because places aren't as restricting? A place can have a weird name, and no one will think twice, a person has a weird name and it seems like it won't fit. Which is not true, I mean, look at names on FF - did you ever think, "Zidane? Wakka? Zell? Vivi? wth?" lol.