Rename My Characters
Mar. 30th, 2008 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleYou may remember the high school football RPS AU I was working on. I finally typed the whole thing up. I was iffy about whether it could become an original novel, but then I read a published original novel that had one of the same problems my fic has, so I think I might try to make it an original novel. I need your help to rename the characters (first and last names).
Characters Who Need New Names
Protagonist: He grew up on a Texas ranch. He's a musician, sings, plays guitar, writes his own songs. In high school, he's the wide receiver, and fucked up and angry. After high school, he goes to college and then moves to LA to work some kind of day job (um, I don't know what yet) while he works on his music. He has to have a name where his initials work as a nickname.
Love Interest: The summer before senior year, his family moves to town from the Northeast somewhere. His dad is the new something at the somewhere (again, details I haven't figured out yet). He always gets what he wants. He's the quarterback. After high school, he goes to business school, and then he has a software company during the dot-com era. His name has to work with the nickname Big [name].
The Cover: She's a Junior cheerleader, and after the Protagonist's girlfriend leaves him for the Love Interest, the Protagonist dates her for a while. They even go to prom together. (Of course, the hickeys the Protagonist ends up with aren't from her.) As an adult, she turns out to be a lesbian, with a very nice partner.
The Best Friend: He and the Protagonist grew up together. He's the one who tells the Protagonist to get his shit together and work with the Love Interest because that's what's going to get them to State. As an adult, he goes to LA with the Protagonist to be an actor. His name has to have a good diminutive as a nickname.
The Bandmate: He cofounds a band with the Protagonist. He also writes his own songs and adjusts the Protagonist's arrangements.
The Geeks: In high school, they head up the chess club. As adults, they're sex-crazed computer programmers who work for the Love Interest. Alliterative names would be great.
The New Friend: She attends the Love Interest's company's Christmas party with as an employee's date. The employee's kind of a jerk, but she's gorgeous with a sharp sense of humor, and she and the Protagonist become friends.
Characters Who Get to Keep Their Names
Adam: I didn't have a specific Adam in mind when I named him (well, actually, I had two different Adams in mind, and he sort of became a combination of them and an original character), so he can keep his name. He's also a football player. Parties are often at his house. At reunion time he holds a big football party. He plays guitar.
Suzy: The head cheerleader. She used to go out with the Protagonist, until the Love Interest came around. Then she goes out with him.
Lisa: The Cover's partner. I made her up, although I think I probably sponged her a bit from the fanon version of Lisa from Sports Night.
Coach W: The Coach. He doesn't have much of a role, so he gets a simple name.
Other Things I Don't Know
I haven't figured out what the Love Interest's father does. It has to be the head of whatever the main industry of the town is.
I don't have much going on outside of the relationship, which is probably okay for the genre. On the other hand, I might need other teachers, kids, cheerleaders, football players, coworkers, and band members. The Protagonist and the Love Interest may also need names for their parents, sisters (they each have one), and sisters' kids.
I have a song that became more of a plot point than I originally intended or expected. I'm still trying to figure out if I need to write the actual song (I hope not; this is not my forte).
The Love Interest's software company needs a name, and possibly an idea of what it does.
Linguistic issue: Would a guy from Texas who's lived in LA for five or six years have picked up the SoCal way of referring to freeways as The [number]?
How long does it take to get from Hollywood to Tijuana to somewhere farther south where they can rent a beach house?
Characters Who Need New Names
Protagonist: He grew up on a Texas ranch. He's a musician, sings, plays guitar, writes his own songs. In high school, he's the wide receiver, and fucked up and angry. After high school, he goes to college and then moves to LA to work some kind of day job (um, I don't know what yet) while he works on his music. He has to have a name where his initials work as a nickname.
Love Interest: The summer before senior year, his family moves to town from the Northeast somewhere. His dad is the new something at the somewhere (again, details I haven't figured out yet). He always gets what he wants. He's the quarterback. After high school, he goes to business school, and then he has a software company during the dot-com era. His name has to work with the nickname Big [name].
The Cover: She's a Junior cheerleader, and after the Protagonist's girlfriend leaves him for the Love Interest, the Protagonist dates her for a while. They even go to prom together. (Of course, the hickeys the Protagonist ends up with aren't from her.) As an adult, she turns out to be a lesbian, with a very nice partner.
The Best Friend: He and the Protagonist grew up together. He's the one who tells the Protagonist to get his shit together and work with the Love Interest because that's what's going to get them to State. As an adult, he goes to LA with the Protagonist to be an actor. His name has to have a good diminutive as a nickname.
The Bandmate: He cofounds a band with the Protagonist. He also writes his own songs and adjusts the Protagonist's arrangements.
The Geeks: In high school, they head up the chess club. As adults, they're sex-crazed computer programmers who work for the Love Interest. Alliterative names would be great.
The New Friend: She attends the Love Interest's company's Christmas party with as an employee's date. The employee's kind of a jerk, but she's gorgeous with a sharp sense of humor, and she and the Protagonist become friends.
Characters Who Get to Keep Their Names
Adam: I didn't have a specific Adam in mind when I named him (well, actually, I had two different Adams in mind, and he sort of became a combination of them and an original character), so he can keep his name. He's also a football player. Parties are often at his house. At reunion time he holds a big football party. He plays guitar.
Suzy: The head cheerleader. She used to go out with the Protagonist, until the Love Interest came around. Then she goes out with him.
Lisa: The Cover's partner. I made her up, although I think I probably sponged her a bit from the fanon version of Lisa from Sports Night.
Coach W: The Coach. He doesn't have much of a role, so he gets a simple name.
Other Things I Don't Know
I haven't figured out what the Love Interest's father does. It has to be the head of whatever the main industry of the town is.
I don't have much going on outside of the relationship, which is probably okay for the genre. On the other hand, I might need other teachers, kids, cheerleaders, football players, coworkers, and band members. The Protagonist and the Love Interest may also need names for their parents, sisters (they each have one), and sisters' kids.
I have a song that became more of a plot point than I originally intended or expected. I'm still trying to figure out if I need to write the actual song (I hope not; this is not my forte).
The Love Interest's software company needs a name, and possibly an idea of what it does.
Linguistic issue: Would a guy from Texas who's lived in LA for five or six years have picked up the SoCal way of referring to freeways as The [number]?
How long does it take to get from Hollywood to Tijuana to somewhere farther south where they can rent a beach house?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 05:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 04:20 pm (UTC)And the Hollywood to TJ to someplace else, I'll ask but a lot depends on day of the week and time of day because traffic is such a huge deal. Hollywood to where I live in OC is usually gonna be 1-2 hours depending on traffic. OC to where I lived in San Diego is 1-2.5 hours depending on traffic. San Diego driving to TJ I have no idea but if you want to park and walk across the border (and thus avoid some traffic) it's about 30 min to get to the parking area and then 5 min to walk across... And I have no idea how far you'd need to drive for beach houses, I can ask though!
Hmmm, as for names, you could check out one of the baby naming books from the library....
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-01 04:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-01 04:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 08:57 am (UTC)I've been clearly reading too much Supernatural RPS, because I think the obvious character names are Jared and Jensen. (Jared gets translated into J.T.) Those are not serious suggestions, obviously.
Um, Kyle is a pretty popular southern boy's name. And Travis--half my southern cousins from the right age bracket seem to be named Travis. But otherwise I'm pretty useless at this, I'm afraid.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-01 04:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-31 07:16 pm (UTC)Monday through Friday: If you leave at 9 or 10 a.m., it'll take about four hours. If you leave between noon and one p.m., it'll take you five. If you leave between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., it'll take you six. If you leave after 8 p.m., it'll take you four.
Saturday and Sunday: Clear all day, except going south heading into Oceanside. There, you may hit traffic if there are a lot of people going to Mexico, which will add an hour to the trip.
Border: It takes no time at all to drive across the border; coming back is the issue.
Mexico Driving: It's no longer an ordeal, now that all the roads are paved. An hour or two south should be sufficient.
The only people I've ever known that have taken issue with saying the 5, the 405, etc., are people from Northern California. Everyone else seems to me to be pretty accommodating, and switches over with little difficulty.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-01 04:09 am (UTC)I should also mention:
Date: 2008-04-01 04:12 am (UTC)