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Question of the day thread number 2!

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myconfession:

--- Quote ---Tonight's question:

Do you tend to include a lot of flashbacks or changes in points of view in your writing and if so, how do you go about letting the readers know it's happening?
--- End quote ---

In the latest stories I'm writing with Lisa (BiLittrell) we change POV's a good bit. We usually do it like this...

[Karsyn]

Story here

[/Karsyn]

Then a rule break.

For flashbacks, we usually blockquote them.

mare:
Tonight's question:

How do you come up with names for your original characters without them coming off sounding horribly Mary Sue like?

FrickingKaos:
Names....I usually go in a name book and pick one based on its meaning or just the first name that comes to mind. Like Brandy in Forces Of Nature came to me from the song "Brandy (you're a fine girl)" and having someone singing it to her just seemed to fit. Names are always hard for me to choose.

Sakabelle:
I steal last names from my real life friends, lol.

For first names, I usually just pick names I like. Actually, thinking back to all my female characters, they all have first names of people I've known too. I tend to just go with girls names that were popular when I was younger, I guess. That way they're not cliche. I think if anyone went through my Facebook friends list, you'd find all the first and last names I've used, haha.

Chris in Running Up That Hill is actually based off of someone I know in real life, who acts (and looks) very Nick-like. It just worked out that Nick IRL also has a friend named Chris.

Rose:
I'm jumping back in lol.

I pick names usually from baby name sites, or just names I like. Depending on the character, I'll go out of my way to find something that fits. Like in Undead, Riley got her name cause honestly I wanted something somewhat tomboyish, yet sounded journalistic lol. Her middle name came cause it sounds southern haha. But seriously, I could easily hear in my head "This is Riley Blake with the evening news..." lol.

Or in Divine Intervention, I just thought an Angel named Grace was a great fit. Plus for the time period she was in when she was alive, it's old fashioned enough to work. But usually it's just names I like.

My biggest pet peeve are names that are spelled just weird, like if you want to use a name, use the normal spelling! Don't use Safyre instead of Sapphire. Hell, don't use a gem name period LOL. I mean of course the irony of this is that I have what would be a Mary Sue name in a fanfic, but most people don't have names like that. Or when people use part of their names in every story. Like someone named "Katie" writes a story about a "Katrina", and then a "Kelly", and then a "Kristy", etc. It's like if you're doing a self-insert, be less obvious lol. One similar name can be a coincidence, several is just announcing it.

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