: Re: What should I do when I am stuck on names during freewriting? If I get hung up choosing a name for a character, should I come back to it later? Or should I try to figure one out? I feel

@Dunderdale623

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I often face the same problem with finding names, not just for characters, but also for places, titles, etc. In such cases, I use a temporary name, and specific markup, to make those temporary names easy to find later. For example

{Alpha} and {Bravo} lived in {TownName} town, {X} leagues from {CapitalName}. {Alpha}'s parents...

When I find a name, this system makes it easy to find and replace, without accidentally replacing something I don't want to. And I can easily go over a document, search for { tags, to see what I still need to name.

Another thing I do is I keep around a list of names that sort of work for my setting, and for minor characters, at least, I pick one at random. I can always change it later, right? Where do I get the list? Names I come across, and like the sound of. I do research for whatever I'm writing, I run across relevant names, I write them down.

The thing you don't want to do is sit around for days, not continuing your story because you can't find a name. Like you say, it kills momentum completely.

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