: 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

@Sue2132873

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I know a good many writers spend an inordinate amount of time perfecting the names of characters. This is similar to the nine months or so that parents frequently spend selecting the name for a single child. As writers, we have entire worlds to populate so we cannot afford to do that.

I feel like sometimes I have some momentum going forward and taking too much time to select a name stops said momentum.

In my opinion, anything that reduces writing momentum is bad. There is no one strategy for moving past name selection and what works for one writer may not be good for another.
If you can skip this point and come back to it later, it may be more productive (or not).
Here are some strategies that I have known writers from my local writing circles employ.
Strategies
Placeholder
I've seen several good writers say that if you get stuck for a name or a description type a character string that never occurs naturally and move past it.
I have often typed something like:

## This guy needs a name ##

or

## Description goes here ##

If you wanted to get advanced you could use:

##[CHAR-1]##

Which would stand out as wrong in a finished manuscript but would allow for easy search and replace when you are finished.
No names, please
I have read stories where the characters are simply known by distinctive elements.

The man with the blue hat
The woman with the red hair
The old guy
The girl with the blue dress
The man with the shaggy beard
The homeless dude
etc..

This works for short stories and for characters that are just passing through but gets old really fast for significant characters.
My name is...
I've known more than one (discovery) writer that will put the character "on the stage" in a scene, maybe describe them a little, and then have another character ask their name.

"My name," said the boy, "is #The first thing that comes to your mind#"

For some writers, they feel the characters already know their names or at least what they want to be called. So they just ask them. Don't judge, it works for those writers.
Re-use friends and family
When I was very young (pre-teen), my stories would be written using the names (and middle names) of family and close friends. I often renamed them later but I found it helped to have a person I could imagine and knew well.
Prepared name list
Quite a common strategy is to maintain a list of setting appropriate first and last names. I know more than one writer that will make sure the list has only one of each for any given letter of the alphabet.
When a character needs a name they pick the next name from the list and just roll with it.
One time I write a PHP script to generate a name with a given letter. It was basically just a really big list of names (first and last) which picked one of each at random. For the benefit, the effort was not worth it. If that works for you, there are random name and even identity generators online.
Pre-filled character biographies
This one is popular with planners. I have used it more than once.
The strategy is to create a side of A4 with details about the character, their name, their background, and the journey they will go through during the story. That way when I am writing the issue never comes up.
This works for me because I can take the time to come up with names while I am not worrying about story, plot, or anything else. By the time I come to write the story, I feel I really know the characters. I've even used family tree software before to work out how they were all related to each other. But then again, I am the type of person that will write a setting bible for a big project.
Work from a book of names
I have several books of names and their meanings on my bookshelf. I have also used baby name websites for those times when I absolutely have to have the right meaning for some reason.
If you name characters on the fly one or both are invaluable.
Let your local writer's group name them
I have mixed feelings about this approach. However, it seems common for a person to ask for a name for a character that (insert short bio here). Some people seem to enjoy the discussion that follows. Your mileage may vary.
The most important thing
What matters most - more than names - is telling the story. If you have to call your characters Bob, Jane, and Fred to get to the storytelling, then that is what you should do. Names take on significance because of what we know about the person that has the name.
As you have rightly realised, don't let anything stop the writing momentum.

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