Name your Characters (Twice!) Writing Tip

A concept that many authors overlook, but is never the less, very important, is the naming of characters. Now I don't mean this in a superficial manner: it doesn't matter very much whether your protagonist is named Jack, Henry, John or Bob (or Alice, or Jenny or Jane). This isn't what I mean by naming them, and as the title suggest, I want to talk about naming your characters twice.

Dialogue tags get very boring very fast if your character only has one name:
"Let’s go to the restaurant," Harry Said
"Sure," Said Ron
"What should we order?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," Said Ron

In this instance, and this is only a snippet of dialogue (that I made up), I am already getting fairly tired of hearing about Potter and Weasley: but that is exactly why they have names associated with them other than their first names. Later names include: the Boy Who Lived and the Chosen one for Harry, but even the fact that Snape refers to the children primarily by last names is an indication of a need for variety in dialogue tags on J.K. Rowling's part. It's an important necessity for creating variety, but it’s also important for adding depth to your narrative. The names a character has give us a quick indication of who they are and what we can expect of them, and explaining these nicknames helps develop characters that normally stand further to the outskirts of the narrative arc. My favourite author for nicknames is R.R. Martin: Greatjohn Umber, Jon 'The Bastard' Snow, and especially the Black Cloaks; known as crows, and each with a nickname: Sam 'Slayer' Tarly, the most cowardly of the crows and Giant a black cloak with a mean temper and short stature. My absolute favourite? Dolorous Ed, who reminds me unquenchably of Marvin, the Paranoid Android.

So: try it for yourself. Name your characters twice, and see if it doesn't spice up their personality, and your dialogue tags. Take my word for it, or the word of these examples I've come up with off the top of my head:

Neo/The Chosen One/Mr. Anderson
Voldemorte, Tom Marvolo Riddle
Snape/The Half Blood Prince
Tyrion/The Dwarf/The Hand
Frodo Baggins/The Ring Bearer
Aragorn/Strider/The Son of Arathorn
Roland/The Last Gunslinger
Moby Dick/The White Whale

It doesn't have to be complex, it just has to be different.

Its my Blog and I'll Rhyme if I want to. (You would Rhyme to if this Blog was by you!)

I have decided today, to share some poetry I wrote a very long time ago. It's one I personally feel is very good, though rather dark for me, and it is not often that I appreciate my own work, so I think that if I wrote it, and I like it, then it must be worth sharing. On friday I will return to serious matters with a *Cue epic voice* WRITING TIP. This writing tip shall be the narrative equivalent of schizophrenia: crazy, but interesting.

‘Altruistic; flies flee, flies from beach fill’d
Of Green growth spurt from wounded earth new till’d
Debris removed, children sooth’d through tale
Of Windy mist, foam surf, heroes set sail.
Gutters emptied, plants treated and healed      
Animals fed from gentle hands, kneeled
Upon dirt where seeds planted will rise up
Into morning and into skies. Cupped
Hands bring the moisture to leaf and to root
Reach into chimneys removing black soot.
Done cleaning dishes removing the grime
Young man philanthropist waits for death’s time.
During his funeral, etched on his tomb,
Words he had kno’wn since leaving the womb
“Leth’l lady luck, fickle and furious
Has not time for only those curious
beings who, tempting, play dice with their fate
those unselfish-too be preced’d by ‘late’.”
So in death, flies he in life chas’d away
Rest on his body in ground where he lay.’