Naming OCs: A Rant
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| Title: | Naming OCs: A Rant |
| Creator: | Sharakh |
| Date(s): | April 30, 2002 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Fan Fiction, Original Characters |
| External Links: | Naming OCs: A Rant/WebCite |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Naming OCs: A Rant is an essay by Sharakh.
It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.
Excerpts
If a writer really, genuinely cares so little about the names of these characters that even that is too much trouble, then why not let someone else name the characters? Ask your beta, ask someone you work with or you live with or you meet on the street, for Pete's sake. Give the female doctor your sister's name. It isn't like the character does enough that your sister is going to care. Give the already-dead baddie the name of the bully that beat you up in the third grade. Pick someone from the phone book. Who cares? Just don't make it someone we'll all know.
Is this just something that makes me crazy? Am I just hypersensitive to this?I probably am. After all, I read a little RP slash, and so those two names are very familiar to me. The writer could have equally well chosen to name the bad guy after the current President as these people, as far as I'm concerned. The names are distinctive enough to bring an immediate picture to my mind. But that isn't really why this is a bad idea.
It is a bad idea because someone will always recognize names you lift from famous people, no matter how "non-distinctive" they are. A family made up of Mama Chris(tine) Carter, Daddy Nick Carter, and teenage son Aaron Carter will still ring bells with people, even though the names are actually rather bland and drawn from slightly separate sources. And when someone recognizes that you've lifted the names verbatim like that, it immediately and permanently marks you as a writer who doesn't care enough about your work to do the easy stuff. It is almost like you write in big neon letters at the top of the story "I don't really care about this one." And if you don't care enough about a story to do the easy stuff, why should I care enough to read it?