Useful Websites for Young Writers...

I've used many websites when writing my stories, either for research, character or place names, adding little Easter eggs, sharing my work and many other things as well! Google is our friend so here is six probably very well-known websites I find handy and use regularly when writing. Hopefully they'll help you too!

http://nanowrimo.org/

I mentioned this website in my last post and they have tons of helpful tips on writing and the publishing industry as well as push you to write a novel in a month. You can meet loads of new writers in your area as well as across the world so I find this website helpful every November :)

http://babynames.merschat.com/

This is the name meaning website I use but there are so many out there. This one is useful because you can find the meaning of a name you already want to use, find names of a particular meaning, pick gender and origins and find out lots of information on names you can use throughout your stories.

http://translate.google.co.uk/

Any online translator will do but I use this one usually because of the range of languages it has. This is useful for the hidden Easter eggs I was talking about, weaving meaning into place names, surnames, magic spells or anything really!

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

 Looking for writing prompts? Then this site is perfect! It has loads of writing prompts that can get your mind racing for the next best-seller!

http://www.movellas.com/

This is a website aimed at young writers aged 13+ to gain feedback as well as spread constructive criticism. It's a great way to gain feedback on your work, with a helpful community that are your age to tell you tips on how to improve. It really improves your confidence and your skills when you get your first comment and with competitions to keep you motivated it's a really great place to get started. There are other websites out there as well, such as Wattpad, but I always come back to this site because of the amount of feedback you get quite quickly.

http://www.goodreads.com/

What better way to increase your writing skill then by reading? By reading as many books as possible through many genres, you can learn all the tricks of what works and what doesn't within those genres and work towards originality in your own stories. Here, you can post reviews and find recommendations on many books and they have giveaways and quizzes. It's a great reading community.



~White Ravens~
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/10321725/white-ravens-writing

Character Questions 3...

   Sorry for the delay readers but I am finally getting to finish the character questions for you :) Here, I will be focusing on appearance and their futures, hopefully covering a lot on what you should do to help get to know your character completely.

Appearance:

Skin Colour:
Eye Colour:
Hair description: (long, short, brown, ginger etc.)
Build:
Height:
Face: (Thin, round etc.)
Do they resemble anyone?
Clothing Style:
Scars/birthmarks:

Present and Future:

   The character's present and future is just as important as their past. We'd have no story if you didn't look forward as well as at the now! ;)

Biggest Fear:
What they want most in the world:
Biggest lesson to learn in their life:
Personal Dreams:
Team Dreams (If they don't work alone):
Most important goal of their life's journey:
Hopes for the future:
Any secrets to keep?
Any secrets to be broken?
Friends/Enemies to be made:
Friends/Enemies to be lost:

   So, here are what I think are the most important questions to ask your characters to make them believable and develop through your story. Hopefully it'll be better than going through thousands of questions and prompts when all you want is the essentials :)


~White Ravens~

Character Questions 2...

   More questions for your character to answer. As I said before that personality is key in characters. Now we've got the basics down, we can carry on and get this character flowing.

Personality:

3 Best Traits:
3 Worst Traits:
Gifts/Talents (Music? Maths? Magic?):
Self-esteem rating:  /10
Confidence rating:  /10
Optimism rating:  /10
One thing they like about themselves:
One thing they hate about themselves:
How would they change themselves?
What is it that makes them a hero?
What is it that makes them a villain?
Favourite Past-times/hobbies:
Addictions:

Their Past:

 

   A character can't go forward as believable if they don't have a past. They can't develop without history, but you don't need to spend ages writing an extremely detailed biography. So, here are more quick questions on the past for them:


Biggest success:
Biggest failure:
One experience wish avoided:
Biggest lesson learned:
Education level and schooling:
Earliest Memory/Favourite memory:
Big Family/Friend fall outs:
Longest secret kept:
Any secrets broken?
Past relationships/friendships:
Childhood memories:
Any memorabilia collected?
Special training/skills gained:
Inheritance (In appearance or objects):

~White Ravens~

Character Questions 1...

   This, again, follows on from character trait tips, hopefully it will help your character develop though the whole story by creating a lot more to them then just a personality. :)

  Just like your reader, you need to get to know your characters. You have names, you have traits but you're missing something quite important. Your actual character.

   

     I find answering questions on the character helpful, but whenever I search for them on the internet, they all seem very long-winded and take more time to answer then writing the actual story! 

   Here is a small stack of what I feel are the most important questions that you will answer yourself through the eyes of your character, kind of like a profile or interview. These will help your character develop in their story as well as develop into someone real; someone you will love to write about.

    With these questions, you can learn everything you need to know about your character. Of course some aspects may change as your plot twists and turns, but it's good to get down a few ideas and answers to get you going. You don't want to be in full flow and then not have certain key information down that stops you.

   Here are the basic questions to start you off that should all be answered by the main character. If you want to answer them for some supporting characters too, then answer all or perhaps you might just want to answer only a few of the important questions. There is no need to answer any for background characters if you don't want to. ;) I've highlighted ones in bold which I think are the most important, but answer which ever ones you want of course. :)

Basic Questions:

Full Name:
Nickname:
Age:
Gender:
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Where they live now:
Family:
Ethnic Background:
Religious Background:
Social Class Background: (Upper, Middle, Working...)
Race: (Are they human or a mythical creature)
Mannerisms (A habit):
Health Problems:
Way of Life/Occupation:
Close Friendships/Relationships:

  More questions on personality and appearance to follow. :)

~White Ravens~

Thinking of Character Names Part 5...

   The final part of Thinking of Character Names :) I hope you've found the tips slightly helpful at least :)

5. Use Names on Signs, Benches, Buildings, etc.

   Everywhere in the world today must be labelled to point us all in the right direction, so use that for inspiration. This is a very simple way of thinking up names and can just make something click inside your mind.

   Road signs are often named after people as well buildings, so take those for inspiration. If you live on Greenwood road, then your character's last name could be Greenwood. If your school's called Abbey Hill, then Abby Hill is a great name.

   I saw that someone used dedications on benches and trees and memorials for inspiration. I think that this is a lovely way of keeping alive the memory of that person who it is dedicated too.

   This is so simple and easy for all of you to do since all you have to do is look around. Look at the posters and pictures on your wall; the maps of the tube line; the seats in a park. Even looking at your cereal box in the morning! Names can pop up from anywhere.

   Easy peasy lemon squeezy ;)

   And that concludes my tips on character naming :)


  So, to review, here are my tips for naming characters:

1. Use Name Meaning Websites and Books

2. Use a Translator

3. Use the Names of People Close to you or Famous People

4. Use the Names of Objects, Flowers, Animals etc.

5. Use Names on Signs, Benches, Buildings, etc.

    These past 5 parts are great ways for me to think up character names, so hopefully they are useful to you too. Anyone can do it just by stepping out their front door. Actually, you don't even need to do that but just by looking out the window you'll see something that sets your mind off ticking. I hope I've carried out a wide-spread of tips that most people would find helpful but, if you do something else, comment and tell us all :) You might spark off inspiration for the next best-selling author ;)

Thinking of Character Names Part 2...

Hello again :) Another tip for thinking of character names for you. :) Translators are another good way to go:

2. Use a Translator:

 

  Whilst not the best for long passages for French essays, just think of a trait for your character or part of their history and translate it to think of an unusual first name or unique last name. Like if a character is a copycat of everyone without their own thoughts, then translate something like 'Clone' into another language such as Italian or Danish.

   Take Professor Lupin from J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter'. Many of you may already know that 'Lupin' is derived from 'Lupus', the latin for wolf. This indicates his darker side on a full moon. Also, Voldemort literally translates to 'Flight of Death' in French and this murderous character lives up to his name. J.K. Rowling thinks up so many amazing names that fit her characters perfectly as well as creating the most wonderful, magical world of all time! (Can you tell I'm a Potterhead ;) )


   Another fun way I use a translator for is to create a hidden message behind the character through their full name.

   For example, take the main character from my story 'Everto'. Her name is 'Ena
Intenebris'. I used a name meaning website to find 'Ena', which means 'bright and shining', and then a translator to combine 'in ténebris', which means 'in the dark', to create 'Ena Intenebris' - 'Bright and shining in the dark.' This leads on to different possibilities in the rest of the plot and the all important prophecy. Most people might not notice this but it's fun to add a little back story to a name that only you know.

   However, with this way you run the risk of translating wrong, but it's not much of a problem if you gain an interesting name from it :) 

  Another part in this series of tips up and running :) I hope they've been useful but there's three more to come if you're looking for something else :)

~White Ravens~