Yes, I think names are very important too. I will agonize over the name for some characters for quite some time, using every resource available to me. The more important the character, the more important it is for me to get the name just right. And I don't hesitate to use diacritical marks found in the special fonts libraries, since I like using Old English and Old Norse names quite a bit when writing fantasy. I have an entire book shelf on name books and dictionaries; baby names, surnames, place names, dictionaries of mythology, foreign language dictionaries, and last year's telephone book. Plus the Internet. Interestingly, if the character is not important, I am perfectly happy to use a place holder, to come back to them later, so that they don't hold up the story. So I might write: [what's his name] waited until she was out of the room, and then peeked into her desk drawer to see what she had been so upset about. I will also agonize over place names, and feel that place names must conform to some logical naming system. Nothing bothers me more than seeing a map in a novel that has uninteresting or a seemingly discordant place naming system. I think that is one of the reasons Tolkien was so good, his world was crafted to a plan based on linguistic structure and therefore seemed to make sense and exist in perfect context. As to screen names, sexgod1 was taken, so I had to settle for jstro. ;-) Oh well. awayne2 - The writer's challenge can be found at the attached link. Would love to see you enter. jon

 
~jon
My Blog - Mad Utopia Writing in a new era.