I Think It's a Pagan Thing

In relation to my post from a couple of days ago, in which I discussed my lack of success at writing fiction, I thought I would tell you about the thing that seems to cause me the most trouble when trying to write about people who don't actually exist. It's the names. I don't know why exactly, but I can know everything about a character, plan out every part of his or her personality, but I can never decide what said character should be called. I'm sure other would-be writers don't stress themselves out so much over character names, but to me it jut seems so vital that their names fit them.

You guys know how I've been reading up for quite a while now about Paganism, Wicca, witchcraft, mythology, etc. Well, several times, I have come across this idea of names having their own innate power. Many of the characters in various myths have names that describe their traits. There is the tradition of people choosing their own names. There is even the idea that using someone's name can give you some measure of power over them. Basically what I'm getting at is, within Pagan traditions, names are really important. I've had this issue with character names since well before I knew any of that though. It just always felt important to me.

When I do get motivated and try to write fiction, I usually find myself trying to write about as few characters as possible simply to avoid having to name any more people than I have to. It is often when I feel the necessity to add more characters that I end up giving up on a particular story. Maybe I should just buy one of those baby names books and flip through it randomly, when I have to name a new character.

Easy for you to say, Juliet. You only have one of the most famous names ever in human history.