Choosing a name for your character shouldn’t be such a big deal, but it really is, isn’t it? You want it to be just right, to speak to something deeper, to suggest something about them as a person, or to conjure up allusions to other things that speak to the audience on a guttural level. Or is that just me?

Sometimes the right name pops into your head almost immediately, and sometimes you have to dig around for days to come up with something that feels right. Sometimes you search in vain and end up just settling for one.

How do you choose your character names?

When I started writing my novel about an everyday man who decides to indulge his fantasies, I quickly settled on the name Keith. It was deliberately mundane, and sat well as the title, Keith: A Novel.

Then, when I was looking for a name for the antagonist of In The Can, I wanted to allude to a moment in history, linking her to the great early days of United Artists. I opted to give her the surname Spenser, though not a direct reference to Charlie Chaplin, enough of a clue to satisfy my needs.

Sometimes, for a script, to help me imagine the character’s voice, I will use a placeholder name that references an actor or a character in an existing show. So, if I want someone with a quick wit and scathing sarcasm, I might temporarily use Gregory, just to keep House at the back of my mind (not forgetting that House is himself a synonymous reference to Holmes).

Then there are the times when it’s a real struggle. When I first devised my latest comedy drama spec script, I got stuck on a surname for my main character, and couldn’t find a first name to fit. After lots of back and forth, I settled on a first name that I liked, mostly because it spoke to an important aspect of her character. But it didn’t sit right with the surname, so I had to start again with that. What I finally came up with also spoke to her character, and together they felt right.

So, how do you choose your character names?

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Susannah Grant is the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Erin Brockovich. Here she talks about her love of dialogue.

Susannah Grant on Dialogue

Jonathan Hensleigh talks about over the top action scenes, and the mentality you need to write and execute them.

You could steal City Hall

There are two interesting moments in this interview with Paul Haggis. The first is his assertion that writers should ask questions, and not answer them. The second is almost a throwaway line, “What’s the worst thing that could happen to this character?”

From the video0 description:

Acclaimed writer-director Paul Haggis has been a fixture of television and film for over 25 years. In this wide-ranging interview, the Oscar-winning co-screenwriter, director, and producer of Crash (Best Picture 2005) discusses a three-decade career that led from writing for sitcoms like Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life to his breakthrough screenplay for Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby (Best Picture 2004). Haggis’s matter-of-fact stories of navigating the entertainment industry are an indelible primer for how to manage the screenwriting life, make a successful transition from TV to film, develop a strong story and characters, pitch an idea, and surmount Hollywood’s more frustrating obstacles.

 

Paul Haggis on Screenwriting

If you haven’t visited the Archive Of American Television YouTube channel, you really should.

Here’s the first part of an extended interview with James L. Brooks, the legendary sitcom writer and producer.

The full description of the interview reads:

In his 11-part oral history (in 2 sessions) interview, James L. Brooks speaks of his early days as a page at CBS — working his way up to the newsroom. After working in documentaries, Brooks turned to comedy, where he wrote scripts for Hey Landlord, The Andy Griffith Show and My Three Sons before co-creating (with Gene Reynolds) Room 222. In 1970, MTM Productions teamed Brooks with Allen Burns, where they created and produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant. After leaving MTM, Brooks produced Taxi, The Associates, and The Tracy Ullman Show. Mr. Brooks also talks about the craft of writing and producing for television and his continuing work as executive producer on The Simpsons.

James L. Brooks