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Friday, December 6, 2013

Characters in Costume Challenge!

Gillian, who writes the blog Of Battles, Dragons, and Swords of Adamant, issues a Characters in Costume Challenge about every month. The idea is for writers to get to know their characters better by dressing in what they would wear and perhaps acting as them for a little while. Most of what is required to participate is to pick a character, whether of your own imagining or a book you love; take a picture; and post it on your blog, facebook, or wherever else. It's such fun!

Well, I decided to do it this month! The theme is Sidekick Characters, so I chose a girl from one of my stories, named Arianna. I bought some things from a thrift store to use for her costume since I didn't have what I needed. But when I put them on (and mind you, this was the last day I had to prepare), the clothing just didn't look like Arianna. So, last minute, I had to choose a different character!

I ended up choosing a woman from a different story. She is the sister to the crown prince (one of my main characters), and truthfully, I don't have her personality or part in the story thought out well. In fact, I don't even have a name for he yet! She is just "Penn's sister" or "the Princess" in my mind.

However, I have a hard time with names. I tend to choose personality, looks, and place in the story long before I actually name the characters. I don't usually even name the characters until I am forced to!

So will, you help me out? Look at the photo and read what I write about her personality and role in my story and suggest a name. Please?

 
Penn's Sister
 


First of all, she's a princess, which comes with certain responsibilities and wealth. She's sassy, a natural leader, proud perhaps, and just a little bossy. A spitfire! Her clothing seems to show that she's a horse rider (not that I know anything about it). She's definitely not dressed up for a ball!

In the story, she's the first one Penn tells about his discovery of another world (and Emma, who he met there) when he was 14 and his sister was 11. The two are great friends!--most of the time.

At 17, she gets locked in the dungeon because of a dramatic power change, although I doubt she went down without a fight! Don't worry, though; she escapes with the help of Emma, our main character. I would expect they eventually became great friends--eventually. Their personalities probably would have clashed since Emma is supposed to be a leader and would be receiving much of Penn's attention.

Does this give you an idea of what this princess is like? Will you help me name this feisty princess?

(Also, other names in that land include Arianna, Roran, Zerina, Violetta, Johnathan, Eleva, Deron, Illivia, Junia, and many more!)

6 comments:

  1. That's an awesome costume! She looks like quite the character!

    I kind of think Persephone or Pollie would fit. However, that might be because she has a brother named Penn. I'm partial to siblings with the same names. (My siblings' names are Kyle, Kara, and Kristin :P)

    If I'm stuck for a name, I usually go to babynames.com and find several names that I like for the character. I try respelling them, or combining them. I have a character named 'Caran' which is simply a respelling of 'Karen'. And I have a character named 'Cydian' which is a combination of Cyrus and Rhydian.

    I hope that helped! Your novel and characters sound very cool! Happy writing! :) -Kaycee

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    1. Awesome! Thank you for the suggestions!

      Personally, I don't care for P names. (Penn is alright, though I'm iffie about even that.)

      I will check into baby names, and I've used such things before. But I was hoping for suggestions, so thank you!

      You know, I have a sister named Kristin--spelled exactly the same way, which is uncommon.

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  2. I meant to say 'same first letter names'. XD

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  3. Hello! That's a great costume, and I really like your character! It seems to me that she needs an 'M' or 'N' name. Maybe: Marid, Mara, Miriam, or Nyla. I was surprised when I read that her brother's name is Penn! In one my novels, that's what I named my MC's horse. It sure is a great name!

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  4. Great costume, Emily! Don't you just love thrift stores? That's where I find a lot of my random costume pieces.

    I hadn't done too much thinking into the character I did for this challenge before actually doing the challenge. That's one of the things I love about it. Sometimes when you dress up as the character and step into their shoes, you find out stuff you never would have otherwise! :)

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