The following creative examples are from Bernays' and Painter's (1990) exercise titled Naming Your Characters. In this exercise, B&P caution writers against simply pulling names out of a hat when naming their characters. Instead, B&P challenge writers to carefully consider how the names they give their characters help convey a sense of a particular character's role in your fiction (42). To practice this calculated selection of character names, B&P challenge the writer to assign names that "fit" the bellow character types.
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A petty, white-collar thief who robs his boss over several years:
- Marcus Conroy
- Seth Pierce
- Gordon Chilling
An envious, bitter woman who makes her sister miserable by systematically trying to undercut her pleasure and self-confidence:
- Carolyn Bender
- Danielle Lynche
- Selma Thorne
A sweet young man too shy to speak to an attractive woman he sees every day at work:
- Miles Quinn
- William Greene
- Rick Filipkowski
The owner of a fast-food restaurant who comes on to his young female employees:
- Lou Piles
- Frank Boyle
A grandmother who just won the lottery:
- Mable Bodewell
- Beatrice Sykes
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