Wattpad 101: Your guide to the world of Wattpad

How to Come up with Good Title and Character Names... or Not

You want to know how to come up with a title or character name?

Here’s a thought, don’t. I'm guessing your story probably isn’t finished yet. Most of you don’t even have more than a handful of chapters written, and you want the final title of the story? You haven’t thought of the perfect character name? Here’s the trick. You can always choose not to.

‘Working Fan Fiction #2’ is a perfectly fine name to give your story. ‘Teenage Romance story #6’ will also work when applicable. As you write your story, and know where it is going and what is happening, eventually a good title will come to you. When you get to the end and literally finish the story, I really doubt you’re going to have trouble coming up with a name. You just creatively developed a story, you’re telling me that you can come up with 10-20k or more words to say on the subject of your story, but you can’t come up with a one to three word name? Balderdash.

Pick a name… and more importantly, stop worrying about its “impact factor”. People who want to read your story will find it and will read it, regardless of the title. For anyone you might lose because of a misplaced name, you might gain some other reader. In the end, the title fits the story, not the other way around, so write a good story first, and then worry about the perfect matching title.

What about character names? Don’t get caught up on it. Chances are, no one cares a lick about the character name but you. As they read, the character and their name become synonymous, and before long, your readers won’t be able to imagine your character being named anything else. You can always go back later and change the name to something else, so don’t let it stifle your ability to write.

One suggestion I can offer, when you go with your temporary name, pick something complicated. You can change the name and every chapter by using word’s find/replace function. It’ll literally take seconds to change every instance of a name. However, if the name you picked is something simple, like Tom, then every time the letters ‘tom’ are found it replaces it with whatever the new name is. Suddenly, every time you wrote ‘bottom’ it is correct as ‘botJoe’

I know, I know… not the awe inspiring advice you were hoping for, but seriously, do not get caught up trying to name something you haven’t even done yet. I think that’s starting to become my new motto on this site. If you haven’t finished a piece of work, stop complaining because it doesn’t have the name you like or doesn’t get as many reads and stars. You have an incomplete work.

Imagine if the rest of society worked this way. You go to use facebook, and half the features are stripped away. It’s full of spelling errors and it’s glitched and unfinished. Then Zuckerman starts complaining that his site traffic is going down and he’s losing money. It must be because the name facebook isn’t catchy enough. He should change the name… that’ll fix the problem.

So yeah, spend less time fussing over your title and more time fussing over your stories flow, originality, and structure. Write the story, and then worry about refining things like the perfect title and the perfect name.