Naming error!

[Bazzle]

Three years on I am working on one my smoking fetish stories arcs- Smoking Paradise Island.
I am still swearing at myself every time I write the characters name Carrie-Ann...why oh why did I not just call her Carrie when I started the series. Why would I be so silly to double barrel her first name.

I have solved some of the issues, the other characters call her Caz... but I have to blinking write out Carrie-Ann said x sooo many fricken times. grrr

Will get back to writing now. Whinge over.

B

 

[HordHolm]

Just named a main character MacDonald. Realised that capitalising the first D was going to be a pain, but when I tried it with a lower case it just didn't look so good. And so I sucked it up over almost 25k words

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

If you haven't published part of the story, Find and Replace is a good tool. I've use a placeholder name in several stories until well into the writing, but then done a Find _A_ and Replace with _B_ and it worked like a charm. Of course, I got a little blowback from readers on why I'd name a character _B_.

Seriously, the placeholder name needs to be something easy to type and something that won't be confused with anything else when doing the replacement if you want to do Replace All rather than one at a time (match case can help with that) and you might even find that you like the placeholder name by the time you finish the story.

 

[Bazzle]

If you haven't published part of the story, Find and Replace is a good tool. I've use a placeholder name in several stories until well into the writing, but then done a Find _A_ and Replace with _B_ and it worked like a charm. Of course, I got a little blowback from readers on why I'd name a character _B_.

Seriously, the placeholder name needs to be something easy to type and something that won't be confused with anything else when doing the replacement if you want to do Replace All rather than one at a time (match case can help with that) and you might even find that you like the placeholder name by the time you finish the story.

Unfortunately she is the main protagonist. I cant change her name now!

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Unfortunately she is the main protagonist. I cant change her name now!

That's why it only works if you haven't published part of it yet.

 

[Jorunn]

In my latest group of 'My Sister' stories, the main female is named Mary Kay. But the main male character calls her MK. I only write Mary Kay when she is meeting a different character(s).

 

[THBGato]

@Bazzle I think @SouthernCrossfire was making the point that if you are still drafting a version of the story, you can call her simply CA as you type. Then, once you have finished, you can use the "find/replace all" function to find all examples of CA in the text and replace these with Carrie-Ann.

 

[Bazzle]

@Bazzle I think @SouthernCrossfire was making the point that if you are still drafting a version of the story, you can call her simply CA as you type. Then, once you have finished, you can use the "find/replace all" function to find all examples of CA in the text and replace these with Carrie-Ann.

Oooooooh right yes ahhh that makes sense
Great idea!!!!

 

[12oclocktales]

@Bazzle I think @SouthernCrossfire was making the point that if you are still drafting a version of the story, you can call her simply CA as you type. Then, once you have finished, you can use the "find/replace all" function to find all examples of CA in the text and replace these with Carrie-Ann.

Make sure you indicate when finding/replacing that there’s a space after the CA or every word that has a ca in it will be replaced by Carrie-Ann; i.e, replica will become repliCarrie-Ann, captain Carrie-Anntain. I’ve seen this happen in some stories I’ve read on the site.

 

[Erozetta]

My worst naming gaffe was alternating between two stories where both MMCs had a four letter W name (Walt and West...) I fucked up to the point I wasn't sure I chose the right names for the characters initially and ended up swapping them in the end, so my original Walt became West and my West became Walt. Suited the characters better, so, happy accident?

I'm still not convinced I fully fixed it.


One thing I've settled into when writing is: embrace the ability to bestow a nickname.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

@Bazzle I think @SouthernCrossfire was making the point that if you are still drafting a version of the story, you can call her simply CA as you type. Then, once you have finished, you can use the "find/replace all" function to find all examples of CA in the text and replace these with Carrie-Ann.

Yes, that was the intent, for Carrie-Ann (or something else if you change your mind). Thanks!

Make sure you indicate when finding/replacing that there’s a space after the CA or every word that has a ca in it will be replaced by Carrie-Ann; i.e, replica will become repliCarrie-Ann, captain Carrie-Anntain. I’ve seen this happen in some stories I’ve read on the site.

That can be a big problem (don't ask how I know! Thank goodness for UNDO), but by requiring "Match case" you can avoid this.

 

[Bramblethorn]

An alternative to Find and Replace is to set up an autocorrect that will let you specify some shorthand that will automatically get converted to "Carrie-Ann" whenever you type it:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...snippets-0bc40cab-f49c-4e06-bcb2-cd43c1674d1b

Something like "bk" can be a useful shorthand here as this letter combination is rare in English words.

 

[TheLobster]

Make sure you indicate when finding/replacing that there’s a space after the CA or every word that has a ca in it will be replaced by Carrie-Ann; i.e, replica will become repliCarrie-Ann, captain Carrie-Anntain. I’ve seen this happen in some stories I’ve read on the site.

Space after won't help you with 'replica', since you may just get either "repliCarrie-Annof the original" (if you replace "ca " with "Carrie-Ann") or "repliCarre-Ann of the original" (if you do "ca " -> "Carrie-Ann ").

To avoid this, your editor needs to either support a dedicated "Whole words only" option when finding/replacing (or the ability to use regular expressions, but that's rare/nonexistent in editors like Word).

 

[mildlyaroused]

Space after won't help you with 'replica', since you may just get either "repliCarrie-Annof the original" (if you replace "ca " with "Carrie-Ann") or "repliCarre-Ann of the original" (if you do "ca " -> "Carrie-Ann ").

To avoid this, your editor needs to either support a dedicated "Whole words only" option when finding/replacing (or the ability to use regular expressions, but that's rare/nonexistent in editors like Word).

Also, if you only replace "ca " with a space after, then any sentence which ends in "Carrie-Ann" won't be replaced, since there will be a full stop (period) after the name, and not a space.

If I got frustrated enough at repeating a complex name, I'd just copy it to my clipboard and paste it each time I wanted to use it. Much less chance of things going wrong.

 

[Euphony]

An alternative to Find and Replace is to set up an autocorrect that will let you specify some shorthand that will automatically get converted to "Carrie-Ann" whenever you type it:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...snippets-0bc40cab-f49c-4e06-bcb2-cd43c1674d1b

Something like "bk" can be a useful shorthand here as this letter combination is rare in English words.

I retired from Word but this is what we were taught and it works a treat.

One of the few things I miss.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Has anyone else noticed your own name in the text instead of the protagonist's? That might have been embarrassing if I hadn't caught it.
-Annie

 

[Whanmore]

I've definitely had to Contrl F and change some names in a Story because I hated Typing them even though I liked how they looked or fit the character. I was going to do a character Leigh until I spent 15 minutes switching i's and e' and g' and h's I just renamed the bitch. lol