re: #204 HappyWarrior

What do you do with surnames? For me, what’s difficult is the question of how to go about. Do I go with a common surname? Or do I go with one that exists within my own family tree and is fairly obscure? Or do I go a third route and use the surname of a famous person of that nationality I like. Like I’ve considered Patrick O’Connell for an Irish American protagonist given St. Pat’s importance for the Irish and Daniel O’Connell’s importnace for Irish nationalism.

It depends a lot. I like to balance an unusual first name with something fairly ordinary for the last name. Using family names from your own family is common with a lot of writers. You can have allusions. Basically, any of those works fine.

I like to try out some different things and see what seems most like the character to me.