Book Recs for Finding Names for Characters

One of my favorite things about writing, and the least stressful, is naming characters. While you can google names all you want, I prefer consulting books, and recently, I discovered two books I’d recccomend for finding names for characters.

The Best Gender-Neutral Baby Name Book: The Ultimate Collection of Unique Unisex Names by Melanie Mannarino

I stumbled across this book at the library and loved how it got me to broaden my view of names. Many of the names don’t seem gender-neutral to me, but the books provides many lists of unusual names for authors who want their characters to stand out from the crowd.

First Name Reverse Dictionary by Yvonne Navarro

Another library find. This book was published in 1993, (the link is for an updated edition) but well worth tracking down if you want a different way of finding names. The title says it all. The meanings of names are listed in alphabetical order. For example, the definition “warrior” is listed under “W”. The definition “peaceful” is listed under “P”. Under the entry for “warrior”, the author lists many names from various languages that all mean “warrior”.

You could use this book for a fantasy novel in which everyone’s name reflects something about their personalities. Or you could create a family within in any genre that has an unusual naming tradition. Such as in a cozy mystery, the main suspects are a family in which the mother named her children based on the mood she was in when she delivered them. You could create some very memorable names from that kind of set up.

I’ve reviewed a newer reverse name dictionary here. And I highly recommend getting a copy of The Character Naming Sourcebook.

Writers, what books do you like to use for finding names for characters?

August 13, 2026 0

Can’t Visualize Your Novel’s Settings? Use Floor Plans and Maps

Writers often talk about characters that are problems. But what about settings? When I use a setting multiple times in a novel, or thoughout a series, remembering all the details can become a headache. The geography of a setting, the layout of a room, or a room’s furnishings may be critical to my plot or character development, and I can’t have doors or whole mountain ranges moving. If you can’t visualize your novel’s settings, use floor plans and maps.

Borrow floor plans or draw your own.

My Rae Riley Mysteries series started with a short story, “A Rose from the Ashes”. When I sat down to write the first novel, I knew the farmhouse where Rae’s newly-found father and his family lived would be a major setting I would use during the course of the series. I had to imagine it as clearly as I see my own home. So I dug out a pad of graph paper and got to work.

That floor plan has saved me a lot of time and embarrassment. When I write a scene around the fireplace, I have a map of where the couch, recliner, and easy chair are positioned and how close they are to the dinner table. Also, I never want a reader to write to me with, “I thought the kitchen looked into the dining room. Where’d the wall come from?”

If drawing a floor plan sounds too complicated, give it a try before you discard the idea. Remember your drawing doesn’t have to be structurally sound. It’s just a guide for your imagination. You can also use floor plan books or look online for plans. The photo above is my collection of floor plan books I have acquired over the years.

These sites are helpful for finding floor plans for residential homes in a myriad of styles: Architectural Designs and Houseplans.net

Draw maps for geographic locations.

Again, you don’t have to be a cartographer to draw a map of your novel’s farm, village, or city. Use graph paper to draw a map with the details you need make your setting seem real. Wellesville, the county seat where Rae Riley works, is based on my hometown, but I’ve changed details to suit my series. While writing my fourth Rae Riley novel, I realized I had to go back through my previous novels and reread how I described Main Street because I’d never drawn a map of it. From those descriptions, I finally put together a map, and now I have a valuable reference tool for the rest of my series.

Here are more tips on writing settings in novels.

Writers, how do you keep the details of your settings straight?

August 6, 2026 1

How to Write Your Novel Resolution Right

Denouement or wrap-up is another critical component of the ending to any novel. These are the scenes following the climax, in which you resolve all the remaining loose ends of the plot. Below are my tips on how to write your novel resolution right.

Why is the denouement so critical?

This resolution part of your novel is another reward for your readers. The intensity of the climax and how well you pull it off is the first one. Once readers have enjoyed that, they get the extra treat of sitting back and enjoying how you resolve the other plot points that have contributed to the novel.

Pacing is the key element of the resolution

You don’t want a resolution that’s too fast or too slow. If you resolve the loose ends too quickly, readers will close the book dissatisfied because they didn’t get enough time to enjoy saying good-bye to the characters and the story. If you’re too slow, your resolution will come across like a houseguest who won’t take hints from the host that it’s time to leave.

How to write the correct pacing for the resolution

First, reread your manuscript and make sure you’ve caught all the plot points and loose ends of your novel.

Second vary how you tie up your loose ends. Since I write mysteries, readers expect a detailed resolution of all the plot points. So I tie up those points in various ways. A few I resolve before the climax, if it doesn’t hurt the intensity of it. For example, my amateur sleuth discovers one of the suspects has an iron-clad alibi before the climax, taking that character out of contention as the culprit. After the climax, I decide how much page space I should devote to a loose end depending on its importance. For example, if my teen sleuth and her dad have been at odds throughout the whole novel, then the resolution of their conflict should have a lot of space. But if the loose end is who moved the murder weapon after the murder, and it turns out the maid did because she did’t realize it was the the murder weapon at the time, then that resolution only needs a brief conversation.

Third, have someone who enjoys reading and understands your genre read your manuscript. I guarantee you will have overlooked at least one minor point that needs wrapped up. An author is so familiar with her manuscript that it’s easy to miss a loose end.

Fourth, you should also ask this reader about the pacing. If he or she feels the resolution is rushed or dragging, review your resolution to discover if you can add depth or tighten your writing.

What novels have you read which have a perfectly paced resolution?

Just wanted to let you know there won’t be a tip next week but I’ll be back two weeks from today.

July 16, 2026 0

The Winning Formula for Writing a Killer Novel Climax

Before I get into the winning formula for writing a killer novel climax, let’s review the three aspects all endings should contain.

Climax: the most intense part of your novel
Denouement or Wrap-up: the section after your climax in which you resolve loose ends of your plot. In a mystery, this is where the detective explains how he unmasked the culprit and resolves red herrings.
Final scene and/or lines: the last scene and lines you want to stick with your readers as they close the book.

If any of these components are missing from an ending, or mishandled, the ending won’t be satisfying. Today, let’s examined the winning formula for the climax.

The formula every climax should follow.

Your climax must contain the following elements:

The protagonist. The protagonist of your novel must be the central figure of the climax. It can’t happen without him or her.

The antagonist. The climax also can’t happen without the antagonist. He or she has been the main obstacle to the protagonist achieving his goal. So the antagonist must be present at the climax as readers find out if and how the protagonist deals with the antagonist to reach his goal.

The theme. If your novel has a theme, then the outcome of the climax should resonate with it.

The genre. The climax must fit with the expectations of the genre you’re writing. If you write a rom-com, and the hero and heroine don’t end up as a happy couple, readers will not enjoy the climax.

So the formula is: Genre + (Antagonist x Protagonist x Theme) = Climax. This is the basic outline for a satisfying climax. But there are several more components to keep in mind.

Don’t forget these tips for a climax.

The climax is the most intense part of your novel. Your protagonist is at her greatest risk of failure in the climax. If you have any scene earlier in the novel, where the risk is greater, you either have to make the earlier scene less intense or the climax more intense. A climax that isn’t the most intense part of your novel will definitely disappoint readers.

Give your climax plenty of page time. The climax is the pay off for readers following your novel this far. So take the time make it memorable and meaningful. A rushed climax is dissatisfying, like your host handing you a dessert at the end of dinner, only to snatch it back after you’ve taken a couple of bites.

Don’t introduce new characters. The climax should be the culmination of the character arcs and the central plot. Throwing in a new character will feel like a cheat. You can reveal something new about the antagonist or protagonist, but you will have to have laid hints throughout the novel, so that the sudden revelation feels earned.

What novels do you think have killer climaxes?

Here are more posts on writing endings.

July 9, 2026 1

The Fatal Flaws That Ruin a Novel’s Ending

This month on JPC Allen Writes I’ll be posting about how to write an ending for your novel. Endings for novels are tough to write, and if the writer gets it wrong, the ending is what readers remember more than any other aspect of the plot. So what are the fatals flaws the ruin a novel’s ending?

The fatal flaws that hide in plain sight

The fatal flaws are the beginning and middle of your novel. The purpose of the beginning is to introduce and establish the plot, characters, and the main problem the protagonist faces. The middle takes the beginning and explores and complicates the plot and characters. If you don’t have a strong beginning or middle, their flaws will be reflected in your ending.

The purposed of the ending is to echo points introduced in the beginning and explored in the middle. It’s also supposed to resolve the problems established in the beginning and complicated in the middle. If your beginning or middle falls down on these basic components of story structure, your ending will be not be compelling, meaningful, or memorable.

Flaws in the beginning of the novel

If you haven’t taken the time to establish who your characters are, what their personalities are like, and how those aspects affect the plot, the ending won’t have much meaning. The major characters will seem remote, and readers won’t be invested in them. So their victory in the end will read like a news story. Nice but something that happened to strangers on the other side of the country.

If the beginning doesn’t establish what’s at stake for your protagonist, or the ramifications of achieving or missing his goal, then again the ending is hollow.

Making clear who the characters are and what the stakes of solving or not solving the problem are goes a long way to enriching your ending.

Flaws in the middle of the novel

The middle is the bulk of your novel. You have the space to explore your characters and how they will solve their problem. You also have the space to throw complications in their path as they pursue the problem. An ending won’t be satisfying if the problem is solved too easily. Take the time in the middle to deepen relationships and make the happy solution to the problem less and less possible. Both of those techniques will invest readers in the characters, making them root for their success at the finish.

If you find your ending is boring, hollow, or dissatisfying, reread your novel. The flaws that are ruining your ending are probably staring you in the face.

Here are more tips on writing endings for novels.

July 2, 2026 0

Category: Writing Tips