Not a bad day 2. I got another 5,000 words done today.
I started on an outline for my NaNo project a few months ago. I’ve got rough character sheets for the main characters, most of the sub characters, and I have a rough outline. I had a bit of a surprise this morning. I was writing along, minding my own business, when the main character wakes to a phone call in the middle of the night. It’s a cop on the other end.
“Yeah?” the main character mumbles into the phone, unable to read the caller id.
“Mr. …” the cop starts to say.
That’s when it hits me, I don’t know my main characters surname. Not sure what to do. I don’t want to make something up on the spot. As soon as I start thinking of the MC with a specific last name, changing it later will be more difficult. Got to make the right decision the first time. Uh Oh…none of my MC’s or supporting characters have last names. Woops.
I know their first names. So that’s no problem, but what’s the cop going to say on the phone? She’s still waiting.
So I resort to the old editor trick I read about once. I stick a TK in where the last name should go (TK is easy to find by search, doesn’t appear very often naturally). And just to cut down on confusion later, I put the character’s first name in parentheses. Not a great solution, wish I had full names for everyone, but I’m not going to make a snap decision that I might later hate.
Hope your writing is going well. Day three starts soon 
Photo Credit: HeavenlyCabins
