Howdy folks. I've just started up writing again, it's something I used to do a lot when I was younger, and it's now I'm getting back into it. I'm planning on a writing either a large book, or a trilogy, since it seems to be the thing with books nowadays. I've started writing soing up my preliminaries, coming up with charecters, names, maps etc.

My main problem is coming up with names for towns and what-not. I've set myself the goal of creating five different names for each letter of the alphabet, and while it sounds a bit extreme, it's actually all for the better. Even though I may only use a fraction of the names, having them down will make it easier when writing the story in general, simply being able to flick over a list and picking a name really saves time. The thing I've noticed is that writers block can be triggered by even the simplest things, coming up with a name for a town can really slow you down when your on a roll.

So, here's my request for help, coming up with said names, I'm up to J, and I'm really having trouble getting past it. I'm not looking for the names themselves, but rather, what tricks people have for coming up with them. Do you just pick them out of your mind at random, or do you perhaps use another way, like looking at maps, and picking names and changing them to better suit the world your creating?

Sometimes they just come to me, sometimes I hear a name (be it a dog's name or an actual obscure place name) that just sticks with me, or I leave the place as "X" until I can think of a name later. Another thing I do (if I do none of the above) is look at *anything* from a star chart (with star names, I could care less about the numbers) to whatever happens to be by me. I'll find a word and see if I can rearrange it into something that doesn't sound retarded and go from there.

I don't really have any profound tricks. Usually I just collect names and use them again later down the road, be it a place name, an organization, a magick spell, or an actual name of a person.

Dunno if that'll really help you...

I actually go after Greek Mythologies for names often. But sometimes I just spout random words and try to twinge them until they sound right and use them. Or I just twist a common name to have a different spelling. Yup.

Town names can be a tad tricky. If you want to make sure your towns are well remembered by your reader, try combining two words to make the town name, makes it A LOT easier for the reader to remember (Gold Saucer, Tinsel town, Apple ville, etc) not great examples I know but you get the idea. If it's Jorlanganon....i'm probably gonna forget that name unless you say it a hundred times.

I dunno if your obsessive like me, but if there's an idea you have throughout your story, I tend to put hints at that idea everywhere. So, say you wanted to make a kind of psuedo Christian thing with some Biblical connotations. Sometimes it could help if you 'borrowed' a city or changed it slightly from the real thing. Such as in my story, I have certain Biblical things in it, and I have a town named Damascus, used to be a real city. It worked well for me, not difficult or complicated.

At first I had trouble coming up with countries. I used a word/country generator. Usually the stuff it comes up with is completely moronic but every once in awhile an interesting one comes up that isn't overly complicated or hard to say. Again, sometimes you just need to be in a quiet spot for awhile and just think. Once you get past that little problem, its a breeze to get going again. I know how awful writers block is. I haven't written a damn thing in months because I've been irked with some real life issues, but mainly that there's a small gap between one part of the story and the next. And I can't figure out how to connect it, that's the worst.

But names are really frustrating too. Especially if your anal like me where it has to sound perfect. Keep at it though, you'll get through it. Hopefully your not like me where your stuck on it for months on end. Just thinking where my novel would be if I had gotten past this writers block by now...ugh, it makes me sick. XD