Names (NaNo Day 26)

I'm horrible with names. I love picking first names for my characters, because I always give them a name that means something.

Blanche, for instance, is the descendant of Snow White. Blanche is french for White. Voila. Each of my main characters has a similar story behind their name.

But last names are my downfall. I picked one at random for Ms. Blanche, only to discover that the last name I picked was someone I went to high school with... who was named Blanche. Fail on my part. But rather than sit there and go through dozens of name possibilities, and making sure that the names meant something for the characters, I posted it to my friends. What should I name my characters?

So, I now introduce you to my main character cast:
Blanche Mitchell
Aileen Fisher
Jason Johnson
Rowan Maxwell
Dawn Stern

And my supplemental characters:
Madge Reynard (affectionately known as Nana)
Wilhelm Herrmann
Thomas Fisher (Aileen's brother)
Harold and Eleanor Johnson (Jason's mother and father)

Everyone else, at this time, who has a name does not have a first and last name. For instance, I have Susie, the receptionist at the office Jason works. I have David, a stablehand at the stables that Aileen frequents. They aren't important enough to the story to either get names that matter or get both first and last names. Poor things, I know. Of course, Jason's parents fall into that category, but since they're family, they get a last name too. They just got lucky that way.

In terms of the word count... I'm back to being a day behind, but I've finally gotten a rough layout of how I want the novel to finish up, so maybe I'll be able to get all caught up and finish the thing by Friday. I'm debating whether or not I want to enter the Virtuosos competition. I'd like to think that I wrote a pretty good novel, but I know it needs heavy editing, and I'm not sure I'll have the time to keep up with things come January, when I start Surgery.

Well, I suppose it's a moot point if I don't finish the novel by Friday midnight. So I guess I'll just wait until then to see where I go from there.