Darci Albritton is my main character’s roommate. She is a true southern and makes it her duty to help my main character find love and navigate dating in the south. At the same time, she proceeds to hook up with every guy who smiles at her. She is described as intrusive, but in a charming and glitter manner. She is close to her parents and 11 siblings, and everyone loves her, but don’t let her charm fool you. She has one goal, to find a husband before graduation.
Darci’s stats:
- 18 years old
- Long, wavy blond hair
- Blue eyes
- From Magnolia, Arkansas
- Looking for a man with money
- Her perfect guy: 6’4″ (Darci is only 5’4”), dark hair, dark eyes and big hands.
**Interesting Character Name note: I had two roommates my second year at Florida State, Darci Bryan and Mindy Albritton. They were from a small county (notice I said county and not town) in central Florida. When I was thinking of names for the roommate, Darci Albritton seemed perfect. Although neither are blonde and both are smart, accomplished women.
I love Darci. Do you fall in love with your secondary characters? How do you come up with character names?
Please add Another New Life to your Goodreads list.
Sydney Aaliyah Michelle 
No I don’t, which is an eye opener. Generally the secondary characters in my stories are there to serve a function, i.e. they are allies, threshold guardians, or the teacher etc, perhaps that is what i’m missing and why they’re often quite wooden. Thanks…. 🙂 Name wise generally it’s either a completely invented or I look up name generators online. Often I’ll browse different nationalities. Good luck with the A-Z challenge, I look forward to reading the rest. x
Hi Jessica, I need a connection to my secondary characters although your right, the main goal is to further or enhance something for the main character. I think I’m running out of friend names, and will need another source. haha.
I love my characters or I hate them and I research until my eyes ache to find just the right name.
Do a google search for baby names/male or female/ country. Then its just a question of browsing… eg I did a search for Swedish baby names and came up with:
http://www.babynames.org.uk/swedish-baby-names.htm
I often look at arabic, sanskrit, and celtic names too as they’re great for creating fantasy names.
Find a husband before graduation – I’m sure that scares most of the men she meets.
I have a couple secondary characters I really like.
I know. I use that line when I want a guy to back off. It scares them every time.
Oooh, this makes me want to go dive into your book! Can’t wait!
Thanks Katie.
I love my secondary characters because they can be more outlandish and quirky than a main character. As far as names go, I do the baby names from the appropriate decades thing like Jessica Triana suggested and try them out until I hit on one that feels right.
Thanks for telling us about Darcy. She seems like an interesting gal.
She can be the extreme in the story. I love them, too.
I love how part of your character description is her description of her perfect guy. lol
I do fall in love with my secondary characters…sometimes I love them more than my main character. 🙂 As for names, I have a tendency of stealing names from people I know or other characters I love.
She is pretty singleminded. Guys, guys, guys. Buy she is an optimist and a romantic.
I love when I fall in love with the secondaries! And so cool how you came up with her name. I bet your friends love that too.
I was nervous about it, but when I told them, they loved it.
Secondary characters are the best–because the pressure is all on the main characters to run the show, so the secondary ones get all the freedom.
I love how they can be as exaggerated as I want.
I try for strong secondary characters, but then I have to make sure they don’t take the spotlight away from the main character. Usually it works out if I just focus on letting the secondary character just of the purpose they were invented for. I often look up names on websites for different nationalities. Good post.
Deb@ http://debioneille.blogspot.com
PS. Your name is one of the most interesting names I’ve come across. Kudos to your parents!
Thanks Debi, but it is a pen name. My creation with a long origin story, which I may share some day. My real name is Michelle, though.
Darcy fits in perfectly with my images of a pure southern belle.
MJ, A to Z Challenge Co-Host
Writing Tips
Effectively Human
Lots of Crochet Stitches
Yeah, she’s a peach.
I love just about all of my characters, secondaries included. Sometimes a secondary character gradually assumes more importance or prominence that I ever planned going in.
As a lifelong name nerd, I love finding character names. My naming taste tends towards classical eccentric and classical unusual, not so much towards common, popular, trendy names. Even my characters from other countries and languages frequently get names which are lesser-used or not as popular in their cultures.
I’m not sure why, but I have been more unusual with names in other books, but this one is has very normal names.
Darcy sure has high expectations. A man with money, 6″4 and big hands. I like the sound of Darcy she is definitely an interesting character.
Thanks Rachna, she is an interesting person.
Darcy sounds like fun! I have a couple supporting characters that I love! Sometimes I make up names by looking at baby name websites.
I think I might need to do that soon.
Secondary characters are IT, man–when they’re well drawn. They bring such life to the story. It’s in the protag’s relationships with these characters that we, the readers, discover who that protag really is, how s/he thinks and feels, what his/her shortcomings are. Yep, secondary characters are IT.
Great post! (And thanks for the visit to Quiet Laughter earlier today 🙂
I’ve been reading through all of your posts and it’s really cool that your theme revolves around your book (and that your book title started with an A). Well planned!
I always fall in love with secondary characters that I didn’t even intend on keeping around–sometimes they even end up taking over and becoming a main character. In my last book, I only intended Cade to be around for 1 scene, but as soon as he got a name, he could not be controlled!
Sometimes my secondary characters take over my entire story!
Damyanti
Co-host, A to Z Challenge 2014, Amlokiblogs Latest Post
Twitter: @damyantig
#atozchallenge
My secondary characters are usually female, but I do tend to have a soft spot for them. I know it’s getting out of hand when I start getting jealous of the leading man.
Names are relatively easy. I will sometimes use the first name or surname of somebody I’ve known, and then there is of course my Baby Names book. The beauty of that book is the number of nationalities in it.
That’s a good measure. I get jealous of my characters sometimes, too.