Watch the Names

Watch the Names

I’ve written about this before—probably numerous times—but I was a contest judge recently, reading books that I probably wouldn’t have chosen otherwise, and I was reading more critically than I normally would.

The judging guidelines included the usual—book starting in the right place, well-written characters, pacing, etc.

If I were designing a contest scoresheet, I think I’d add a section for character names. Often, there’s a question about whether you can tell characters apart b...