Character names, Time to write, and story ideas

A while back I decided to take a sack lunch to work and write during my lunch break in my truck. As it turned out, the only adequate shade in "Small Town" Texas was in the local cemetery. No problem. It was peaceful, quiet, and I actually have relatives resting there.

There was an unexpected benefit I found in my new creative environment. Names, lots and lots of names.

Just glancing at the grave markers, I was bombarded with character names for my stories. I wasn't taking complete names directly from the markers, but combining first names here, last names there, last names for first names, and first names for last names to create unique character names.

I also realized that paying attention to the dates on the markers, you can determine what common names were for certain time periods.

In addition to the plethora of character names, I came up with two more story ideas based solely on some of the unique names.

~t