In an ongoing series of tips for writers, One Pot Meal illustrates how characters’ names can come to a writer organically:
“Hm,” she said, “maybe I should have washed this cookie cutter before cutting the biscuits.”
“Are we going to have dusty biscuits?” I asked.
“We might.”
“That sounds like a cowboy’s name.”
“We might?”
“Dusty Biscuits. Dusty Biscuits and the Laramie Trail. I’m going to write a western.”
“And his horse, Buttermilk,” she offered.
“If it’s a pulp western, I’ll need a stereotypical villain,” I said. “Can we have Mexican tomorrow night?”