A Name by Any Other Name?
I've talked elsewhere about the importance I place on character names. And, as I've been having some Naming Issues in the book that I'm working on right now, I've been thinking recently about my process of naming.
With major characters, I generally can't introduce them into the story until I have their name. And not a place holder name-their real, for all time name. I've tried to give major characters place-holder names, and it just doesn't work. They dig in their heels and refuse to come alive for me, or else every time I put down the name I start worrying about how it isn't right and why won't they tell me their real name by God?!? So as stories progress, I tend to have long stretches of sitting at the computer, starring off into space while I run names in my head and try to decide if they feel right. I usually know what kind of feeling I want to evoke with the name, the kind of sound quality or length that I'm looking for. This name should be hard and short, I think. Or, This person has a really posh sounding name. I'll know the neighborhood I need to be in, but sometimes getting to the right street can take lots of time and lots of wrong turns. So I make lists of possible names, even the ones I know aren't quite right, because sometimes a wrong name can still lead me to the right one. All this also goes for major place names as well.
With minor characters, generally people who appear only briefly or are mentioned by name but never make an actual appearance in the story, and with minor places, I'm less picky. I've been known to pop in a place holder name, knowing that I'll probably come back and change it later. Or, if I'm feeling really lazy, even to leave the name out entirely and put a dashed line where the name should go. Sadly, this usually leads to not-so-fun day after I'm done with the first draft, a day when I have to force myself to go back and make up names for people and places in need of authentic-sounding names but who aren't all that important.
Right now, in the book I'm currently working on, I've run into a niggling problem in that I don't like my main character's last name. Probably because it's not her original last name. Sadly, I realized that her original last name, which I really did love in combination with her first name and which sounded so cool, didn't work in the rest of the story. It really wants and needs to be in some other story. Sadly (again), I only realized this after writing about 120 pages of the book, which meant that I had to change her name in mid-stream. And I've realized as I've gone on with the book that I'm not all that happy with the second last name. I don't know what I want to change it to, and I've left it the way it is so far because it's just a last name, even though I frown a little every day I write it.
I'm going to have to figure this out. And soon. But with her already having had two last names, I know finding a third one that really works will be hard, if only because she's been called too many things in my head already. Part of me wonders if I should stop and try to figure it out before going on, but then I worry about losing momentum on the actual story. I think I'm going to wait, hoping that that's the best thing to do. I think.
Ah well. This is what being a writer is, folks. Figuring it out as you go along.
With major characters, I generally can't introduce them into the story until I have their name. And not a place holder name-their real, for all time name. I've tried to give major characters place-holder names, and it just doesn't work. They dig in their heels and refuse to come alive for me, or else every time I put down the name I start worrying about how it isn't right and why won't they tell me their real name by God?!? So as stories progress, I tend to have long stretches of sitting at the computer, starring off into space while I run names in my head and try to decide if they feel right. I usually know what kind of feeling I want to evoke with the name, the kind of sound quality or length that I'm looking for. This name should be hard and short, I think. Or, This person has a really posh sounding name. I'll know the neighborhood I need to be in, but sometimes getting to the right street can take lots of time and lots of wrong turns. So I make lists of possible names, even the ones I know aren't quite right, because sometimes a wrong name can still lead me to the right one. All this also goes for major place names as well.
With minor characters, generally people who appear only briefly or are mentioned by name but never make an actual appearance in the story, and with minor places, I'm less picky. I've been known to pop in a place holder name, knowing that I'll probably come back and change it later. Or, if I'm feeling really lazy, even to leave the name out entirely and put a dashed line where the name should go. Sadly, this usually leads to not-so-fun day after I'm done with the first draft, a day when I have to force myself to go back and make up names for people and places in need of authentic-sounding names but who aren't all that important.
Right now, in the book I'm currently working on, I've run into a niggling problem in that I don't like my main character's last name. Probably because it's not her original last name. Sadly, I realized that her original last name, which I really did love in combination with her first name and which sounded so cool, didn't work in the rest of the story. It really wants and needs to be in some other story. Sadly (again), I only realized this after writing about 120 pages of the book, which meant that I had to change her name in mid-stream. And I've realized as I've gone on with the book that I'm not all that happy with the second last name. I don't know what I want to change it to, and I've left it the way it is so far because it's just a last name, even though I frown a little every day I write it.
I'm going to have to figure this out. And soon. But with her already having had two last names, I know finding a third one that really works will be hard, if only because she's been called too many things in my head already. Part of me wonders if I should stop and try to figure it out before going on, but then I worry about losing momentum on the actual story. I think I'm going to wait, hoping that that's the best thing to do. I think.
Ah well. This is what being a writer is, folks. Figuring it out as you go along.