What's in a Name?

WIP Crackin' Wednesday

Names. Are. Hard.

Just a couple of days ago, I had a young lady message me on Facebook and ask about a character name. She’d come up with it a while back, and had been thinking about her story using that name for almost a year. Then someone told her they didn’t like the name, so she was worrying that it wasn’t a good one for her main character.

Spoiler alert: it was actually a freakin’ excellent name, especially given the genre. I may steal it at some point. But it goes to show you - we worry over these stupid things. We agonize over them. Writers probably spend more time on Baby Name sites than expectant parents do.

Why? Because deep down, we know: names have power. Roland Deschain. Han Solo. Ibram Gaunt. Severus Snape. Captain James T. Kirk. Arthur. Gregor Eisenhorn. Bilbo Baggins. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Samwise Gamgee. Cruella de Vil. Aragorn. Those names are embedded in their stories now; they’re old and powerful. But even when you first encountered them, they made you sit up. They joined perfectly into their narrative, like a puzzle piece sliding into place. They simply fit.

Every author wants that. Sometimes, you have to work at it. Often, when you do, you try your best to make sure that your names have some sort of meaning.

As an example: for the weird west story I’m working on, I used placeholder names for a while. The Preacher; the Marshal; the Town. Later on, once I had a bit of the story written and I had a better idea of who the characters are, I went back and filled them in. I wanted an old-school Christian name for the Preacher, so he became Hezekiah Gaunt (and yes, that last name is a tribute both to John Gaunt from the Grimjack comics and Ibram Gaunt from Warhammer 40K). The Town because Gorda, because at one point, they lived off the fat of the land. And the Marshal… well, if you squint a little bit, his name means Hell, and that’s actually important to the story.

Not every name is like that. Sometimes you simply pick something decent, or throw in a name because you promised to kill of a friend in one of your stories. :) I have a list of people who have volunteered to be red shirts in my writing. Whenever someone has to die off-screen, I try to pull one of those out and work it into the story if it’s appropos.

And, well… sometimes, a character shows up, kicks down the door, and says hello.

I’ve got a few like that. There’s a gentleman by the name of Damien Black. Please, don’t be so crass as to refer to him as a pirate. He and his first mate Haulings showed up in a bar as I was typing without so much as a how-you-do, introduced themselves, and settled down into my brain.

Similarly, my main characters in “Blue As Sky” - Prospero and Kellan - have always been thus. As soon as I started thinking about their story, they tapped my on the shoulder and introduced themselves. Likewise, Abe and Faith from “Down Among the Dead Men” in Pinup Noir? There’s no way they could have been named anything else. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Abe is short for Abraham, either.

All of which is to say that names are hard - except when they aren’t.

What’s your favorite character name? The one that, when you read it for the first time, you loved because it fit perfectly into the story?

The Business of Writing

A mid-week update on my three major commitments: to write, to edit, and to read.

I finished off my weird west story and tossed it over the wall to the reviewers. There’s no doubt that it’s going to need some real editing, but the bones are solid. I’ve been told the ick is high on this one, but honestly, I’m not sure I could have written it any other way. I was definitely going for an old-school REH style tale where the magic is dangerous and something you don’t want to mess with, and I think I hit the mark.

I had a call with John Holmes from Cannon about working to expand “Blue As Sky” into something longer. I’m excited to be working with them. I went into the call with a couple of questions and points I wanted to touch on. One of the biggest to me was the fact that I am still getting my sea-legs with longer fiction, so I’d want more developmental editing assistance. A point I never really even got to make, as John pointed out that I’ll need a thick skin because the editor I’d likely be working with would do exactly that. Nice! Now all I need to do is, you know, write something…

Reading-wise, I wanted to move on to The Witch of the Monongahela: Folk Magic in Early Western Pennsylvania. What happened was I have three stories from the Alpha Mercs that I really need to review. I’d complain, except holy cow I love reading these! Seriously. The level of improvement across the board in our group - in concept, characterization, plotting, execution - is fantastic to see. When I’ve gone three or four pages without making a comment because I get caught up in the story, that’s wonderful.

Other Stuff

Last month, I told my wife, “I need to plan my schedule as if there were three weeks in a month.” I’ve demonstrated again why that’s true.

I’m not even sure I can recall everything I did over the past four days. Helped with the spring fundraiser for the pregnancy center, our Lady’s Tea. Baby-shower-slash-family gathering for my cousin. Sunday school & church. Took my father-in-law out to lunch so my wife could attend another tea with her family. Met up with my niece’s fiancé to talk about that Biblical finance class. Something about a Superb Owl showing off commercials? My wife ended up in the ER with a family member Sunday night. Work, finance class, and I ended up in the ER with a friend Monday night. That led to helping his wife shuffle kids and cars around Tuesday, in between meetings about our men’s programs at the pregnancy center and a board meeting for People For Liberty.

… and I have left some stuff out of all that, if you can believe it!

Needless to say: writing-related activities have not been at the forefront of my mind. All that’s settling down now, though. These things seem to come in great big clumps of furious activity, then disappear for a week or three. It’s just life, I suppose.

Wait, what? It’s Valentine’s Day? Since when—AUGH! Ok. I, um. Have to go do something important. Something that I totally have had planned for a month. Really.

See you next Wednesday!

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