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This site updated May 30, 2009.
Hanging With My Window Man
ISBN-13:
978-1-60272-467-9
(Electronic)
Available from:
Amber Quill Press
Forbidden Desire
ISBN-13:
TBD
(Electronic)
Available (June 14) from:
Amber Quill Press
OTHER REALMS,
OTHER LOVES
ISBN-13:
978-1-60272-906-3
(Paperback)
Available from:
Amber Quill Press
Amazon.com
Silk Stealth:
Shadow Warrior
ISBN-13:
978-1-60272-427-3
(Electronic)
Available from:
Amber Quill Press
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THE VALUE OF A NAME
If you're writing a series, there’s a certain comfort knowing you’ve already determined the names of your main characters. Robert Crais knows detective Elvis Cole and his sideman Pike will be his main men. James Patterson will write about detective Alex Cross and his family or, in his Maximum Ride sci fi series, Max and the flock. However, even into those stories will come minor characters who also need names.
I’ve only written two series, so I’m usually faced with the challenge of naming all the players in my stories from scratch. I tend to know who my people are before I select their names, and as I browse through possibilities I either sense or make a stab at what fits.
I suppose one might choose the name first and design the person around the name, but I haven’t done so. Nor do I know anyone who has.
It’s important to keep your characters distinctive. Avoid using the names of people you know or those other writers have chosen. Avoid beginning the hero’s and the bad guy’s first names with the same alphabet letter. Vary the number of syllables.
You can search the Internet for the most popular or the most common names for contemporary males and females, ethnic names, and can sometimes locate names from history or foreign countries. In "Sweet Chocolate Ecstasy," I chose Madison for my heroine because it was the most popular pick by new mothers for girls that year. Originally, I’d planned to set the story in post-Civil War Savannah, Georgia. Loving the name of that beautiful city, I added it to her name. Today I understand Emma’s the most popular girl's name. I haven’t checked the men out yet.
In the early drafts of "Gone With The Wind," Margaret Mitchell referred to her heroine as Pansy. As that character developed into a stubborn, manipulative woman, Scarlett was born and Pansy discarded. If you have a character whose name no longer fits, use the Find and Replace feature on your computer to change it. Use Find Next rather than Replace All because if any part of the name you’re replacing appears in another word, it’ll corrupt it. Once, on a tight deadline, I used the latter when editing a 250 page novel. It took hours to go through the book word by word to correct the mess. With Find Next each corruption pops up individually, and you avoid that horror.
I forget the names of my cast of characters. For some insane reason, I can tell you everything about them except their names. Some computer programs for writers have a place for them in a sidebar. I don’t have that program, and I write many stories, so I keep a list of every book and its people’s names on my computer. I check what I’ve used, and this morning I discovered I have an affinity for two male names. Now I have to replace the one I’d planned to use in this new book.
How important is it to have the perfect name for your main characters? With the famous exception about Scarlett O’Hara’s name, I think not very. No matter what you choose to call them, you’ll begin to think of them as Madison, Emma, Elvis, Pike or whomever. In this mysterious process we call creative writing, they'll become the person you’ve decided they will be.
If not, if they buck you, just change their name. Use Find Next and Replace.
Happy writing,
Carolina
Big excitement! WOMAN IN BLACK LACE made the Amber Quill Heat Best Seller list in April!
I dedicated it to E.J. Gilmer, my editor, because at the start of the 2008 Writer's Guild of America strike, Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show, said, "Without writers I'm not funny." Actually, before the strike was settled, he was fabulous during the two months he carried the show. His ratings outranked those of his competitors. But his comment triggered the acknowledgment that an author's work wouldn't be publishable without an editor.
Kudos to E.J. for her skillful help on my best seller. Every time I write something on my own I cringe because E. J. hasn't seen it first.
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