The Old Name Trick

Regular readers of the blog know about my obsession with character names. They know about what happens when I have to change a character name due to market concerns. They know about my old trick of dealing with a recalcitrant character — I recast him or her with a new name. I am very fond of recasting. Rare is the character whose disposition cannot be improved upon once he or she has been christened anew. There was one character I had to change the name of three different times over the course of writing him. My editor initially thought I was nuts when my response to an early suggestion of “I think this character needs work,” was “Okay, I’ll change his name.” She has, however, learned that to me, changing the name of the character is more like changing the key of a musical piece. You end up with a very different guy. He’s a very different person now. A better person for his role. We both like him, and his name, very much.

In writing Tap & Gown, I was struck by how differently Poe behaved when I called him Poe on the page than when I called him Jamie. He’d been Poe for three books.  My brain, apparently, switched over no more easily than Amy’s. Occasionally (a peek behind the curtain), I’d type the scene out with “Poe” then go back and switch it to Jamie. This is a similar trick that many writers use when trying to get into deep POV. They type out the scene in first person, then go back and revise it into third. It helped me a lot when writing Poe’s dialogue, to make sure that he was still authentically Poe.

I’m writing a new book now, and I’ve been faffing around with names for quite a while without success. This one character refuses to be any of the names I’ve attempted to give her, and none of the names will be the character I want her to be. It’s most difficult.

In other naming news, I changed the name of a minor character in Rampant late in the revision process. I did this because, due to other name changes going around, I realized that I had two names that were very similar, so I switched this one. I’m actually far happier with the new name than I was the old one, character-wise, though it’s the only non-legally mandated name change (yes, I’ve had to change character names for legal reasons) I’ve ever made that did not spring from the character himself. I feel fortunate that this opportunity arose for me to revisit this minor character and really think about what his name should have been, and it made me realize that I didn’t think hard enough about this in the original formulation of his character. Which is odd for me, especially given this book, where every single person’s name, first and last, means something in the context of the story, and the very idea of naming is a plot point. So now his name means something. (Though right now, certain parties are only thinking, “Yeah, a headache.”)

And now, I ask you: why can’t I be as obsessed with titles?