But they will remember another vampire. Eric in True Blood. He's a main character in the Sookie Stackhouse Novels who has surpassed Bill. But either name shouldn't hinder you from using them.
Awkward moment when you realize you must change a character's name
- Thread starter Devil Ledbetter
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But they will remember another vampire. Eric in True Blood. He's a main character in the Sookie Stackhouse Novels who has surpassed Bill. But either name shouldn't hinder you from using them.
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Kate would have been the perfect name for my FMC in my current novel, but my sister reminded me that it was too similar to my daughter's name (Katie) and my other 2 might not be happy about that when they got older. Sigh.
I try not to get my MMC and my FMC to have the same first letter in their name.
I try not to get my MMC and my FMC to have the same first letter in their name.
DennisB
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Guess what, people? Almost any name you come up with is close to someone, somewhere, who has achieved some sort of notoriety.
My crime novel's MC is a guy named Dan Malone. There already is a detective named Malone in some other series, but I don't care. Then of course, there's Sam Malone of Cheers fame. And Malone is kind of close to Marlow, isn't it? So what?
As for Carlos Junior, is that his full name (surname "Junior")? Maybe that's a bit close to the fast food chain, but Carl's Jr is a West Coast outfit isn't it? I doubt a reader in New York or even Chicago would make the connection.
My crime novel's MC is a guy named Dan Malone. There already is a detective named Malone in some other series, but I don't care. Then of course, there's Sam Malone of Cheers fame. And Malone is kind of close to Marlow, isn't it? So what?
As for Carlos Junior, is that his full name (surname "Junior")? Maybe that's a bit close to the fast food chain, but Carl's Jr is a West Coast outfit isn't it? I doubt a reader in New York or even Chicago would make the connection.
She's a warrior in a cave society who ends up fighting cannibalistic human mutations (not zombie-like enough to be zombies) so yeah no. ^_^ No band, no pro ball. Those things don't even exist.
I want to keep Jericho as is for the biblical nod, but I'd actually thought about Jericho James (I went through lists of J surnames until my eyes crossed). This is going to sound weird, but it's not as 'round', so I don't like it as much. When words, songs, books, concepts, etc, are 'round', they make me feel content. Other shapes don't interest me as much, or make me feel anxious. (And it has nothing to do with if the letter 'O' is in a word or not. Figure that one out.) ^_^
'Jason you take a cup of tea?'
'Ezekiel there be bears?'
'Bob there be time for me to take a leak first?'
Seriously. I'll never call another character Will.....
I have a character named Maria Vargas, which turned out to be Ava Gardner's character in the Barefoot Contessa. I might still use it, I don't know. But my character's last name is only referenced once or twice, so it won't be a big deal to change it if I decide to.
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Okay, point taken. Though, if you add a comma, each of those sentences would work as dialogue.
I've got a WIP in which the main character's name is Max Winters. Turns out this is the name of a video game character as well. I thought about changing the character's name, but since they're such dissimilar characters and the name works for my book, I really don't want to change it with nearly 30 thousand words complete already.
Haha, well the name of almost every single person in my last WIP has an association . . . because they were all real people! That's the nature of historical fiction, though. Nicole d'Oliva was real, as was Jeanne de La Motte-Valois and Nicolas de La Mote and the maid Rosalie et cetera.
Of course, this also means there was no chance of changing names. It also made it difficult because there were a few Jacques's, and I couldn't change them because that was their real name. There's also no obvious nickname for Jacques. Luckily, the only Jacques who played a major role is referred to by his last name, Beugnot.
Of course, this also means there was no chance of changing names. It also made it difficult because there were a few Jacques's, and I couldn't change them because that was their real name. There's also no obvious nickname for Jacques. Luckily, the only Jacques who played a major role is referred to by his last name, Beugnot.
I have this WIP called the Axis. For whatever reason, I decided I wanted to make Hitler/Nazi references in my villain group. So I read up a bit on Hitler and WW2. Found out there was this alliance of nations called the Axis...
Made me feel like a dingbat, AND gave me the chills!
It doesn't happen often but any time it has, I've changed the name because it didn't fit the character after I'd fully developed him or her. Names are weird... they tell you so much about a person.
How about writing an epic, enough words for three trilogies, long before you started investigating agents or any other inkling of actually publishing, and then find out that a major character's first and last names match a well known agent?
MM
MM
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For some reason I thought it'd be very funny to have two characters in a trilogy with the same first name. Even I get confused.
This is why I give my characters totally bland, average names. Although Carlos is a pretty bland, average name, I guess. Ignore me.
Can't . . . just . . . can't.
But, aside from that, Muravyets nailed it. If you do global search/replace stuff, do it right. If your replacement of "Mike" with "Steve" missed "Michael", do one for "Michael" v. "Steven". Come on. This is the 21st Century. We're all smarter than that.
Well . . . maybe not George Zimmerman, but . . . . .
caw
There is a story of a writer who did this with a character called David...and forgot that at one point he or she had someone refer to what was now Michaelangelo's famous statue of Jeff.
When I started writing Partings and Greetings, many of the characters (and the title) were drawn from a novel I wrote over twenty-five years earlier. I reused almost all of the character names and their relationships, though obviously moved their birthdates on a quarter century. This had a couple of odd effects. One protagonist's mother is called Joan, which is a popular name from the 1940s, as it would have been originally, but not one from the 60s, when the character would now have been born. I justified that with her being named after an aunt and being conscious that it's an old-fashioned name - she prefers being called Jo. (And now I've said that, lots of fortysomething women called Joan are going to reply to this. I'm aware of the actor Joan Cusack, born 1962.) I did change one name - the protag's younger brother was called David, but more recently I've acquired a nephew of that name, so he became Jake, after one of my brother's family's dogs...
Personally, once I've established a character name I'd be very reluctant to change it. I feel that his or her name is integral to that character's identity and changing it has all sorts of other effects, from micro-sentence level upwards. For that reason, on the occasions I've had to make a change, I've tried to replace the name with one with the same pattern - e.g. from one with three syllables, stressed on the middle syllable, to another.
Which is not a failing of the search/replace function, but a failing of the writer. And not a very important one, as that humorous error is likewise easily fixed, and probably amused any sensible editor as well.
More seriously, I just don't see names as being sacred things. For a story, they're not random, but neither is a specific single name irreplaceable. Just because you, dear writer, regard "Rachel" or "Jennifer" as carrying some subliminal potent magic for your story due to personal associations with individuals bearing those names, you can't assume that your reader carries the same baggage. As a kid I got bullied by a kid named George Eastman. For most people that name is associated with the technical/business genius behind the Kodak photography company. For me, it's a stocky dipshit jerk I recall from grade school. If I were to write a story about a character like that, I'd pick another name, and wouldn't lack for possibilities. Real live evil people can have common innocuous names:
Tim (Timothy McVeigh)
Ted (Theodore Robert Bundy)
Susan (Susan Smith)
Robert (Robert Pickton, Robert Durst)
David (David Koresh, David Berkowitz)
Jim (Jim Jones)
Ed (Ed Gein)
Your reader doesn't carry the same experiences and assumptions that you, the writer, do. Have your characters do things that make your story work, and obsess less about the names of those characters.
caw
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You're right, blacbird, but at the same time, even if a name can be changed easily, I don't think it can be changed to just anything. A little obsessing, in moderation, is probably not wasted on picking the right names for important characters. All those real life villains can have whatever names they may because, of course, real life doesn't have to make sense, while fiction does. Likewise, reality doesn't need to carry a theme through aesthetic consistency, but fiction does.
It's true that names won't have the same specific character connotations to all people, but I do think there are certain assumptions that get attached to the sound of a name, or even the look of a name in print. A name like George Eastman can fit just about any kind of character or any story, but a name like Ichabod Crane probably can't.
It's true that names won't have the same specific character connotations to all people, but I do think there are certain assumptions that get attached to the sound of a name, or even the look of a name in print. A name like George Eastman can fit just about any kind of character or any story, but a name like Ichabod Crane probably can't.
Which is why is said it isn't a random matter, only that there are always options. We've seen people in forums here insist that "Rachel" or "Sarah" are names carrying innate "meaning" that can't possibly be altered without ruining the story. To me, as reader, that's utter hogwash. I've known dozens of people named Rachel and Sarah, along with Michael and James and John and Robert and Mary and Anne and Jennifer and Jason and Kate (god knows how many of those), and they all span a big spectrum of human possibilities.
Sure, if you're aiming for serious, you can't be utterly random. Douglas Adams, a satirist, made mileage out of having a mage named "Slartybartfast", and embarrassed about it, but that worked precisely because it satirized the practice of writers employing portentous-sounding names for such characters. Likewise J.K. Rowling, calling her hideous terrifying giant three-headed dog "Fluffy".
But pinning your story to a single unalterable character name strikes me as ridiculous.
caw
It's happened to me twice in this book. I had a minor character (a child) named Carlos Junior. I asked in some thread conversation here whether it was too close to Carl's Jr.[SUP]TM[/SUP] and before I'd finished typing the paragraph, I knew the answer. So I changed it.
Today though, it came to my attention that my main character has the same unusual name as the character in a hit Broadway show. I'd heard the show (Rock of Ages), but never paid any attention to it (they lost me at '80s rock). Well, now they're making a movie of it, and I read in the newspaper that Tom Cruise is playing the role of Stacee Jaxx.
And my WIP's main character is a rock star named Stacey.
How did I not know about this?
Has anyone else had one of these "culturally, I'm apparently a moron" moments?
I once called a character Michael Jackson and had finished the first draft before I realised what I'd done.
I don't think you have much to worrry about with 'Stacey' though - it's a very common name, and weirdly it's really popular here as a boys name, but as a girls name in other places. Look at it this way, how many rockers out there are called 'Johnny' or 'Steve' etc.
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That's when you make stuff up (I'm in the same boat, using real people). No one alive today knows that Jacques DIDN'T have a nickname, so I make one up. Use the French equivalent of "Shorty" or something, explaining how short (or tall, or fat, or pale, or ruddy, or whatever, he was). How will we know?
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I don't find it awkward and I don't fall in love with 'names.' The few times I've done this I just do a find and replace.
The names of my characters are probably the least important part of anything I write.
The names of my characters are probably the least important part of anything I write.
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You guys know you can search individually AS you're replacing instead of doing a universal "find and replace" right?
It might seem tedious as you're doing it, but it saves time when you don't have to go back later and fix errors like these.
It might seem tedious as you're doing it, but it saves time when you don't have to go back later and fix errors like these.
DokodemoElisa
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You know, I don't really do the replacement-name thing very often, but I do have times when I seriously wonder about spelling. The main character in the only series of novels I ever managed to have published (yet, I suppose, if I want to be positive about it) is named Kinlea, but he's in England, not Ireland, so I found myself wondering if it should really be Kinleigh or some such, especially since he's male. Does anyone else get the feeling we WAY over think these things? Incidentally, I left him Kinlea and decided his mother's family was originally from the county in Ireland. Problem solved, but was it really worth thinking that much about? We writers, as a species, are perhaps too prone to justification and over-thinking for our own good.
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