Monday 26 January 2015

What's in a Name?

What's in a name? Not a lot, you might think, or maybe it’s everything. It’s rare that I have a problem with my heroine although one or two have been known to change identity mid-stream. I’ve never had an issue with my heroes prior to my current novel.

Ryan Donovan presented himself to me even before I put pen to paper or, more correctly, fingers to keyboard. The hero of Safe Harbour is handsome, as all heroes should be, tall and very Irish. I kind of wish I could meet him in real life (I’m not telling my husband that). He came to me as a fully formed character and I didn't change him. He would never have allowed it.


I had a similar experience with Guy Ffoulkes, the hero of Honey Bun who will make himself known to you in the near future when the book is published on Amazon towards the end of March. His identity was set, his occupation, critical to the plot, fitted him like a glove.

So in my work in progress why was I having so much trouble with Joel/Max/Adam? The first draft is finished and, as the edits altered the structure of the story, so did they change his personality. But was I doing the editing or was he? Turns out it was him. It was as if he was saying This isn’t me. How dare you put me in this situation/put these words into my mouth? He won every time. Well, you don’t argue with your hero do you – not unless you’re the heroine.


So what's in a name? In my opinion an awful lot.



5 comments:

  1. My biggest problem is the fact that when I'm trying to think of a name for my lead character, it's as if there are only three names in the world. Have invested in a baby book!

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    1. I haven't bought a baby names book, Wendy, but I often visit on-line sites to find that perfect name...and sometimes I even think I've found it until my character tells me otherwise!

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  2. I don't have trouble naming the men (usually) because they are not my main characters when I write a magazine story. For a novel it feels more important, especially if the hero tells part of the story from his POV. My current hero is called Mark because his name fits the novel`s title!

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    1. In my first book,Viv, my hero is Irish and you don't get much more Irish than Ryan Donovan. In my second Guy Ffoulkes' name is intrinsic to the plot. So why, with no boundaries at all, has my current hero changed identity three times. I've got him now though. I'm really comfortable with his name and, what's more important, so is he.

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