When I'm first starting a new project, the first thing I do is come up with names for my main characters. I love names. I love choosing something unique but not TOO out there. I love fitting the name with the character, or creating a character to match a name. It's an odd little fetish I have. My characters are my children and I agonize over their names for days, weeks, months, before settling on the perfect one.
Mari, for example, was originally Izzy. I started the first draft of this story about five years ago and I just loved the name Izzy. Then I started watching Grey's Anatomy. And I loved the character of Izzie.
In fact, I spent weeks being angry after she left the show. I'm still bitter. Not half as bitter as I am that they killed of George, though. I mean, it was George! GEORGE!
Ahem. I'm getting off topic here. The point is, once I fell in love with the character of Izzie on Grey's Anatomy, the name was kind of ruined for me. So when I picked this project up last November for NaNoWriMo, I immediately knew I needed to change my main character's name. And, man did it take me a long time. I tried on about ten different names before settling on Maribel. And Mari seems like the perfect fit now. I don't think I could change her name now if I wanted to.
But here's the thing: there's a new girl at work. Her name is nowhere close to Maribel, but her nickname? Yeah, she likes to be called Mari.
I'm having an issue with this. I have never written a character that shared a name with someone I knew in real life. I don't want to add traits of the real life person to my fictional character, or be accused of defaming the real life person with my character. I don't want my fictional baby to be tainted.
But Mari is Mari. It took me forever to settle on her name and now it fits. Like a glove. I don't want to change it. But I don't want the new girl at work to worm her way into my book. Not to mention, it will be weird to hear the name day in day out, outside of my book.
How about you? How do you choose a name for your character? And do you know anyone in real life with the same name? If you did, would it ruin the character's name for you?
Mari, for example, was originally Izzy. I started the first draft of this story about five years ago and I just loved the name Izzy. Then I started watching Grey's Anatomy. And I loved the character of Izzie.
In fact, I spent weeks being angry after she left the show. I'm still bitter. Not half as bitter as I am that they killed of George, though. I mean, it was George! GEORGE!
Ahem. I'm getting off topic here. The point is, once I fell in love with the character of Izzie on Grey's Anatomy, the name was kind of ruined for me. So when I picked this project up last November for NaNoWriMo, I immediately knew I needed to change my main character's name. And, man did it take me a long time. I tried on about ten different names before settling on Maribel. And Mari seems like the perfect fit now. I don't think I could change her name now if I wanted to.
But here's the thing: there's a new girl at work. Her name is nowhere close to Maribel, but her nickname? Yeah, she likes to be called Mari.
I'm having an issue with this. I have never written a character that shared a name with someone I knew in real life. I don't want to add traits of the real life person to my fictional character, or be accused of defaming the real life person with my character. I don't want my fictional baby to be tainted.
But Mari is Mari. It took me forever to settle on her name and now it fits. Like a glove. I don't want to change it. But I don't want the new girl at work to worm her way into my book. Not to mention, it will be weird to hear the name day in day out, outside of my book.
How about you? How do you choose a name for your character? And do you know anyone in real life with the same name? If you did, would it ruin the character's name for you?