I invite you to play along. In the comments below, tell me what you're grateful for that begins with the letter of the day. If you are a day late (or more) you can still go back to each day you missed and comment. My posts aren't going anywhere. :-) There is a label called "Golden Gratitude" on the right sidebar so they will be easy to find. With that label, you can also go back and read last year's Golden Gratitude posts.
Please welcome my first ever guest to the blog, author Daryl Wood Gerber!
Whew! Have I ever created a lot of characters!
By Daryl Wood Gerber
In order
to keep the names straight, I generate cast lists. I have an alphabetized list
for all the characters in all of my books, too. I’ve created over 1,000
characters. Can you believe it? I try to come up with a different name for each
character in each book. Sure, I might double up a first name, like Adam,
Anthony, or Candace, but never in the same series. I might duplicate a
last name, too, but with the same caveat . . . never in the same series unless
they’re related.
How do I choose the names? Well, I come up with a character type—their look, their personality—and then I find the name that fits that character the best. Sometimes it’s the surname that describes the character. No, I never come up with a name like Dr. Evil . . . heh-heh. But I have come up with last names that might suggest evil. Sometimes I try names out by saying them out loud, and if they stick, I keep them. I’ve been known to change names for characters mid-book. Jesse became Jenna (close). Kathleen became Vivian (not even starting with the same letter). I’ve given some characters offbeat names because I remember quirky names well. However, that method can backfire. A few fans have written that a name was too weird. For example, they didn’t like Edsel. Why not? I know an Edsel. Not everyone can be Tom, Dick, or Harry. I’ve had fun with surnames, too. Hildenbiddle makes me giggle. Orbendorfer sounds intriguing.
In the Literary Dining Mysteries, the protagonist is Allie Catt. Yes, I had a ball coming up with her name and creating a history of how she handles the ribbing she has received. Why did her parents saddle her with that name? Heaven only knows! They weren’t thinking. Honestly, they didn’t excel in the parenting department at all. In the 2nd in the series, Murder by the Millions, Allie and her pals are putting on a party featuring The Great Gatsby. When crafting the story, I thought it would be fun to have a tale featuring a mysterious stranger, like Jay Gatsby, who is building something to woo the woman he loves. To further cement the parallel, I named the new stranger Jason Gardner. Both have the initials JG. Get it? If you didn’t, that’s okay. The play on initials was for my amusement.
On another note, have you ever considered how difficult it is to create suspects who are regulars in a mystery? If you read a book in a series out of order, you might guess (when you read the previous book) that the character is innocent because they’re sticking around. So to be safe, I move them to another town or make them disappear. Which means I have to conjure up a few more “new” characters for the next book in the series. Fun!
FYI, I
tell readers that my characters are not based on real people, yet readers are
convinced some are. Okay, there might be a few. I won’t share who. Also,
readers might wonder whether the protagonists in my series are thinly veiled
versions of myself. As if. They’re young and optimistic. Okay, yes, I am
optimistic. Always have been. But I’m no longer young, and I’ve never been
as curious or as daring as they are.
In closing, here’s an amusing story. In my very first book, The Long Quiche Goodbye, which I wrote as Avery Aames, I changed a character’s name from Michael to Matthew . . . but in the final printing, Michael appeared once! Oops! Luckily, the mistake only appeared in the first edition of the book. It has subsequently been fixed. Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I learned of the mistake, because it meant my first readers, my editor, my copy editor, and I all missed it!!!
Do you remember the characters you meet in books? Are there any that stand out? Are there character names you have loved or loathed?
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