Christine Freeburn returns today for a stint on Book Club Friday.
Christine’s The Faith Hunter Scrap This Mystery series brings together her love
of mysteries, scrapbooking, and West Virginia. When not writing or reading, she
can be found in her scrapbook room or at a crop. Learn more about Christina and
her books at her website and blog. – AP
What’s Your Name?
The black bar blinked and I stared at the monitor. Stalled.
No words entered my mind as the most important one was beyond my grasp. What
the heck had I named this character? Pete? No. Michael? No, “he” was the victim
in another book. Glen? No.
I tapped my fingers on the keyboard. Wait...it started with
a “D”. Yeah, I remembered something. Darren? Nope. Daniel? Not that either.
This was taking too long, and felt very déjà vuish. I flipped back a week in my
day planner. Dave was written in bold letters and underlined. Dave! That was
his name. No wonder the process felt familiar, I forgot this guy’s name last
week, also.
I pulled out a notebook and started scribbling “new” names
as I needed to correct a very serious character problem. “Dave” didn’t like his
name and until I changed it, the character would never stick in my head...so
he’d never stick in the reader’s head. And he needed to as this character became
important later in the story.
A name grabbed my attention. I looked at it again.
Interesting. It could be a first or last name. “That’s me!” the character
seemed to shout. The more I pondered, the more I discovered this name worked
well with the plot, added a little twist in a natural way later on in the
story.
This isn’t the first time during the writing of a book I
learned a character had the wrong name. Usually, if I can’t get a character to
“cooperate” in the story it’s because they don’t believe what I’ve named them
suits their personalities. It’s hard to even get fictional people’s attention
when you call them the wrong name.
It’s like the character knew the choice didn’t reflect who
they were and didn’t allow them the ability to “express” themselves as needed
in the story. Either the name was too unusual and they needed to blend in more
to the story, or the name was “boring” and did not suit their personality at
all. Sometimes, it’s fun to name a character and have it not match their
personality and it becomes part of the story...other times the character just
won’t come to life.
I’ve discovered that names are just as important when I’m
writing a story as the plot. If the name isn’t correct, the story will come to
a standstill at some point until I fix it. Fortunately, I haven’t had the
problem with a hero or heroine not liking their name halfway through a
book...talk about a time-consuming fix if that ever happens. Then again, I
spend a lot of time coming up with the perfect hero or heroine name before I
write the book. Secondary characters I usually name when they “show up” rather
than spending time testing out names.
Hmmm...maybe I should.
Designed to
Death
Faith Hunter
planned the perfect event at her grandmother’s shop, Scrap This, featuring
local scrapbooker and Life Artist Diva, Belinda Watson. But the extravaganza
goes up in a cloud of glitter when Belinda and her cousin, Darlene, brawl over
scraplifted designs. Faith attempts to break it up but only makes things worse.
Then when Belinda turns up dead behind the Scrap This store, Faith’s involvement
goes viral.
As
accusations against her turn vicious, Faith sets out to prove her nemesis
Darlene committed the crime, only to realize they are both innocent. Now they
must team up or the murderer’s plan will come together seamlessly with the frenemies
sharing a jail cell—or worse, a funeral.
