As Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “That which we call a
rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
But is that really true? What
if the rose was actually a slice of Limburger cheese, or a hunk of lutefisk?
Even the sound is smelly.
We think names are
important. But since we write as a team, with little or no outline, names of new
characters are totally at the discretion of whoever has the manuscript in her
hands and is charged with writing the next chapter. (We are also at liberty to
send our established characters in any direction, introduce new ones, or get
rid of those who are just plain annoying or, worse, have sinister intentions.
Regardless of their names.)
Names come on the spur of
the moment, but we try to keep character names different from those of people
we actually know. There are exceptions. Detective Culotta, for example, was
totally stolen from a friend who lives in Chicago. We both loved the name
Culotta, and it sums up the “yummy detective,” as one of our reviewers kindly described him. Detective Pufpaff or Squatpump (although there is nothing wrong
with either of those names) wouldn't play well for the police guy we have living
in our heads.
Sometimes names have to
be changed on the fly as we continue the writing process. Perhaps a fictional Svetlana
introduced early on (because the lady who served us at Chico’s was so helpful
and had a badge displaying that name) turns out to be a stinker later in
the book (and besides, we just remembered we have a dear friend called Svetlana),
and the connotation of stinker will not sit well. So Svetlana becomes Sabrina.
Long-standing characters,
those we want to keep, and those who serve a purpose to the story will
hopefully keep their given names throughout the narrative. But mistakes can
easily happen. For example, a name can be introduced with a clear vision of
what that character is like. But it can reinvent itself for no apparent reason as
the book progresses. An Ellen might start out innocently enough, then become
Helen, and before you know it, she’s now running around Downers Grove going by
the name Helena. (We’re not admitting, of course, that this ever happens to
us.)
If we’ve offended any of
our friends or would-be friends by stealing their names in a not-so-nice way,
we apologize. It was definitely unintentional, and we’ll try harder in future novels.
We are currently working on the next book in The Val & Kit Mystery Series, happy that our latest one, Palm Desert Killing, has left home, so
to speak. It hasn’t quite made it to high school, or even junior high, but you
could say it’s zooming through grade school.
Thank you to all our
wonderful readers who have bought it. We love ALL your names.
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| Rosalind (right) and Patricia—or Roz and Patty: By any name, at any age, BFFs and writing partners. |
