OUTLIERS ONE MORE THING: It’s All in the Name by DP Lyle

OUTLIERS ONE MORE THING: It’s All in the Name by DP Lyle

News flash—characters need names. Not just any old name, but their name. It has to fit. It’s personal. If you mis-name a character, they’ll fuss at you until you fix it. Usually in the middle of the night.

Has this ever happened to you? You finish your first draft and dive into the initial rewrite. Where you meet Martha, Who the hell is Martha? There’s no Martha in this story. After a bit of digging around you remember that there was a Martha, but somewhere in your writing she became Carmen.

How did that happen?

When you begin your story, you might select a character name that seems to work. But, as you live with that character for the weeks and months it takes to write the story, once you really get to know them, the character protests loudly and you realize you chose the wrong name. Thus,  Martha becomes Carmen.

The importance of names was best amplified to me during a couple of conversations I had with the late great Elmore Leonard. My favorite author and someone every writer should read. This was many years ago at the now defunct Maui Writers Conference. During that week, I sat down with Elmore on two occasions for about 45 minutes each. One was on a quiet patio beneath a Plumeria tree. I felt like Plato at Socrates’ knee.

We discussed writing and storytelling and characters and everything that writers chat about. One question I asked him was: “Your characters are so quirky and so much fun. They’re mostly bad guys doing bad things and seem to have no socially redeeming value. Yet, we love them. How do you create them? Do you do character outlines or anything like that?”

Elmore said, “No, I don’t do that. It might take me a couple of weeks or even a couple of months to come up with a name, but once I have the character’s name, I know the character.”

The brilliance of that struck me immediately. He lived with these characters in his head for the weeks or months he needed to know who they truly were. Once he knew them, the name became obvious. The importance of this can't be overstated. Your character names must reflect who the character is and must “be the right fit.”

Take some of Elmore's characters. Chili Palmer is not a US President. He's a loan shark. Raylan Givens is a US Marshall, as is Karen Cisco. Jack Foley is a bank robber, Boyd Crowder a redneck thug, Ernest “Stick” Stickley a con-artist, and Linda Moon a lounge singer. Each of these names fits the character.

Names, and nicknames, give the reader an identification handle and often reveal much about that character. Things like gender, nationality, regions of the country, social and cultural background, sometimes occupation, personality, even religion, and more. A feel for who the character is.

The Swiss Army Knife of names is Elizabeth because Elizabeth can morph into so many other names: Beth, Betty, Betsy, Liz, Lizzie, Liza, Eliza, Elise, Ellie, Ella, Lettie, Lizbeth, Libby, and others. Each of these conjures a different image. Don't you see a different person if they say their name is Elizabeth as opposed to Lettie? There are other names that undergo such contractions and alterations, but Elizabeth is the queen of names, no pun intended.

When creating names, consider who your character is: gender, physique, age, location, job, background, and personality. Then move on. Write your story and live with them for a while and only then will you know if you chose the right name. And just the right name is critical.

As a side note, from a writer’s point of view, choose shorter names for major characters, particularly your protagonist. They’re easier for the reader to remember and much easier to type over and over and over. Think Ted, not Bartholomew. Unless, of course, the character tells you his name in Bartholomew. If so, deal with it. It’s his story, not yours.

DP Lyle

https://www.dplylemd.com/