“Names Matter”: Yes, They Do
My fellow SFF author, Canadian Julie Czerneda, is proofing right now and yesterday I saw her tweet: “Names matter!”
Yes, I thought, they do…
Asantir, one of the leading secondary characters in The Wall of Night series, is a great example of why.
Although she’s now the Commander of Night, readers may recall when Asantir was the Honour Captain in The Heir of Night. Originally, the Honour Captain wasn’t intended to be a major character. Yet in trying to give Derai names a commonality for (within the story) “cultural” purposes, I ended up with too many names that just looked and sounded the same.
“That’s OK,” I thought, “I’ll just change a few of them and resolve the problem.” I started with the (then) Honour Captain character, eventually deciding on “Asantir” as the new name. But as soon as I started using it, the “Honour Captain” transformed into a completely “other” character.
Asantir not only looked different, she also had a completely different personality and she certainly wasn’t going to be a bit player anymore. On the contrary, she took a metaphorical step forward, put her hands on her hips and said: “I’m here, I’m important to this story, and you’d better pay attention.”
Needless to say, I’ve been paying attention ever since. 😉
Che’Ryl-g-Raham, the Tuckerization character in Daughter Of Blood is very similar in that as soon as I came up with the name (a fantasization of “Cheryl Graham”) the character took on a life of her own — an awesome life I may add, imho.
So you see, Julie Czerneda is quite right: names do matter.
My book order has arrived so I can finally get started on the next exciting installment……