Sigh. Character names.

Usually when I start a book, the main characters appear with their names attached. That’s helpful, because I’m not great at either choosing or remembering names.

It’s occasionally problematic though, when I’ve written an entire series book 8 with the name my MC claimed, only to have a sharp-eyed beta reader remind me that was the name of the big bad-guy in book 2… sigh.

Keep it? Change it?

For me, characters alter with a name switch. Tony in Life Lessons began as Nick, and he became a little warmer, less sharp, and more thoughtful as Tony. (After I fixed the “panTonying” and “picTonying” that I created with a case-insensitive find-and-replace of “Tony” for “Nick.” Oops. Lesson learned.)

Now I’ve written the whole book— an unintentional Hidden Wolves prequel novel. (Was supposed to be a holiday short story. Oops again.) And I have to decide whether to inadvertently echo the guy who will be a kidnapper and killer in book 2, although set twenty years later. Or to find a new name for the guy who walked up and introduced himself to me in the first sentence.

I have a list of name options (with thanks to my FB group folks). None are leaping up and waving at me, but some are growing on me. Time to do a (correctly used) find-and-replace on a small section and see if my big, muscular, loner of a werewolf would be happy with another name.

Kaje Harper
Jan 2023