What’s in a name?

Finding a name for your book is hard.

You can go through months, even years, of writing a novel and never settling on a name. I wrote my first novel in a little over two years. In those two years it was called, A New Beginning, Rule of Three and in the more frustrating times when nothing would do, it was simply saved on my computer as Sophie’s story. I then stumbled upon Head over Heart and it was perfect. It felt right and it played on the theme of the book very nicely. Sophie has to choose whether to follow what she thinks is right (what her head is telling her she should do) or what she knows to be right, in her heart. It also plays on the phrase, ‘head over heels in love’ which is how she falls for the hero. So Head over Heart stuck.

Book two is still in the early stages and is simply saved as Caitlin&Adam at the moment. I won’t know the title until I get further in, maybe even two, three drafts along. But it’ll come…..I hope!

But it is not just book titles that stump me sometimes, you have to name your characters too!

The heroine and hero of book one was easy, they have always been Sophie and James. Robert was always called Robert too. It was the secondary characters I had problems with. Tracey started life as Sarah, but as pointed out to me in a critique from an author friend, Sarah was of a similar length and looked the same on the page as Sophie, so would maybe confuse the reader. This is when she became Tracey. Which ironically fits her much better, she should have been Tracey from the start. June also changed to Anne, as June and James and Jennifer (who is now Mandy) all started with J and would also confuse the reader. I liked S’s and J’s, apparently!

But when it is a secondary character, it is easier to change names and keep writing. For my second book, my current WiP, I couldn’t find my heroine. Adam was there straight away. Whereas in Head over Heart, Sophie came first, in this book the hero was first on the scene. Quite fitting  actually, as he is a paramedic! I always knew Adam was going to be a paramedic. I don’t know how it began but I always knew that was his job. I knew his personality, too. Adam has always been Adam, he doesn’t suit any other name.  I didn’t know Caitlin. Who started as Zoe, bypassing Sal along the way. I couldn’t place her name right. It just didn’t fit. I didn’t have the right job for her (she started as a beauty therapist, did some office temping but is now an owner of a bakery) I just didn’t know who she was.

I spent days agonising over her. I couldn’t move on and write about her when she didn’t have a name, a personality or even a job! I then spoke to a friend about it and throwing caution to the wind I said to her, ‘you do it, you name the character.’ She reeled off 5 or 6 names but as soon as she said Caitlin, I knew that was her. It was perfect. She strolled into my brain in an apron and holding a tray of cupcakes and I knew her.

So I finally had names and an idea to work with. It is still in the early stages but it’s got a destination and we are getting there slowly.

How do you find naming characters and thinking up titles?

Lucie x