I’ll have an ‘e’

I have been thinking lately about why an author would put a gimmick in a book to make people buy it. I worked for a retail book chain and once heard tell of a book that did not contain the letter ‘e’. Not once. Google the book if you don’t believe me. Apparently not done for any “literary merit” but merely to attempt it and write a grammatically correct book without it.

I haven’t read that book.

But I did read another when, moving to a new branch, I mentioned the ‘no ‘e’ book’. A colleague pointed me in the direction of a different tome (I have forgotten the title, more fool me) where a letter of the alphabet and the bizarre plot are linked; in the end the writing halted due to there being not one letter left. Not a bad book, but clearly not one that remained in the mind, or I would remember the title.

Why would an author employ a device like that? Only to get people to buy the book, I’ve no doubt. I think whether I could try it too, give my book a unique variation that would provide a platform on which to market the book. Maybe only one paragraph in the whole thing? That would hurt my brain, by the end, and that of anyone who tried to read it.

Little wonder that few elect to go down that path, taking an age to write a word or two, mulling over it all day and night. It would take away from the telling, the dialogue, the action. No writer would like to be tied to a weary chore like that. We thrive on making the plot juicy, each character believable, each word uttered gripping.

I might go back and read that ‘no ‘e’ book’. I might learn a thing or two about writing a grammatically correct paragraph, making a choice about each word. In that regard, it might end up being a valuable experience and move me on in my writing. Even if I don’t then write a book with no letter ‘e’.

I think I’ll remain an ordinary writer, thank you. I don’t want the headache after all.

* My blog today – brought to you without application of the initial letter of my name. *

What’s in a name?

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

A famous line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. If a rose were to be called a turnip instead, it would still have all the properties of the same flower; beautiful scent, silky petals, vibrant colours. We would come to associate the word ‘turnip’ with meaning all of these things. Basically, it doesn’t matter what we call something, it’s still the same thing.

This works for people. Names can be changed and the person is still the same person. I once knew a girl who’s real name was, I think, Jane. However, from a very young age she was called Daisy by all who knew her and never could imagine calling her Jane. However, if I had she would have been the same person, although perhaps my perception of her would have changed.

So a person stays the same, but people’s thoughts and feelings towards different names can effect how  that person is viewed. An example is Katie Price/Jordan, who is the same person by either name, but clearly felt that being a topless model wasn’t suited to someone with as friendly and pretty a name as Katie. Another example is the new Prince George. A friend and I were joking in the pub the other night that he was nearly called Wayne or Kevin – clearly those names were never going to happen, but why did it feel so funny to think our future monarch could have been King Wayne I? Connotations with the name Wayne give people a pre-conceived idea about what that person is going to be like. People’s perceptions of names undoubtedly affected the royal couple’s choice when naming their son. Which is a shame; they could have broken with tradition and made Wayne the most popular name this decade.

All of this affects how a writer names their book characters. Well-used names, whether in real life or fiction, are to be avoided in my opinion. People have well-formed ideas of certain names and to use those in your manuscript either takes guts or stupidity.

I once ended up at the launch of a new book by chance, as it was happening on the same night as a winter fair and someone pressed a flyer into my hands. Never one to say no to a book launch, I went along with a couple of friends and we had a free glass of mulled wine and looked at the book. Turning it over to read the back, the first thing that I noticed was that the main character was called Tom Cruise (possibly with a different spelling, but I can’t remember now). The blurb made light of it, glancing over the fact that this self-published author had chosen a name of one of the most famous Hollywood stars. I admit, it made me put the book down and walk away. Perhaps the book dealt well with how someone else would live sharing the name of someone so famous, but if that’s what the book was about, I didn’t want to read it. I think it’s more likely the author thought ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if my main character was called Tom Cruise but was nothing like him?’ and didn’t stop to think that all the readers out there would have had the Hollywood star’s face in their minds the whole time.

Another example was in a chick-lit book, where there was a minor character called Sue Sylvester. For those of you who don’t know, in the TV programme Glee there is a character with the same name. Now, it’s possible the author thought of the name before Glee started. But don’t you think they would have changed the name before the book was published? Again, it was made light of, the main character speaking to Sue on the phone and imagining she looked like the Glee character, only to have Sue turn up and look nothing like the woman from the television. What was the point?

So copying names can jolt you out of the narrative and make the reader uncomfortable. Likewise unpronounceable names. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been reading a book and suddenly you feel like you’re back at school, sounding out some multi-syllable name and stumbling every time. My technique when this happens is to quickly come up with a vague likeness that I can remember and, instead of torturing myself each time the name comes up, simply substitute the unpronounceable with my own, easier version. Perhaps not what the author intended, but then why choose something no-one can pronounce?

Fantasy names can be relatively easy. They can be completely made up and readers will simply accept the new names, because you’re writing about another time/place/dimension. The names in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are an excellent example. His groups of names for different species gets across some of the qualities of each species while being unique names that the reader easily takes on board. The wizards, Gandalf and Saruman, have grand-sounding names with hard syllables. The elves have names that echo the names of stars and plants and sound generally mystical; Elrond, Arwen, Galadriel, Celeborn. Dwarves have quite percussive-sounding names with one or two syllables, that put me in mind of rocks; Gimli, Balin, Dori, Dwalin, Gloin. And finally, my favourite – the hobbit names. These are names that, for me, embody michievousness, fun and laughter; Bilbo Baggins, Frodo, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrine Took and (my absolute favourite) Meriadoc Brandybuck. Only two names from Tolkien have I ever seen in the real world – Arwen and Éowyn – and these are almost certainly copied from his books and not the other way around.

Where is all this musing on names going? Well, I am in the process of working on my next venture and I am struggling with a name for a character. The book is set near the year 3000 and I have already chosen most names, based on people I know or just names that came to my head and sounded right, but all have a futuristic “twist”. However, there is a character who doesn’t fit with the others, as he comes from what we know as Europe. So his name needs to sound a little different from the others, still have a root in a present-day name but not be one that is obviously “bad”. You can view the suggestions and make your own on my Facebook page or on Twitter use #helpingsuziwithnames.

Yes, a rose called something else would be the same flower. But somehow exactly the right name was chosen and our perceptions have been formed. And that’s what needs to happen for a writer.

Feeling like I’ve grown

I managed another writing session today. There’s something about the Sun that seems to make me more productive! I’m sure I’m not the only one, but when that silky sunshine is raining down I feel like I can conquer the world, one book at a time!

Last week I was on half-term and managed a whopping 4,225-word frenzy. I started today’s session by re-reading that chunk and I feel that it’s relatively secure in terms of moving the story on and introducing a little of the back story to the reader. After tweaking it a little (and noticing some missed words – the brain does like to see order and can miss things like that so easily!) I felt as though it should be a new chapter, so began chapter 3.

I’ve always disliked trying to describe parties. I mean, people can imagine what a party is like, but everyone has a slightly different view, so trying to get across exactly the right “vibe” of the party you’re describing can be difficult. Plus, I have the difficulty of trying to give my party a futuristic twist. No mean feat when you’ve not actually been to the future. Perhaps I should ask Marty McFly?

Today’s word count was 1,678 which isn’t, I feel, too bad. However, it’s about 2,000 short of what I wanted to write; if I’m aiming for an 80,000-word manuscript then at 4,000 words-a-week it’ll take me 20 weeks. That sounds about right, as I’ll want to get my manuscript off to an agent in July, because I’m assuming they’ll want to meet me once they’ve agreed to take the book on (hey, I’m allowed to dream) and by the end of July I’ll be on summer holidays (hurrah!) so can meet my to-be agent on a beautiful summer’s day for a nice cup of coffee at Starbucks (where else?) and a chat.

So less than 2,000 words today is not impressive. At this rate it’ll be a year before I’m finished and I’ll have squandered all my hard-earned cash on lattes, panini and cakes at my local coffee shop and/or Starbucks. Which will be very tasty and enjoyable, but no good for my waistline or my wallet.

I suppose the only good thing is that my book is currently in its third chapter, as well as a prologue, and is currently at nearly 11,000 words. I feel as though I’m developing as a writer; I can remember chapters of my first book, The Sillow Orb, being short and feeling the book needed more to feel like a “real” book, whereas this time, I am anxious to actually writing the historical part of the book but keep finding more things to write about in the future. The book feels slightly out of my control and seems to be writing itself, if that isn’t too much of a cliché.

The answer, I suppose, is that the book will be finished when it’s good and ready, and not before. While I sit and think about the historical part and how it’s all going to fit together, my brain is developing the future and my fingers fleshing out a semi-decent book.

Now, if only I could get my brain and fingers to work a bit harder, the whole thing might be finished before the summer after all. Perhaps another latte will help…