Tom's naming question

One of the men from my writing group posed the following question to me via e-mail. Naming techniques are always a hot topic. Anyone have any feedback for poor Tom?
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Darlene,

I need some help. I'm looking for names for some of my characters. Mainly; Lois Lane, Mary Jane Simpson (MJ) and the protagonist, Darryl Mark Steele, in my stories - Do you have any good and/or bad ideas? (In the best tradition of brain-storming; Even seemingly bad ideas can sometimes spark something that might workout.)

Perhaps you could pass this along to the members on the e-mail list and they might have some ideas too. It might be nice to get some discussions going between members through e-mail. What do you think?

I named Steele's secretary Lois Lane and had a little joke with that in the first novel, but the consensus now seems to be that the people who hold the copyrights to Superman will not look kindly on me using that name. Even if I add an “e” (Loise) to her name, as someone suggested at the last meeting, I think it may cause copyright problems. The joke, with her name and the reference to Superman, was funny at the time, in the first book, but doesn't seem worthwhile if the name is going to cause problems now .... Got any brilliant ideas? I'm very open to suggestions.

Ha - Ha ... Just had a funny thought ... how about I name her “Darlene Cohn”?

[There you go again, assuming I won't sue you!]



As for "MJ" - You yourself pointed this out last year when I first read parts of the first book at a Blank Slate meeting. (I'm sorry ... you read it for me - and I thanks you!) Anyway, your comments then are still valid now, especially with the release of the latest Spiderman movie upon-us. I took your advise and re-named this character in the new book ... her new name is Penelope Anastasia Simpson. She goes by the name of "Poppy", still just to annoy her snobbish mother. It's a little joke that I really haven't had time to develop yet - perhaps in the third novel.


Anyway after reading through my current work the nick name of Poppy seems a
little to modern (Remember the story takes place in 1954) Now, I'm looking for something a little more traditional. I still want to develop the thing between her and her mother further, so I want her to have a name that will lend itself to some sort of nick name . The more traditional being: "Sam" for Samantha or "Charlie" for Christine or even Cathrine. In V. I. Woochcoski (I don't think that's spelled correctly, but I hope you get the idea) the author used “Cat”, for Cathrine, as one of the leading characters.

I have also had some misgivings about the detectives name. I am considering changing it from Darryl Mark Steele (The Steele part of which I must say, I appropriated from the TV show Remington Steele. Also a detective – which may also cause copyright problems later on) and replace it with “Darryl Mark Falcon”.

So if you have any suggestions I am completely open to any ideas you might have. Even if you don't have any input, Thanks for listening in any event.

Thanks,

Tom

A Glorious Link Dump

This week, I have another link dump for you. I've been saving up some tasty treats in the hope I'd find a few minutes to post. This dump is dedicated to Tom, who likes to read concrete methodological approaches to writing. Must be an engineering thing. :)

Here's an article Tom himself drew my attention to discussing the use of "how-to" books by amateur writers who are no longer novices.

Terescia Harvey has an impressive list of links to practical articles discussing everything from plotting techniques to query letter writing.

Here's a contest worth checking out if you're fond of experimental fiction. The Diagram is a very cool little mag.

A funny blog posting comparing lame romance novel plot twists with venereal diseases. (Rated PG-13 for obscene language. Gasp!)

That should keep you busy for a week or so. Get to it!