I've written before about the names I use for characters and how I come up with them. You know, the bit about using a baby-name book, phone books and such. However, there are three characters I've used before and am using in the thriller I'm writing. In various TV shows and movies, I've noticed that three surnames keep cropping up in use for heroes of the pieces and I decided to use them. How many times have you watched a TV show or movie and learned that a hero's surname is Shepherd, Tanner or Decker? That's what I'm talking about. The names themselves indicate not only the background of the character, but give hints about what his or her family may have been like. They are less universal than Smith, or Jones, or Brown, or even Murphy, but they still provide a link to the commonality of human social convention.
It's not the sort of thing that people take time to think about, but rather a visceral reaction. Take the time to think of each name and note the unconscious preconceptions that swim to the surface of your mind regarding each of them. Shepherd: a person who not only guides a flock to good grazing, but protects it from predators. Tanner: someone who works for a living at a job that is smelly, dirty and yet, provides him or her a good living. Decker: this one is more difficult. A man or woman whose family has worked with their hands, but has risen to a position of prominence, bringing their family along with them. Those are my preconceptions attached to the names; yours are probably different, but you may see what I'm getting at. Use the names of your characters to help the readers' minds fill in the gaps in the characters' histories. It conveys a small part of what the character is supposed to be like, saving the author the effort, and the reader the boredom, of writing and reading about a character's past life. I can think of little more boring than reading a lengthy passage about a character's background just when the the action is beginning to heat up.
So, I've passed along a hard-won bit of writing wisdom that helps my work to move along with a minimum of fuss, and I hope it helps some of you along the way.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Congruencies, The Empty Heart: A Collection, It Happens Every Day
