Name Game

There's nothing quite like coming up with a cast of characters for a piece of fiction. In writing shorter fiction, I learned to trim names and even characters to make things easier to keep track of.

In the novel, some of this has gone out the window. In the novel, it's a complete investigation-- and a complex one-- that leads Bo to do what investigators do best. Talk to people. And many of these people need names.

I usually grab a first name and run with it. I try not to make my first names too similar, and also try to limit the number of character's whose names start with the same first letter. This could be a little overly cautious, but I know how lazy I can be as a reader.

The amount of Star Wars novels I consumed during my late high school years certainly shaped my naming practices. One of the things that perpetually drove me nuts were letter combination that I couldn't pronounce or even come up with a reasonable pronunciation. So a character ends up being thought of as something else. Like "That C-guy." I'm sure that's what the authors were going for... but I have some choice words for the authors on this matter.

So, now, coming up with surnames for characters, I still recall those tongue twisters I read. And I don't do it. In fact, I'm heading into territory of really easy names. I try to throw in some ethnic names, but only if they're easy on the tongue.

In fact, I cheat. I took one of the old phone books and brought it up to my office. And when I'm in need of a name, I flip open the phone book and scan the page. If I don't find a good name there, I flip to a different section and letter and try again. Then I steal the name. Bwahahaha!

I do try to avoid picking a name where there's only one of them in the County. And I don't put them in the same city-- so if Sleazeball Character is in Brighton, I would not select a surname listed with a Brighton address.

The names I pick don't mean anything. While I occasionally have some connotation with names, it's very light. I worry more about upsetting someone by writing them as a nasty character than I do about my own connotation. Besides, connotation is so malleable. In fact, for me the name Bo is now completely inseparable from the kick ass female character Bo Fexler. So much so, that I forget at times that Bo is actually a male name.

Mundane Details v. Character Traits

What a character eats for breakfast says something about them. As does what they wear. I expect a character in tight leather pants to act differently than I do a character in a suit. And a character who eats leftover whatever for breakfast is different than one who has a carefully measured bowl of Extra Fiber-Os with organic orange juice.

But there's a line between showing character traits and just giving mundane details. If you've already introduced the character as being Queen of the Microwave, I don't need to know that on Monday she microwaved a Lean Cuisine Entree, on Tuesday it was a Stoufer's Entree, on Wednesday it one of those meal-in-a-bags and on Thursday it was Campbell's Soup (in the conveninent cook-eat-toss cup.) By Thrusday, I'm skimming the dinner passage thinking "blah blah dinner, what's next?" Esp. since by Thursday, we should be into the heart of the book were GOOD stuff is happening.

If the reader is diddling with me by stopping for dinner as way to prolong the story (and kidding everyone by calling it "character development") I'm going to start to get Cranky. By the middle of the book, the character is either developed, or the writer has flunked out of Noveling 201. So, leave out the dinner details and get back to the plot.

So, what do I propose the writer does for Thursday's dinner? Worst case, just breezily mention, "Character threw dinner in the microwave." Better-- skip past dinner-making. Skip past dinner and cut to the next scene.

Instead of...
"I scanned the shelves and finally selected a can of Campel''s Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup. I pulled the pop-top, poured it into a microwavable safe bowl, and put dinner in the microwave. While it was cooking, I gathered a drink, some potatoe chips, a spoon and a napking and set those things on the table. Just after I did so, the microwave chirped. As I sat down to eat, my phone rang. It was Officer Smith calling about the injured girl from earlier. She didn't make it."

That was hard to write. My inner-editor-- who is vulgar and vocal-- kept berating me for writing it even as I told her that it was just an example. She finally blew me a raspberry and shut up.

So, the better version.
"As I sat down to eat another microwaved dinner, my phone rang. It was Officer Smith calling about the injured girl from earlier. She didn't make it."

If I want to read about mundane details of people's lives, there's always facebook and twitter for that. Or certain blogs. If I'm reading a book, I'm there for the not-mundane. I'm there for the story. Develop the character in the early chapters with only the necessisties, then, dear author, get the hell out of the way and let the story play out. Please.

The same goes for describing the character's clothes every time they get dressed, descriptions of the character, the character's house, and backstory that has already been explained. The last must be done carefully because, in my opinion, little reminders are helpful for busy readers who may not remember everything from the beginning when the end arrives. Though, a sense of the character, I'll already have without another description of the character's car, purse, or predicament.

Not surprisingly, I'm very careful and sometimes sparse in my own storytelling and details. Write what you enjoy, they say.

Importance of Appearance

Anyone says that appearance doesn't matter is lying. Or at least decieved themselves. Appearance is crucial. It is the first part of a first impression.

Some folks are afraid of the kid with the twenty pounds of chains hanging from his huge pants or the kid with the seven inch neon green mohawk. (They may even be the same kid!) My experience with these kids is that they are often the ones who are comfortable with who they are and they're usually the nicest kids. Some have a tough veneer, but if you don't dis them, then all is good in the world. But because of their appearance, many people stay away from them.

The kid with thick glasses must be a nerd. The fat kid must eat all day. The guy in the cowboy hat must be uneducated. The guy in the suit must be a professional. The pretty girl must be stuck-up. And the girl in the tight pants and low-cut shirt must be an easy slut.

It's this last one that plays a lot into how I write Bo Fexler. She is, as written, unusually attractive. She certainly knows it and knows how she can get many men to sit up a beg. But, like any sexy girl, she gets judged on her appearance. She's certainly not going to be considered highly intelligent.

On the other side, there's the author. Apparently, I don't look like someone who can use Fuck in the most liberal of fashions or turn any comment into a sexual reference (it's a skill) or even like a person who listens to Tool or Metallica or Garbage. People who only know me in certan settings-- like school or my retail job-- often have trouble believing just how crude and vulgar my regular speech actually is. No, really, ask my hubby.

Maybe it's the glasses or the long straight hair or my manner of dress. These are all things that people use in forming an impression-- not just of me but of anyone.

First impressions are niether right or wrong. They just are. But they can be affected by biases, known or unkown. How we react to each other is an important element for writing fiction, too.

How does everyone else see your character? What biases does your character have? Having been regarded as a sex object for so long, Bo (Not me! ;-) certainly has a extra active wariness towards men who come on to her. Being a over-educated word nerd, I tend towards quieter people.

What conclusions (Good, bad, or indifferent) have you made on appearance?

• Current Song: Beautiful, by Joydrop

X, Y, Z

I suppose we're all ex-something. How much does what we used to be define who we are?

Some of the other female detectives out there are ex-secretary, ex-clothing buyer, ex-cop, ex-porn star. In those stories, it seems to matter what they used to do.

Philip Marlowe was always an investigator. He went to college, and claims he can still speak English if there's need for it, (The Big Sleep.) He was never a cop. In fact, there only thing that seems to matter is that he is an investigator.

I'll admit that I'm influenced by Chandler. But also, my own tendency in life is to talk about what I am currently, without much regard to what I used to be. This bleeds into my fiction. Bo is a private investigator. She might have been something else before (bonus points for anyone who knows what!). But, does it really even matter? She's still young and sexy and licensed as a private eye.

Lock and Load

Bo Fexler has a past. I have no intention of sitting down and explaining her past, in the novel or otherwise. She maintains that she doesn't like to talk about it. But I do refer to it in snippets and lines. Things that give glimpses and show a backstory without stopping the current story to extrapolate.

It's like that one line from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Han Solo announces that he's leaving. Leia thought he'd changed his mind. To which, Han replies, "Well, that bounty hunter on Ord Mandel changed my mind." A single line. No further explanation. But yet, the audience gets loads from that one line. They were on Ord Mandel. Han ran into a bounty hunter-- I even conclude that it was an unpleasant and dangerous exchange. And it affected him. So much information is so small of a line.

Loaded lines. Even more potent than loaded words.

• Story in progress: Hit Woman
• Current Song: Here Comes the Sun, by the Beatles. (And maybe someday soon the sun will come out here in the Mitten-shaped state!)

WHO IS BO FEXLER

A Q&A with the private eye

Name: Bo Alyse Fexler

Birthdate: Sept. 19

Eyes: Emerald green

Height: 5 ft 10.5 inches

Weight: somewhere between 130 and 155 (yes, too thin for my height. Don't say a fucking thing.)

Natural Blond: Most of the time. Unless I had to dye my hair back from being blue or pink or black or something.

Story behind unusual name: You'd have to ask my parents. I never did.

Opinion of name: It fits. I'm not what people expect in a PI. In several ways.

Career: Private investigator since age 21.

State(s) licensed in: Ohio, then Michigan

Reason for becoming a PI: Read too many private eye books as a kid. And, it's fun. I like the challenge.

Story behind accent: It's not. It's a speech impairment. And my mother always told me it was impolite to point out someone's disabilities. You wouldn't ask a blind man about how he ended up blind.

Favorite Drink: alcoholic or not?

Favorite Alcoholic Drink: Vodka

Favorite Non-alcoholic drink: Diet Pepsi

Favorite color: dark

Hobbies: Reading

Favorite Types of Books: ones with text (I read everything)

Favorite Author: Raymond Chandler

Hometown: A Michigan city with a hospital-- no, I'm not going to say which one

Parents: Reid and Connie

Parent's occupation(s): Reid was an ER doctor & Connie a librarian

Relationship with Parents: fine

Best childhood memory: No comment

Noteworthy childhood experience: No comment

Reason for not talking about childhood: Ask a psychiatrist. They'll have several theories to pick from.

Perception of self: Like, body image? Hot. Definitely Hot. I'm not blind-- I can see myself in a mirror, and I can see how people react to me.

Other opinions of self: No comment

Any comments on reputation: As a sharp tongued, misanthropic, bitch? I'm not ashamed of who I am. And I'm not going to apoligize for it.

Goals or dreams: Do well as a private eye, I guess. Give my folks, and my mentor something to be proud of.

Mentor: dead

Final thoughts: I was a fucking fool to agree to this. I hate talking about myself.

(It may be a crappy bitmap I made in Paint, but please don't steal my pic of Bo, please. =)