What's in a Name? The Chance for Success

Several young couples in my circle recently welcomed babies, and their struggles with name choices reminded me of my own deliberations over naming of fictional characters--because the answer to Juliet's famous question "What's in a name?" can affect social (or publishing) success. For example, a 2003 study of resumés identical except for fake names divided between those that sounded "white," like Emily and Greg, and those that sounded African-American, like Lakisha and Jamal, found the resumés with "white" names received a 50% higher call-back rate from employers. It would be interesting to see if those results have changed in 2015. Certainly, given names today reflect more social and ethnic diversity than ever before. In the U.S. of 1950, only 5% of parents chose a name for their child that wasn't in the top 1,000 names; by 2012, that figure was up to 27%. The expansion of naming trends in multicultural America opens up the choices for creating fictional names that are ironic, symbolic/connotative, phonetically suggestive, alliterative or just poetically right to the inner ear. But there is also more potential for faddish anachronisms, social bias and offense, regional dissonance and ethnic missteps. In a writersdigest.com guest post, veteran mystery author Elizabeth Sims (Rita Farmer mysteries) offers some rules for creating fictional names without tripping over today's naming trends: 1) Check root meanings of names, so Caleb, which means "faithful," can fit a loyal character without hitting readers over the head with Loyal (or it could be an ironic choice for a villain); 2) Get your era right and realize that Taylor doesn't fit a twenty-year-old girl in the 1930s or a ninety-year-old woman in 2015, but Myrtle works; 3) Say the names out loud because some names look good on paper but don't work when spoken (don't undermine the future audiobook/movie); 4) Manage your cast appropriately by varying names in terms of initials and syllables to prevent reader confusion when you have a big cast of characters; 5) Think it through to the real world, which is why, Sims points out, most fictional villains don't have middle names or initials since that increases the chances of offending a real person, who can come after you with a suit (or a gun); 6) Check those names again to make sure you have researched thoroughly, especially for ethnic or foreign names. For example, Sims admits that she once named a supposedly Japanese-American character Gary Kwan, only to discover that Kwan is a Chinese surname. To read Sims' full post, go to http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-7-rules-of-picking-names-for-fictional-characters

No End in Sight for Dystopian Fiction's Popularity

Dystopian fiction is thriving as news stories about global warming, world pandemics, and violent human intolerance of every kind--racial, religious and sexual--inspire tales of a terrifying future for humanity. It's no fluke that The Hunger Games series sells books and movie tickets. My book club is naturally tapping into the trend, recently reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, a tale of technological and social collapse after mass depopulation by a virulent flu strain. Back in 2011, we read the dystopian classic The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, set in a Thailand inundated by global warming and decimated by megacorporate "calorie company" biotech tinkering. Contemplating the popularity of apocalyptic fiction, it's clear the best dystopian novels not only hold up a mirror to shared fears for the future, they also are essentially hopeful rather than hopeless literary expressions. After all, if enough people are convinced by the writer's vision that failure to change now will lead to disaster down the road, they may be spurred to avert the forecast doom. Consider the lasting impact of these seminal dystopian works: 1984 by George Orwell, published in 1949, with its eerie prescience about the rise of "Big Brother" government and its Newspeak; Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, a 1953 Cold War classic about a society where books and independent thought are banned; 1962's A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess about the culture of violence, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, a 1968 vision of a world dominated by androids. Today's writers tackle a new crop of fears along with the standard war, famine and plague. But the best dystopian novels still use the same formula for success: They go beyond technical and socio-political jargon to connect with the human heart, breaching our defenses against unpleasant truths with compelling characters and emotions. For a list of some top dystopian reading, go to http://www.shortlist.com/cool-stuff/20-best-dystopian-novels

Why I'm Ambivalent on 'Mockingbird' Sequel

The big buzz this week is the soon-to-be-published sequel to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the classic novel about young Scout and her family, including beloved father and lawyer Atticus Finch, caught up in the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman in Depression-era Alabama. The sequel from Lee, titled Go Set a Watchman, will be published in July. I admit to both eager curiosity and some misgivings about the new work. The reclusive Lee, who has not published since the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, actually wrote the "Watchman" manuscript before "Mockingbird." Lee's editor read her first "Watchman" effort, about an adult Scout paying a visit to her father Atticus in 1950s Alabama, and was more engaged by the childhood flashbacks. The editor encouraged the fledgling author to create a story around the Depression-era characters instead. Lee took the advice and, after many revisions, produced her acclaimed "Mockingbird" novel. The "Watchman" manuscript was apparently lost and forgotten, only to be unearthed recently by the aged Lee's friend and lawyer. Those who love "Mockingbird" have long yearned for more from Lee, yet I fear a letdown. First of all, Go Set a Watchman supposedly will be published as the original manuscript, basically the unedited voice of an inexperienced writer. I worry that there's a reason editor and author forgot about it. More fundamentally, To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age masterpiece. Consider other coming-of-age tales that have become literary classics: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, or Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Do you really want sequels, say the life of Huckleberry at age 35? I loved young Scout when I said good-bye to her. I don't want to be disappointed by the grown-up Scout. For more on Lee's new book, read http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/books/harper-lee-author-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-is-to-publish-a-new-novel.html?_r=0