Comments on Women of Mystery: John, Jeff, Jim, Joe, Jack, Jen, Jill, Jan, and Ju...

I've made lists and - when they got too long (!) -...

2007-12-13T11:27:00.000-05:00

I've made lists and - when they got too long (!) - ignored them. But I love the table suggestion.... Word table columns can be sorted, so repeats of any letter would be easy to check out.

42 characters? Holy moly! Sounds like a lot. Could...

2007-12-12T21:24:00.000-05:00

42 characters? Holy moly! Sounds like a lot. Couldn't all be significant characters could they? Wonder what the outer limit on significant characters would be.

Elaine - terrific post. As a voracious reader (of ...

2007-12-12T17:47:00.000-05:00

Elaine - terrific post. As a voracious reader (of the book-in-a-day variety), the Bag Lady tends to get confused if the characters have similar sounding names, even though she most likely has only put the book down for a matter of minutes...okay, maybe that says more about the Bag Lady's attention span than the author's culpability...but, especially if the book gets set aside for any length of time, it's annoying to have to go back and re-read a portion to figure out whether Joe or Jim is who you think he is. Holy crap, even I don't know what the hell that sentence said...guess my skills as an author could use some polishing, too.

Oh, Elaine, this is one of my bugaboos as a reader...

2007-12-12T12:12:00.000-05:00

Oh, Elaine, this is one of my bugaboos as a reader and writer! I do have a list of all my characters together, especially since I've assembled a team of 10-ish fictional folks, and I'm using some real historic characters as well, whose names can't be changed, no matter their inconvenient similarities to my inventions. Confronted by increasing confusion and repetition, in self-defense, I had to do exactly what you propose and list them all together and hunt for the similarities.

I not only checked for beginning letters and ending ones (I was a sucker for ending Ys), but I also checked for name lengths. I created some short firsts with long lasts, some both short and both long, because visually that helps me differentiate as a reader, too.

I also found that, without examination, far too many folks would have ended up with bird-related names, or ones with a vaguely Anglo Saxon feel, so I had to review for conceptual and ethnic repetition, too. I ended up broadening the geographic/ethnic roots to add interest to the names and built-in background variety I can use, a much more accurate scenario anyway because I'm writing about the crazy-quilt New York metro area.

I had to stop and become very conscious and calculating about it, so as not to end up with a roster like your client's. I'm glad to know someone else notices, and glad to know it's the kind of thing you'd point out, because, as a reader with a sieve-like memory, I can use all the help I can get.