THE Group for Authors! discussion

Hello fellow authors,

I need your Heeeeeelp (in the memorable words of Buggs Bunny).

The main male character in my book hates his middle name, to such extend that he gets really edgy, when someone uses it. His reactions are loud, irrational and painful to everyone involved, each time someone calls him NIck. The reason is a terrifying incident that took place in his childhood, but I cannot get my head around what happened.

Will be truely grateful if you trow some ideas at me.

I'm not sure this will help you but in my experience, as long as I'm creating conflict in my scenes, and as long as my characters are developed enough, they will tell me what happened (through the writing) when the time is right.

I agree with John. Unless the traumatic event was my catalyst for writing down the story in the first place, the characters--young and old--will reveal their lives as I write. You can read a newspaper to get ideas. But, what works for me is to keep on writing even if the pace slows to a crawl while an idea forms or until an inspiration breaks through. Patience rocks!

Thank you both

I just saw this post and you've probably solved the reason, but just in case. When characters are developed, yes, things occur, however brainstorming can help and doing a character profile can also be helpful. So, what is the background? Where was he born, where did he go to school, and what were his experiences? Was he bullied? Who else may have had the name Nick and is there a conflict there? What is the genre? What is his job and what are the relationships? Once you fill in his background--and while doing so--things come up, ideas. What does he want most out of everything else? Good luck!

If you already figured it out then congrats!
But if not, what about a sibling that passed on or a parent or someone they cared about be the reason he cant stand being called by his middle name. Say the person he cared about used his middle name as a nickname and when they passed away, because he couldn't save them, or he did save them but they were never the same, or the reason for the other persons pain was because of something he did. He could have been in a freak accident and suffer from survivors guilt. Really it could be anything.
Hope this helps.

I fugured it but I might have not figured it...

I am greatful that this discussion unfroze so unexpectedly.
While I was feeling so nearly ready with it all, chasing comas and other csmetic final retouches earlier this week, his early childhood sibling loss "on his watch" sticked out as much less convincing, than I would have expected.

And all the ideas feel like a refreshing breeze, thank you.

Vera wrote: "I fugured it but I might have not figured it...

I am greatful that this discussion unfroze so unexpectedly.
While I was feeling so nearly ready with it all, chasing comas and other csmetic final ..."

Your Welcome

This may not assist with the traumatic reaction, but you may want to see how name issues were handled in other books/series. As I recall, in Colin Dexter's "Inspector Morse" books, Morse doesn't like his first name and you are at least a half dozen books in before it's revealed that his first initial is E, and not until some books later that it's revealed to be "Endeavour." (There is a TV program on called "Endeavour" that's a Morse prequel.)

J. wrote: "This may not assist with the traumatic reaction, but you may want to see how name issues were handled in other books/series. As I recall, in Colin Dexter's "Inspector Morse" books, Morse doesn't li..."

Is the reader of the series still curious why the inspector doesn't like his name by the time it is revealed?