last year, i attended a writing conference and spent a week fleshing out the main characters of a book i’m writing. throughout the process, fellow writers commented that my character’s name, Mike Blank, was annoying. it’s the repetition of the ‘k’ sounds. they all agreed that i needed to come up with a new name.
i’ve spent the year trying to come up with a name and haven’t. i’m attached to him because i’ve already written a short story with him in it. intellectually i understand the concerns fellow writers have with the repetition of his name throughout a longer project, and i even agree with them. but emotionally i’m hung up on Mike.
this is not to say that i haven’t thrown away the name because i have. it’s just that the act of throwing Mike Blank away has had a huge impact. i can’t commit to the now nameless character and avoid writing the book.
if, as my post above indicates, i should be grateful for what i’ve thrown away, should i be grateful for apparently throwing out my novel?