Sarah Pekkanen Guest Post

On Monday I reviewed the amazing new novel These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen. When I got the opportunity to have her write a guest post for my blog, I was incredibly excited because I’ve long heard of Sarah’s amazing amiability and witty personality. So today I’m thrilled to bring you a guest post by Sarah Pekkanen, who is a new favorite author for me. Here Sarah discusses some of the strange things that happen when you simply set out to name a character. It’s a very fun post to read and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And now, I give it over to Sarah!

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One thing I never expected when I became a novelist was how many people would see themselves in my books. My parents, an old friend from childhood, the mother of a kid at my son's school — all were convinced I'd modeled characters on them.

"I thought the character Gary was based on my husband," confessed a woman I've known for years when we were discussing my first book, The Opposite of Me.

"Really?" I asked, feeling my brow furrow. "Why?"

"Because they've got the same name," she said, as if it should be obvious.

I blinked a few times as I scrambled back in my memory, trying to recall whether I'd given Gary any offensive tics, but the first thing that came to mind was that I'd described him as a human Ken doll.  I assured my friend that Gary was as fictional as that plastic mass-produced doll.

But a few weeks later, a woman whose son attended school with mine mentioned she'd noticed I'd described a scene in which a character made inedible muffins. "I thought that was me!" she said. I couldn't believe it - this woman is an extraordinary cook who manages to combine the healthiest of ingredients in a way that conjures addictions.

"Er... NO!" I said. I'm still not sure if she believed me.

With each new book I've written, I've become more careful to scour my manuscripts to make sure I'm not using the names of anyone I know well — or worse, the names plus some characteristics that conceivably could be stretched to describe an actual person in my life. It's strange, because when I sit down to write a book, one of the first things I do is name my characters, and the names are a critical jumping-off point for my creative process. They inspire the character — if I pick the right name, I can almost see my fictional people standing in front of me. In my new novel These Girls, my three main characters are Cate, Renee, and Abby. Cate, to me, is someone neat and focused and perhaps a little private. Renee is the life of the party, the kind of woman who will ask a complete stranger on the bus if she can borrow a tampon (which Renee has done). And Abby is sensitive and maybe a bit shy and young. Once I had those names, my characters began to take shape.

But after I finished writing These Girls, I realized a minor character was named Joanne. My neighbor across the street is also named Joanne. Would she take offense? This character isn't exactly likable, and she's not a good mother. I couldn't risk it — I changed the name to Joanna just before turning in the book.

Naming character isn't always stressful — I've had a little fun with the process on Facebook. When I was trying to name a British magazine editor, I came up with Hamish. But it turns out there is already a real British magazine editor in New York named Hamish, so it was suggested I change it. I asked folks on Facebook to weigh in, and one of them came up with a winner: Nigel. That's the name I used in These Girls (and I sent the person who suggested the name an advanced signed copy of These Girls).

Now I'm curious: What types of qualities do you associate with certain names?