Changing character names

Do you ever wonder about the origin of words? To be honest, I don’t really think about it more than the next person. But when you do pause to think about it, rather than breeze past it like we do with everything else and accept a word for what it is, something that has become synonymous with the object it describes, it’s not the dullest thing to think about.

For instance, when does something become known as a restaurant or a cafe or a pub (or a public house, if we want to be more specific) the last being more obvious. Using language in a certain way by groups of people over time comes to mind.

Dialects evolve. A group of people, speaking the exact same language that happens to be split into two groups that move elsewhere are inevitably going to sound different over decades or centuries of being separated.

In writing, something that’s a well-known fact and nothing new what my blog posts are concerned, but worth repeating: If you’re a writer of fiction – take care when determining what your protagonists are called from the start. There’s no changing it later. Or if it does need to change, it will be challenging.

As most other writers will tell you, these characters that become known to you by their first names, are as real as characters get.

So, what do you do if you happen to be in a situation where you just can’t use a character’s name months after you’ve named said character?

I’m not sure. I’ve never attempted to fix it or had that dilemma before. Not what protagonists are concerned, anyway.

CNTRL F and replace all? It won’t feel right. But I’m guessing it’s not impossible.

However, take care when using nicknames. Tommy makes sense for Thomas, but not when changed to something else.

If anything, I wouldn’t make this change after all edits have been completed, just in case. This is not a grammatical typo that may be overlooked, or a pub being mistaken for a cafe. It may be an error not to recover from.