Name Magic

I'm taking a break from an intensive week of editing and manuscript design to work a little bit on my Young Adult novel -- I don't like fiction as much as poetry, and it doesn't keep the bills paid like articles, but it is fun.

The story has a great prolog. I mean, if I read this prolog, standing my the young adult section in the bookstore, wearing dark glasses and hoping none of the Serious Writers spot me, if I read this prolog, I would go home and devour the book. But the rest of the story hasn't quite gelled. It excites me every time I come to it, and I think it will come together -- but at the moment, it's a god awful mess.

The biggest problem is that I don't know the main character's name. Some of the other characters have told me theirs: Alder, Cricket, Thistle, Mink (yes, it's one of those books). But the main character has been through three names in two short chapters, and doesn't answer to any of them. She won't do much for me until I can call her by the right name.

Naming things is magic. Get it right and you can capture the whole of a thing in a string of sounds shorter than a single breath. You can carry it in your head and summon it back at will. Even give it to others. Get it wrong and it's likely to blow up in your face.

Three times, now, learning the name of a character belatedly has sent one of my stories swerving. It makes a difference.

And I won't even start on writing a name down. I just read an article that called the alphabet a psychotropic magical technology. (Yes, it was one of those articles.) That means the alphabet can change the mind that invites it in. And what it can do to others, well: they're called spells for a reason.

Well, anyway, until Otter or Thicket or Glory or whoever she is gets properly christened (another loaded word) the story will probably remain a great prolog, and nothing more.