#IWSG: Titles or Characters

It's the 1st Wednesday of June. Happy Insecure Writers Support Group Day. IWSG is the brainchild of Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Thanks, Alex, for starting this group and keeping it going. 

Thanks to this month's awesome hosts:  Beverly Stowe McClure, Tyrean Martinson, Tonja Drecker, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!

This month's question is: What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?

First, I want to thank everyone who gave me so much support in February and March, when the winter blahs/blues had me down in the dumps. Your thoughtful advice and good wishes pumped me up and made me work through it. BTW, my daughter gave me a "happy lamp" for Mother's Day so winter won't get me down again. 😎

Now to the question. Perfect timing. The short answer is sometimes the title and sometimes the character. For my work-in-progress, both the title and characters were a problem. I went through many titles, never liking one that much. It started as “Kate’s Story”—my catchall name when I don’t have a title, just call it by the main character’s name. Because some of the story takes place camping, I thought of “Unpredictable Nature” yet I was never totally happy with that. As I reworked the story, it became more obvious that the story centered on an accountant's discovery. That's when the title smacked me up the side of the head: Numbers Never Lie.

This story also had character name problems. When I started the book fifteen years ago, the main character’s name was Kate. Now, I have a daughter-in-law whose name is Katy. It would feel weird to write romantic sections using her name. So, she became Maggie. The other main character started out as Alex. I have a mystery series where the female P.I.’s name is Alex. So, scratch that one. I wanted a Scottish first name to go with Campbell. That's how he became Andrew, nickname Drew.

Here’s the blurb for Numbers Never Lie.

A shocking secret brings danger to Jack Sinclair and his sister Maggie. 

As kids, they were the fearless threesome. As adults, Jack's an accountant; Drew, a lawyer; Maggie, a teacher and camping troop leader. Returning from a weekend camping trip, Maggie receives horrifying news. She refuses to believe her brother’s fatal car crash was an accident. If the police won’t investigate, she’ll do it herself. Convincing Drew Campbell to help is her only recourse.

Drew Campbell was too busy to return his best friend’s phone call. Too busy to attend a camping meeting important to his teen daughter. Too busy to stay in touch with Jack. Logic and reason indicate Jack’s accident was just that—an accident caused by fatigue and fog. Prodded by guilt, he’ll help Maggie even if he thinks she’s wrong.

A break-in at Jack’s condo convinces Maggie she’s right. Then her home is searched. What did Jack leave behind?

Now that I’m almost through revising/editing, I’m happy with my final choices. The plan is to release this book at the end of this month. So . . . I’m organizing a blog tour. If you are interested in hosting me, here's a form to fill out.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtq0uq2nARRiSy1Gb85U0MgUhoACL-7HA5oaM23wY9zkqEjQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thanks so much for all your support!

A reminder: I'm always happy to help you celebrate a new release. Just drop me a note at dmburton72 (at) gmail (dot) com


Until next month, happy writing.

Click here to find others on the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. Or go to IWSG on Facebook to see who’s blogging today.