I've blogged before about how particular my characters are about their names. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I can't write them until I have their name. Sometimes they're helpful and let me know up front. Other times, they make me work for it.
One thing I haven't mentioned before is that their particularity goes right down to the spelling of their names.
I have a heroine in a future Paladin League story who was insistent on her spelling.
Her name (with her spelling) is Ayla (pronounced Eye-Lah). The more popular spelling at the moment is Isla. (Same pronunciation.)
I pointed this out to her--that most people are spelling Ayla as Isla, but she was all no, I'm Ayla.
I'm not complaining about this. She shared her name quickly, she was clear on the spelling, and it was done. No fuss, no muss.
The heroine in the book following hers made me work a little harder, but once I got in the right ballpark, she was clear, too. Her name is Iona, not Ione. One is an island off Scotland and the other is a Greek sea nymph. She is an island, not a nymph. ;-)
Iona's hero is the one that had me tearing out my hair. You met him in Deck's story with his nickname. Baggs. I even know his surname. It's Baggnell, but finding his first name was an ordeal that lasted weeks. So many false positives. I'd be certain I had the right name, but a few days later, I'd know I was wrong. It wasn't his name.
Things improved on this front when I realized I had the wrong picture. I always find pictures that represent what the characters look like. I just know when I see it. This time I was wrong. When I found the right picture for Baggs, his first name followed shortly thereafter.
He was the one I was complaining about in the earlier blog posts about the name game, but we're set now.
