I just started reading a new YA book, and on the second or third page... there was my name in black and white...
My name is common enough that there are about a million different spellings for it, but uncommon enough that I've never seen my exact spelling in a book before. Actually, I've seen a lot of YA authors with versions of my name...
So, what kind of character did *I* show up as?
Apparently a really ditzy cheerleader :D Surprisingly (and thankfully) not a ditzy blonde cheerleader, 'cause that's so overdone... like the bitchy blonde character that always seems to show up in YA to hassle the heroine.*
But I had a good laugh over that.
When I write, I try to never use names of people I know in real life, but I know there are people out there with names like Simon, Triss, etc. Every once in a while, I wonder what they'll feel like if they ever saw their name associated with one of my characters.
Have you ever found your name in a book? How did you feel seeing your name in print? Were the characters in anyway similar to you, or completely off the map?
*Okay, I just finished reading the book (yeah, I'm a fast reader) and she's not only ditzy, she's a horrible, irredeemably gossipy bitch. All-in-all, it was pretty funny :)
My name is Mike. It's pretty common but doesn't show up because I think it's too boring for most people.
ReplyDeleteI don't see my name often unless it's associated with a killer car!
ReplyDeletenever had that problem. But then again my name isn't all that common.
ReplyDeleteMy name pops up everywhere, as all different sorts of characters. ;) That's cool about your name! :D
ReplyDeleteConsidering my name is so common, I don't see it as much as I used to. I think because, as Mike says, it's too boring for most people. (Sorry other Sarahs!)
ReplyDeleteMy name is Sue as in runaround (Your audieince is too young to get that) or a bay named
ReplyDeleteNever saw my last name in a book though it's somewhat common as well and my maiden name when I do see it is not spelled the way mine is
so that really was odd that your name was in the book spelled the way you spell it
@ Michael
ReplyDeleteI'd rather have a boring name I know how to pronounce than some of the strange names I've seen in some books :)
@ Christine
Hahahahahaha... I've seen your name in a few books, but I'm assuming the killer car is Stephen King or something? Which... I've never actually read any of his books :)
@ prerna
If you could read a character with your name, what kind of character would you want? a villain? a lover interest? a side-kick?
@ Laura
Y'know, oddly enough, I can't recall a book on my shelf with the name, Laura, though I grew up knowing at least 8 different 'Laura's'.
@ Sarah
Yeah, I've noticed that the whole name thing seems to be pretty generational. Like, you wouldn't read many new books with the names Edith or Lillian nowadays...
Just be thankful you weren't named Malibu (I actually met a guy with that name, all his siblings were named after classic cars).
@ sue
...as in, a 'lazy-susan'?
Oddly enough, every Susan I know/knew in real life were either Chinese or Korean... except you :)
lol I know a boy named Su - and he is Chinese - but we call him Jon - yep lazy susan - that's me today -
ReplyDeleteI've seen my name a couple of times, which isn't really that spectacular - my name's pretty common!
ReplyDeleteBut once I came across a variation on my main character's name in a book. My MC's name is Zeth, and the name I came across was Szeth. Considering I made the name "Zeth" up, THAT was weird! :P
@ sue
ReplyDeleteHeh that's funny :) Are you still being lazy today?
@ Nick
What's interesting is that I have a character named Seth and one of my writing buddies had a character named Zeth! Szeth is strange though... I have no idea how to pronounce that :)