What's in a Name?

I was recently asked why I would give a protagonist who is the proverbial plain Jane an interesting name such as Willow Mae Pillbean. Why didn’t I choose something more common, like Mary, Anne, or even Lucy? (although I really don’t find Lucy all that common)

Writers name their characters with the same care they name their children. Willow Mae Pillbean was no exception. At first glance she is a self-confident, routine oriented, content young woman who seems to be wandering through life on a path to nowhere. As the book progresses and the inner workings of her mind are revealed, she gives the reader a glimpse of her true personality. While she is resilient and strong, there is also a fragility about her to which I think we all can relate.

The Willow tree is tremendously resilient and able to grow in even the most adverse conditions. It is one of the few trees that can bend in outrageous poses without snapping. The message here is to adjust with life rather than fight it. As Willow Pillbean meanders through the challenging month of Newvember, she learns to draw from her strengths so that she can grow and adapt to her ever-changing environment.

Likewise, her best friend Angela is very much like the guardian angel her name suggests. She sees Willow’s life from a different perspective, knows her friend has the strength of character to be more and pushes her forward. Without her presence, Willow never would have strayed from her path to discover some very important truths about herself.

Then we have Sawyer – a name blatantly taken from one of my favourite books, Tom Sawyer. Full of mischief, slightly misunderstood and confused, Sawyer leads Willow down a path that could have destroyed her, but she manages to yield her flexible nature and comes out so much stronger in the end. Sawyer’s name is also reflective of his personality, it literally means “one who saws wood” – without giving too much away, we can see how his name on its own is a detriment to Willow.

Finally, I’ll tell you just the tiniest bit about Olive, who is so dear to me that I can hardly write about her without feeling as though I am giving away a small piece of my soul. Originally she was named for my great grandmother Olive Finch, just because I like the name and have very fond memories of her from my childhood. As you’ll see if you read the book, even Olive’s name fits in with this wooded theme when she offers “an Olive branch” and helps Willow to restore her inner peace.

How do you write a novel in 30 days, or less?

How do you write a novel in 30 days, or less?

Well . . . the short answer to that question is: perseverance.

The long answer is far more complicated. First, I signed up for the NaNoWriMo  Challenge – which is a challenge to produce 50 000 words during the month of November. (That works out to be approximately 1667 words a day, or about 3 pages of text.) Broken down like that, it really doesn’t seem like all that much. But – if you skip a day, then you have to figure out how you’re going to make up that word count. If you skip three or four days the challenge can become overwhelming. At the end of it all, should you achieve your 50 000 word count goal – you get a shiny web badge and a coupon for a free proof-copy of your novel through CreateSpace. Believe me, there is nothing like receiving that proof copy in the mail – but that’s another story altogether.

 In addition to writing actual words, I needed to come up with a story.  I needed a theme that would easily carry me through the month of November as I had not taken the time to develop characters or create a plot outline, and I knew I would not have time if I was going to achieve the impossible. So, I came up with a concept that I knew wasn’t original but would carry me through the month and force me to write every day. My main character (Willow) would keep a journal, which would in turn pretty much force me to write one journal entry for each day of November.

Of course, Willow needed something more interesting to write about than the doldrums of her day to day life. And let’s face it; November has to be one of the dreariest months of the year for us Canadians. Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en are left in bright, colourful October, Christmas and News Years’ are in far off December. The only thing we commemorate is Remembrance Day, which is important, but doesn’t exactly sparkle with excitement and intrigue.

I don’t know where the dare idea came from; perhaps it was the shadow of my girlfriend daring me to try the NaNoWriMo challenge. Or perhaps it came from me wanting to spice up my own mundane existence. Regardless, Willow’s best friend challenges her to try one new thing every day for 30 days – and to make my life easy, part of the challenge is that Willow has to document it. So, violà, I had a theme that would easily carry me through the entire month. I had no idea where it would take Willow and me so I decided to leave that for my Muse to figure out.

In the meantime – the month of November passed by in a blur. My family got used to digging for clothing in the mountains of clean, but unfolded laundry that lived in our family room; we ate a lot of soup, sandwiches and frozen entrées; and my kids learned how to make their own lunches for school. November is the perfect month to settle into the warmth of your own imagination to lay the groundwork for a novel that will evolve and perhaps even take on a life of its own.