Eat before you write
I’ve been reading a lot of online query samples lately — in addition to my everyday obsession reading of publishing industry blogs and websites. The deeper you dig the more you find, y’know? And while I am not a professional query-er, as a writer and editor I now have a theory.
Do not name your characters after food.
It makes the reader hungry and then he or she can really not focus on what he or she is reading. And the hunger is as distracting, if not more so, than the silly name. And I don’t mean an affectionate nickname that you drop into your ms once or twice – I mean – there are folks who, when writing books for adults, use food names. In my opinion these does not generate a warm, familiar feeling – just hunger pangs in addition to brain pains associated with the question “why”.
My thoughts? Perhaps these writers were hungry when they came up with the name. Maybe writing is like a trip to the grocery store — something you should never do when you’re hungry.
Nix the following if you’ve named your characters Gumdrop, Pumpkin, Sweet Tart, Pork Chop, Devil Dog, Applesauce, Lemon Drop, Shortcake. There were some less tantalizing selections as well — like Little Potato (I like me my potatoes, but it’s not as gastronomically alluring).
And yes, some of these were really used in real queries.
I know it worked for Olive Oil – but still!
Too funny!
Wow! Who knew?
Really? That is so bizarre. Maybe they think it’ll make their books more appealing.
Ha!
I’m not guilty of food references but I have to admit that the first draft of my novel featured some rather silly names.
Gradually they’ve disappeared though, apart from my ol’ pal Don Donald. I like the way it sounds too much.
Plus my Dad’s called Barry Broome, so daft alliteration isn’t completely implausible.
Huzzah!
I have a minor character named Grady Grader in my current wip. Just fell out there, but one of my major characters got to laugh at it, so I felt it was okay…