I started my women’s contemporary fiction manuscript when my daughter was three-months-old. We celebrated her third birthday this past summer and I’m still doing final edits. The changes are minor, except for two big ones: the title and a main character’s name.
Reading this character’s name makes me want to punch the monitor and I can’t decide if it’s because the character is kind of a jerk, the name is vile or I’m just sick of reading my manuscript. It’s a weird thing to change the character’s name, because it makes me look at him differently. It also feels like I’ve given him a nose job or similar – he’s the same guy underneath, but on a superficial level, he’s changed.
The title of the book is another thing I’m wary of changing. It feels stale to me now. I’ve grown as a writer these past three years (which is why I scrapped the first third of the novel last year) and I feel the current title doesn’t do it justice. But again…am I just suffering from novel fatigue?
I’ve lived with this thing as long as I’ve lived with my kid so I fear I’ve lost some perspective. Luckily for me, I have my fellow Restless Writers to offer some perspective. Ladies?
Lori
Andrea
bjas
Sharon
Maria
Restless Writers 
Oh the joy of naming! Yeah, I totally get it. I have changed my manuscript title once THEN reverted back to the original (now 3+ years later too). And I’m still not sold on it. That is where my future agent will step in (oh, hello universe?) And of course, we all know the story will speak for itself (names aside). Hopefully you’re still OK with the names you have given your kiddies! The human ones—not the paper ones.
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