Changing the hero’s name

An original comic personal essay about naming a fictional character.

My hero had been called Daniel for six pages when I decided that he was plainly an Adrian. I changed every appearance of his name and waited for the improvement in his personality.

He continued standing beside the same gate, refusing to enter the house. Adrian, it seemed, had inherited Daniel's difficulties without protest.

Names had begun to offer a wonderfully efficient kind of revision. I could make a decision, see it throughout the document and finish the afternoon with evidence that something had changed. The scene itself remained as patient as an unpaid actor. It still wanted to know why anyone was standing beside the gate.

I tried a shorter name. The paragraph looked brisker. The man did not move.

Eventually I wrote a question beneath the page: what does he want from the person inside? An answer produced an action, and the gate finally opened. I left the name alone for a week, during which he caused several new problems which could not be solved by calling him Oliver.

The first pages now contain a note reminding me that a character needs more than an improved label. Daniel is crossed out. Adrian is crossed out. Under both, in less attractive handwriting, I have written: give him something to do.

Examine the methods the writer uses to make changing a character’s name seem like a comic substitute for revision.