I realized recently that all the stories, all the fables, all our lives, there are people, events that do repeat themselves, for better or worse. What ever we do, we can’t break this cycle. Characters in our lives, in our stories, repeat, whether we like it or not. Perhaps, every once in a while, we up it a notch and actually evolve – a slight improvement on the last cycle, but still the cycle continues. Death, birth, rebirth, revolution, reinvention, redemption, death, life cycle. We never see or truly understand the end result, but we hope someday the evolution will be complete and the cycle will end. But then won’t just a new cycle, with new rules start?? Ha ha ha! Perhaps, but it shall be different.
Changing the name of a repeating character, like the savior in every story, has a different name. However, I believe a “pure” name change does not change the essence of the character. It’s more a marketing ploy isn’t it? To be with the modern times. The next savior will have some weird earthy crunchy mixed up name Kiedis Ali or something even more bizarro than I can even hope to imagine this morning. His/her beat or bible will be evolved but essentially the same. Unless gravity changes, fundamental properties of life changes, like the self-aware beings breathe a bountiful amount of healthy Argon gas instead of diluted gaseous mixtures, surviving on nasty caustic Oxygen. I suppose everything would be different.
This week: the plot.
So, what I am saying is that I have probably, only a maximum of 10 plots to choose from, for my stories to go forward. Guy meets girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl back, guy starts massive war to win girl back, etc. Escalations, repeats, downgrades, and variations on the theme for modern times, girl meets girl, girl falls in love with girl, girl loses, girl, etc. etc. etc. But would women start wars? I think if there was the passion, yes, women can be just as aggressive as men when it comes to those kinds of things, but probably would quit earlier rather than later after tens of thousands have died. Diplomacy may be more inherent in females for other reasons, but again as above, if the fundamental assumptions and biology changed…. Ah what if?
To change the essence of the character, there has to be a fundamental event – catastrophic to the character. (I may have said this before!)
On the flip side, perhaps the original name wasn’t good enough to bring out the true nature of the character. Let’s go back to marketing and branding for a moment – the examples are easier to see here.
There once was a candy bar called Marathon. I am sure it was tasty, as it is now called Snickers. Snickers is a cuter name isn’t it? And it surely doesn’t evoke the idea that I am going to run a marathon with the energy packed in it. Snickers are for happy normal people who enjoy peanuts and caramel and chocolate, marathons are for crazy athletic people, who probably wouldn’t be caught dead with a Snickers bar. The same product – different name. Snickers sell a hell of a lot better than the old Marathon bars, because most of us aren’t crazy athletic people.
Thus, a name change or re-branding can bring out the true nature of the product much better and more efficiently than the difficult to achieve re-formulation. Of course, some re-formulation or tweaking might be necessary to match the new name to the actual product, but that’s part of the life cycle of the product. The “Truth” can be communicated better without all the chaff and baggage that was associated with the old name.
So, clearly, I will change my character’s name before I am through! My book and stories have lives of their own and they need to be nurtured and grown just like plants. Off to my garden I go!
Next week: Dialogue again. I am having fun, learning my job as I go along.
