Current Events > If you make an exception, there is no rule.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've always dislike the creative process of naming or modeling characters after people the author or director dislikes. Yet, I may have just gotten fired and because of a nurse whose name is 70% phonetically similar to the name of the antagonist of the story I'm working on. It would be so easy to tweak the name and it would be an improvement. But if I do that, I can't tell myself this will be a one-time thing. If I open this door, I'll find myself naming a character after my childhood bully, patterning a character's mannerisms after my aunt whom I dislike, designing a character to look like a critic who disliked my latest masterpiece.

It's not like this has never produced good antagonists. Goldfinger is the best Bond film and he was named after Ian Fleming's neighbor. Fred Krueger? Freddy? Wes Craven's childhood bully. The murderer from Rear Window? That was producer David O. Selznick whom Alfred Hitchcock disliked. I get the creative power behind the pettiness. It drives you to hate this character as you want the audience to hate this character. But I hate to let that in.

I can already see it happening. I'll receive a call tomorrow stating that I'll need to go into the office (I've been working remotely) and I'll update my story notes to give the antagonist their new name. A Clockwork Orange was written in three weeks. I wonder I can put together a competent novel in the same time. No need to apply for a new "real" job. I'll just skip ahead to my career as a writer.

Welcome to prime time, bitch!

No, there's just no exceptions. It's not that fucking hard. I mean, do you have any exceptions to getting fucked in the ass?

Cocytus posted...

No, there's just no exceptions. It's not that fucking hard. I mean, do you have any exceptions to getting fucked in the ass?

I think most people would make an exception for the right amount of money...

I was going to use "only gay for..." as an example of why exceptions aren't exceptions. But the post was already long-winded enough.

EmbraceOfDeath posted...

I think most people would make an exception for the right amount of money...

Touch

What is the rule on this? Almost every combination of names is used countless times by living people, seems like there'd have to be more to it than just that.

Though I do remember in Boy Meets World, Minkus's original name needed to be changed for something like this. And on Frasier, a recurring character had her name changed after her first appearance because of it, too.

But then you get stuff like the X-Men, where IIRC the guy who created Kitty Pryde took the name wholesale from some girl he met lol

in order for an exception to exist, there must be some sort of rule to be in exception to

It really is stupid to consider. It's petty, it's passive-aggressive, and it's not like it would really hurt the other person anyway.

averagejoel posted...

in order for an exception to exist, there must be some sort of rule to be in exception to

I have a rule against this sort of thing.

I'm feeling a little Jekyll & Hyde at the moment.

My supervisor told me that she's going to call the nursing supervisor and that it's more or less up to the nursing supervisor if I'm to be fired. The technician in me would like to keep his job. The writer in me would like to have the antagonist for his story.

If she doesn't get me fired, and I name the character after her, it isn't retaliation - it's aggression. But her name and attitude are exactly what have been missing from my story.