From: SRigg37889 at aol.com <SRigg37889>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 1995 09:11:34 -0400

I haven't yet fully digested all your comments on names, nor my thinking on how I develop them, but here's some in-the-midst-of-thinking thoughts...
     Usually I choose names instinctively--with the idea of a character's personality in mind. Later, as I'm writing along, those names are working on me, and the names (along with everything the character is doing, saying, etc.) help 'shape' the character--often in ironic ways.
     Perry refers to (in a previous ccbc posting) names in WTM 'hiding' the truth--yes, that's one way of looking at it (and what terrific textual support Perry gave!!). I guess I don't think of 'hiding' but 'revealing'--if you look beneath the exterior (and here Perry and I agree, I think...) of a character, beyond the appearances, beyond the name (if you walk in his mocs.) you often find a quite different 'reality'--and this notion of appearances v. reality, of things not being what they seem, is central to the book (as I discovered only when I was well along in the writing).
     KT explains this too in her reply to Perry's comment, adding to his insights with reference to the structure of the novel, the hidden fireplace image, Sal's story hidden behind Phoebe's, characters inner selves hidden until we explore them... and our own (cf Sal) selves revealed to us only after much probing.
     And it is as much a process of me the writer trying to seek the keys that reveal the character (or, in Perry's terminology, what lies 'hidden') as it is you the reader then following along behind me doing the same.
    Books are amazing.
    But my brain has now shut off.
    Next I'll tackle your comments on Mrs. Partridge..... huzza, Sharon Creech
Received on Wed 26 Jul 1995 08:11:34 AM CDT