Thoughts on Damaris, Part 1

I'd previously written about the risk of people identifying me with my main character because the novel is written in the first person. And if people were to identify me with Artanis, there was also the risk that they'd figure Damaris, the lead female in the story, is either some woman I know or my "dream" woman.

Well, the thing about good ol' Damaris is that she started life as a man.

In the early versions of the novel -- rough drafts that no one but me ever saw -- Damaris was a male character named Malik. Malik was Artanis's best friend, rival, and foil.

So how'd we go from Malik to Damaris? It was one of those bolts from the blue: as I read the first draft, the idea that the Malik character would have more impact as a female just struck me out of nowhere.

I kept much of the character's actions and dialogue exactly the same and saw that as a female, the character could still be Artanis' best friend, rival, and foil. (Joseph in some ways acts as a foil to Artanis as well, but Mr. Dreamer shall be the topic of another post.)

Then another bolt struck me when I realized I could do all sorts of wonderful things for the story and for Artanis' life journey by making her a love interest in addition to being friend/rival/foil.

As with several of the folks in the Face Value Blues, people have asked where the name comes from. I tried to do something a little clever with many of the character's names. Taking a cue from both the Bible and Shakespeare, there are many puns and allusions in FVB if you know where and how to look....

But not in Damaris' case.

No, Damaris is a name I first encountered way back in the first grade. She was a little dark-eyed, dark haired classmate of mine. And although I can't recall whether or not we were friends, and although I certainly didn't know I wanted to be a writer back then, I kept her name in my mind from the moment I first heard it.

Fast forward 27 years, and there I am bestowing it on one of my most important characters in my first novel.

And here's something that will throw you for a loop: after writing FVB, I met another Damaris. It ain't exactly what you'd call a common name. And Damaris 1 and Damaris 2 were from different cultures: the Damaris I met in the 1st grade was from the Middle East; the Damaris I met a couple years ago was a blonde, blue-eyed young woman of Italian descent.

But the thing is, the parents of the Damarises I've met and I all chose well in picking the name: according to some sources, the Indo-European root from which the name comes means "dominant", making the name mean "dominant woman."

How's all of that for "coincidence", huh?

As always, thanks for reading.