Naming

Some writers have an absolute genius for names. Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, J K Rowling. Martin Chuzzlewit, Bottom, Dumbledore. Half the fun of reading the Harry Potter saga was the huge array of superbly-named characters. What could have been a jumbled mess turned into a community of people we readers could pick out from a crowd.

Except for the Weasley twins - I never could keep them straight.

I've always struggled with character names. I try to follow the tips, such as give each character a name starting with a different letter of the alphabet and to avoid "flat" names like Horace or Roseanne. Make them "spikey" like Marshall or Kyle.

I'm still feeling my way with this novel. I've tended to use the first name that pops into my head and see how it feels. Mister Payne, the sports master, works well for me - as a student I always associated sports lessons with pain, both physical and mental.

There's a reason why I named one character Kenny, but it's not going to last, as anyone who is a South Park fan is going to suspect that Kenny won't last the distance. I surnamed him Truscott, which is kind of everyday, and then I remembered last month in Vienna, where I heard people greeting each other with "Gruss Gott". So I've changed that. Kenny Grusgott he is. For the moment.

I like odd names. Tom Wolfe is a great one for this Peter Fallow for the once-prolific writer. Gene Lopwitz for the one-eyed investment mogul.

There will be changes. The names will grow into the characters.