My first naming

All week I've been thinking about names. I've been doing some writing with placeholders like "Name" or "Dad" instead of solid identities, which strikes me as rather backward. The trouble is, every time I begin to think about names, I run into roadblocks. Can't use this one because I have a cousin with that name. Can't use that one or my friend will think it's about him. Can't use that one because it's too common. Can't use that one because who could pronounce it?

I've been reading my baby name books and an interesting volume called "The Secret Universe of Names," which provides characterizations for names based on the sounds the letters make. For instance, my name indicates that I am both soft-spoken and coquettish, which I'm afraid is a taaaad off base. But it's intriguingly accurate in other descriptions. I imagine it's a matter of odds - make the description wide-ranging enough, and you're sure to hit the target sometimes.

Primarily, I wanted to choose names that are authentically Irish but still pronounceable (which, naturally, is harder than I thought it would be). Then I read my other baby name book, "Beyond Shannon and Sean," and I've resigned myself to an American-Irish hybrid kinds of names for my main characters.

Anyway, I've been hung up on this for at least two days. Every time I sit down to write, I remember that I still need to flesh out these characters in my head. It's a lot like painting, this business of writing - there's a helluva lot more prep work before you get to the fun part of slapping paint on a wall.