There is an old Beatle’s song called Rocky Racoon– sung by McCartney. The whole song is a riot but one line in particular cracks me up every time I hear it. Being a writer that has had to change the name of a character in mid stream, I can totally relate to the line Macca wrote “Her name was Magil and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy.”  That is just such an awesome line.

My recent WIP has a heroine named Joanna. Her brother calls her Jo. Her name didn’t start out as Joanna and she fought  me for every word.  She started out as Capri with a nickname of Cappy. Once she let me know her real name, I was able to move on with a better flow to the story.

So, here’s my line with apologies to Macca’s line: “Her name was Joanna and she called herself Jo, but her writer knew her as Capri.”  It doesn’t fit the tune as well as the original line, but you get my point, right? Gotta go with the flow sometimes and name them what they need to be called.

Yeah, the song isn't about a real raccoon, but what the heck