Naming names


One of the things writers do. Charles Salzberg:

Since the technique worked for me once, both creatively and as a nice little inside joke, a kind of cut-rate Nabokovian element, I thought it might be fun to use other names of people I knew. And so when I needed to create a character who was an expert on rare books, I used my old friend and fellow writer Ross Klavan, even giving the character some of Ross’s physical and vocal qualities, as well as his love of books. Swann’s search takes him up to Syracuse University, where he meets an unconventional English professor, one more link in the chain of his search. This became Richard Dubin, a real-life professor friend who teaches film and television at the Newhouse School, where I once taught.

I didn’t bother asking permission of any of these friends, knowing I could always change the names once the book was finished. But when I offhandedly mentioned my little literary parlor game to them, none seemed the least bit disturbed. In fact, they were pleased. The only surprising plea: “please don’t make me a good guy.”

Story. (NYT paywall)