It feels good to talk about writing. So maybe I’ll do a little more.

One issue that has been on my mind lately is choosing names in songs or stories.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine convinced me that if you use names in a story, you should use the names of people you know. Of course, if you’re writing a song about someone and don’t want them to know it, you’re probably going to want to change the name, but you should think of someone else you actually know, and use their name instead. They don’t have to be someone you associate with much, but they should be a name you hear often in conversation.

Why? Because if you don’t use the names of people you know, you’re likely to use a bunch of names that none of your friends have, and that sound completely unbelievable. Common names are the colour scheme to each generation - can you imagine how strange it would be if suddenly there was no one around you called Emma, Sarah, Tim, or Josh? That’s what it’s like when you read a book supposedly set in your time and place, but none of these names are in there. I’m reading one such book at the moment. It’s a good book, but it’s full of these thoughtful, ethnically diverse names I’ve never heard before, and they dent the believability of it for me.

This doesn’t apply if you’re writing something historical, futuristic, or set in a foreign country. This is just for if you’re writing in the here and now, which most songwriters are.

Now this post is almost pointless because the best advice to a songwriter is don’t use names. You, me he, she, they, we are much more universal and easier to connect with - but somehow I always break that rule, and I end up here musing about names.