BuccFest Wk2: How I came up with my WIP Idea

Welcome to Friday of Week Two of the Buccaneer Blogfest hosted by Sharon Bayliss and Court Young. You can still join the fray by going HERE.

Today's task is to post about how we came up with the idea for our WIP. But I think how I came up with my main character's name is so much more interesting, so I'm going to share that instead.

How Indigo Eady came to be:

Indigo Eady
Illustration by Corona Zschusschen
www.sjusjun.com/

I've always been interested in the paranormal, so I knew my main character would be a psychic who could speak to ghosts. I started out wanting to give my characters a charactonym, a descriptive name that matched their personalities. For example, "Malfoy" in the Harry Potter series is latin for "bad faith," or Professor "Lupin" comes from the latin for wolf or wolf-like. I quickly realized, though, that this wasn't going to completely work for me. Since I write paranormal "mysteries," the names would give too much away if I used charactonyms.

However, I was able to come up with a name for my MC that was charactonym-like, by doing a little research. In the late 1990's, new age enthusiasts theorized about a new breed of children that are believed to be the next stage in human evolution. They are more enlightened, empathetic, honest and some hold special psychic abilities. They are called Indigo Children. Hence, the name Indigo! It fit nicely with my character's way of being (honest and empathetic) and her abilities (psychic, ghost-whispering, Psychometry-reading.)

The last name, Eady, was my grandmother's maiden name and was chosen to honor her. She was such a special person in my life and I adored her! Luckily, Indigo fit perfectly with Eady. In addition, my grandmother (Scotch-Irish and Cherokee) had black hair and blue eyes, a very striking combination. And as you can see, my character - Indigo Eady - also has black hair and blue eyes.

And that is how Indigo Eady came to be!