| How far can you go before you are branded a copycat?
After a lot of research and scanning baby name books and websites and looking up the meanings of many names, I landed on Brandon for the name of my main character. It wasn't until I had replaced most of the placeholder names in the first few chapters to Brandon that it hit me that Bran Stark in the Song of Ice and Fire series is short for Brandon.
Why does this even matter, do you ask? Well because the ASOIAF series has been a huge inspiration to me to veer away from generic fantasy and more to "alternate history" I guess you could call it. There are no wizards and elves in my story just the good old folk that would have been around between 500 and 1000 years ago. They are pretty much just Lords, Knights or Peasants.
I've also adapted a POV writing style since reading the books which it struck me George also uses. I suddenly feel like my sub conscious has just been rewriting these books and now I don't know if I have to scrap everything and start again. I hope I'm overreacting.
So what do you think? How many of these things (maybe there are more I just can't tell anymore) are acceptable before everyone thinks I'm just copying another writer? I feel kind of glad I've caught this now but I really want to keep my main character's name. Brandon just fits him so perfectly! |