What’s In A Name?

Over the weekend the Hallmark Channel celebrated Lucille Ball’s 100^th birthday with an I Love Lucy marathon. I didn’t catch many episodes, but the few I did reminded me how hilarious that show used to be. In one memorable installment from the season Ricky, Lucy and the Mertz’ spent in Europe, Lucy begged Ricky for an outrageously expensive Paris-designer dress. Of course Ricky refuses. He’s not quite as frugal as Fred Mertz, but he’s unwilling to spend good money on what he believed to be ridiculous fashion. In fact, midway through the show, he and Fred are sitting at a street-side café and laughing at a woman walking by in a designer dress they’re convinced looked like it had been made from potato sacks.

Which of course gives them the idea to take potato sacks to a nearby cleaner/tailor and have a “designer” dress created. Fred, always unwilling to spend any money but more than willing to get in on this prank, is happy to put out a few dollars. For hats they use an ice bucket for Ethel’s and a feed sack for Lucy’s. The dresses do look ridiculous, but not much more so than those sitting with the famed designer at this same café later.

The trick only worked, of course, because Ricky was able to finagle his way into obtaining name brand labels sewn into the phony dresses. When Lucy and Ethel donned that burlap, they were convinced they were dressing to the height of fashion. They strolled down the Paris street, happy to see others ogling them. It wasn’t until Ricky confessed the prank that they felt the shame of wearing such ridiculous outfits.

So for them, everything was in the name—the designer name fraudulently sewn into the dresses they wore.

It made me wonder if such a phenomena could happen elsewhere. My husband said it would probably happen in sports, at least in baseball. If half the major-leaguers were forced to go anonymously back to the minors they would be indistinguishable from the other good players still waiting to be called up. Some players have been awarded high salaries in the major leagues, made a name on a relatively short list of successes, only to offer less than spectacularly consistent results on the field.

Such thoughts come as a warning to me. By no means do I consider myself as having “arrived” in the publishing business. I still hope every book I write will be better than the last, if I don’t want to disappoint myself or my readers. And the fact is, there are definitely some authors whose quality rarely, if ever, seems to suffer. Why? Perhaps because they keep that “fire in the belly” to produce better and better work. They never take themselves too seriously—or their audience for granted. That’s the kind of author I hope to be.

So with that in mind, I’m diving into revisions on my current project. Did I mention I’d turned in my most recent book? I had so much fun with it! But it’s not “finished” yet. I have to admit I love the revision process. Once I receive my editor’s input, I feel validated in so many ways. Sure, there are improvements to be made. But once those are in, I have so much more confidence in the story as a result of the input from other voices I trust and admire.

What’s in a name? Sometimes too much, as in the designer dresses poor Lucy and Ethel wore. But for those in the arts trying to build a name—any of us, from writers to dressmakers—it’s important to keep in mind those brand names are best built upon quality. Consistent quality keeps that brand valuable.