“As in the universe every atom has an effect, however minuscule, on every other other atom, so that to pinch the fabric of Time and Space at any point is to shake the whole length and breadth of it, so in fiction every element has an effect on every other, so that to change a character’s name from Jane to Cynthia is to make the fictional ground shudder under her feet.”
John Gardner, The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers (46).