Editing David Copperfield (section)

===First inspirations===
[[File:Charles Dickens 1850.jpeg|thumb|left|Charles Dickens in 1850]]
On 7 January 1849, Dickens visited [[Norwich]] and [[Great Yarmouth|Yarmouth]] in [[Norfolk]], with two close friends, [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]] (1817–1864) and [[Mark Lemon]] (1809–1870).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://charlesdickenspage.com/family_friends.html |work=The Charles Dickens Page |last=Perdue |first=David A |title=Charles Dickens: family and friends |access-date=25 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721120345/http://www.charlesdickenspage.com/family_friends.html |archive-date=21 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Leech was an illustrator at ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', a satirical magazine, and the first illustrator for ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' by Dickens in 1843. Lemon was a founding editor of ''Punch'', and soon a contributor to ''[[Household Words]]'', the weekly magazine Dickens was starting up; he co-authored ''Mr Nightingale's Diary'', a farce, with Dickens in 1851.<ref name=Schlicke1999pp150331>{{harvnb|Schlicke|1999|pp=150, 331, 334}}</ref><ref name=Page1999p382>{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Page |title=Charles Dickens: Family History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xf2QqVI19b8C&pg=PA382 |year=1999 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-22233-4 |page=382}}</ref> The two towns, especially the second, became important in the novel, and Dickens informed Forster that Yarmouth seemed to him to be "the strangest place in the world" and that he would "certainly try my hand at it".<ref>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to John Forster, 12 January 1849</ref> During a walk in the vicinity of Yarmouth, Dickens noticed a sign indicating the small locality of Blundeston, which became in his novel the village of "Blunderstone" where David is born and spends his childhood.<ref name=Schlicke1999p150 />

A week after his arrival in Yarmouth, his sixth son, [[Henry Fielding Dickens]], was named after [[Henry Fielding]], his favourite past author. Per Forster, Dickens refers to Fielding "as a kind of homage to the novel he was about to write".<ref name=Forster1966p6>{{harvnb|Forster|1966|p=VI, 6}}</ref>

As always with Dickens, when a writing project began, he was agitated, melancholic, "even deeper than the customary birth pangs of other novels";<ref name=Forster1966p6 /> as always, he hesitated about the title, and his working notes contain seventeen variants, "Charles Copperfield" included.<ref name=Schlicke1999p150 /> After several attempts, he stopped on "The Copperfield Survey of the World as it Rolled", a title that he retained until 19 April.<ref name=Patten1978pp205>{{harvnb|Patten|1978|pp=205–206}}</ref> When Forster pointed out that his hero, now called David, has his own initials transposed, Dickens was intrigued and declared that this was a manifestation of his [[fate]].<ref name=Forster1966p6 /> He was not yet sure of his pen: "Though I know what I want to do, I am lumbering like a train wagon",<ref>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to John Forster, 19 April 1849</ref> he told Forster.