Hmm.

[katallison]

OK, I'm still trying to write a Vividcon con report, with marked lack of success, but in the meantime -- I'm very curious about something I've come across a couple of times lately in LJ comments, and that is the issue of the name you use to refer to a character when you're writing a close-3rd-person-POV story about that character.

Ahem. Let me see if I can be clearer. Say I'm writing a story in 3rd person about Fraser, where he's the POV character. I always refer to him as "Fraser" because that's, y'know, what I call the guy. But I've seen a couple of people lately saying that in such situations the name used should be the one that the character himself uses when he thinks about himself, so the question is does he think of himself as Fraser, or Ben, or Benton, or whatever?

See, in my head this is kind of, sort of, related to the issue flambeau was talking about a while ago (here, to be specific), where you can't sneak in descriptive stuff by having the POV character musing about his own tautly muscled abs or emerald eyes or whatever, or on the other hand providing detailed descriptions of scenes he regularly moves through and is familiar with to the point of obliviousness. You have to maintain the authenticity/integrity of the character's own awareness. And one could argue, I guess, that using the name the character would use about himself inwardly is part of that authenticity-maintenance, except -- I dunno, I just have never thought of it that way. It feels strange to me, and I'd love to hear others' views.

Comments

[callmesandy.livejournal.com]

Or the perennial Sports Night question of Dan or Danny. I think I used to have Casey think of Dan as "Danny" when it was Casey POV, but Dan thought of himself as Dan. And usually referred to himself when speaking of himself in 3rd POV as Dan, as well. (And I once did a really geeky study of this, man, I'm such a loser.)

I do think in 3rd POV, depending on how very very limited it is, the character would think of him/herself by, hmm, the name they used when referring to themselves. Does Fraser ever speak himself in the third person to guide you there?

Plus, you get the thorny question of relatives in 3rd person limited. Clearly, even if we as readers know the name first and last of the main POV's character's mother, they wouldn't be thinking, "my mother, Jane Doemommy." And I always end up with these odd constructions of "his mother said," "his mom's garden," to maintain that.

The only time I ever got away with someone admiring their taut abs in 3rd person POV was in a body-switching story. Heh.

[helvirago]

Does Fraser ever speak himself in the third person to guide you there?

Actually, he does. The problem is, he generally says "Constable Benton Fraser of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police." Darn Fraser.

I have this problem too, by the way. Generally I just pick one per story and stick with it, but I think I've done third-person using both Fraser and Benton.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Actually, he does. The problem is, he generally says "Constable Benton Fraser of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police." Darn Fraser.

Nothing to add here, just ... ::snickering madly:: So, so true.