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

[elynross.livejournal.com]

When I edit for people, I always talk to them about using a character-appropriate name for internal/first person/etc. stuff. I guess it just makes sense to me that Duncan wouldn't think of himself as "MacLeod," so it's jarring to me when I'm in his head to have him using "MacLeod," even in narrative bits. There, I think Duncan works better for me because in his most intimate relationships, they do call him Duncan most of the time, so it seems to me that's how he thinks of himself, albeit unconsciously. It's also a good indicator for me that a writer is consciously making those choices. And come to think of it, that's how I came to this preference, to start with: examining indiscriminate name-changing in stories, and coaxing people to make conscious choices about why they used what name where.

I wouldn't say it ruins a story for me if Mulder is referred to as Mulder, or Fraser as Fraser, even in the confines of their own minds, and I don't think most people actually articulate their own names in the privacy of their heads, but it's like a bridge to me, a more intimate feeling of being in their heads. And it then has the added bonus of allowing me to use a variation with intent, so that if a character "thinks" of themself as MacLeod, or Mulder, or Fraser, it indicates a change of mood or thought, conscious or unconscious.

Although I don't think reading books about writing are required, the books I've liked best about the writing process have usually mentioned name usage of this sort as a way of indicating tightness of PoV and character intimacy.