Character naming question - Writers Forum

Dreamer · 05-12-2006, 05:55 PM

Hello,
Firts off let me say I am not sure if this is the right place for this, so sorry if it is not.

I know the old rule about naming your main character as soon as the story starts and not having someone else name them in speech. But I am having a problem with this.

My problem with it is; my main character does not have a name until well into the story. This is partly from amnesia when she was a child and mostly because her foster mother always calls her ‘Child’ and never named her, while the people in the village she comes to live in refers to her as ‘The Blind One’. So I am unsure how I should refer to her in the story until she obtains her name.

In the opening I have her and the sub-main male of the story talking, then I have her waking to the sound of her mother making noise in her room, and a few minutes later there is going to be a fire that breaks out.

I don’t want to go through the first part of the story with tons of ‘She said and She did’

Any help in the matter would be very helpful.

Quillqueen · 05-12-2006, 05:59 PM

No! Definitely don't keep her entirely nameless. That's annoying. Give her a temporary name. I wrote a short story in which the character was nameless, but everyone called her Gypsy. It wasn't her name, and that was clear, but at least they had something proper to call her until she had a real name. I mean, you can call her The Blind One, or Blind One, or you can give her a separate name. Maybe one that has a reference. Like, how I used Gypsy. Something that has a meaning. It could be "I was called Radath, because it meant 'one who wanders'...." You know, that kind of thing.

Good luck,

Q

P.S.Yes, this is the right place to post these kinds of questions.

BryanBeasley · 05-12-2006, 06:01 PM

She still has a name even though it's not her true name.

Even if that name is The Blind One. If that's the name your villies chose for this unfortunate character, either use it, or kill them and replace them with more creative villagers.

Dreamer · 05-12-2006, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BryanBeasley

either use it, or kill them and replace them with more creative villagers.

LOL very funny, thank you for the reply and the laugh.

Mike C · 05-12-2006, 07:33 PM

Don't be afraid to break the rules.

Jose Saramago managed to get through an entire novel (Blindness) without naming a single character. And he won a Nobel Prize for Literature.

New Moon · 05-12-2006, 11:22 PM

Do whatever works for the story and the flow of the writing. that's my motto. well, to an extent at least. lol.
And you don't have do a lot of "she said" stuff. just switch it around a bit. like if in a story you're writing about a nameless assassin, then put "the assassin said" or whatever. in this case, do like quillqueen said and use "the blind one" or what fits in with the story. or maybe even refer to her as "child", although, that may sound a little wierd. o_0
really, as long as it sounds good and doesn't make the reader stop and stare at the page funny or groan from annoyance, then it's probably okay.

probably.....

Kane · 05-12-2006, 11:25 PM

I recently read a short story by Neil Gaiman in which he did not name any of the characters. It would have ruined the story if he did. Don't worry about it. Write how you want.

Quillqueen · 05-13-2006, 06:18 PM

Wow, I didn't know that not naming any of your characters was so popular!

scnd · 05-14-2006, 12:01 AM

Personally, i like watching a character struggle to find their own name.

Alice's "Well I must call myself something" really hit me a long time back, and i really like that idea

deyanalin · 05-15-2006, 11:03 PM

I usually go to a names site, the ones that tell you what names mean and tell it to tell mean names that mean whatever comes to mind. Then I make a list of the ones I like and one I think fits best becomes the name.

Dookie · 05-16-2006, 12:16 PM

I like names to have meanings to them too. Or if they don't have a meaning be entirely appropriate to that character.