Answer - Using names and pronouns when there's one person in a scene
Anonymous asked Fandom Grammar When should you repeat a character’s name? If there is only one character in the scene, should you repeat their name once over the course of the paragraph or keep saying "he" or "she"?
Names are useful things and in writing, as in magic, they have power. We get a completely different vibe from Pyanfur Chanur than we do from Slartibartfast.
In writing, two things that add to the reader’s experience are clarity and variety. If a character is entitled in a scene or a story to warble ‘all by myself, don’t wanna be all by myself, anymore’, then you can serve clarity with one use of the character’s name and then the appropriate pronoun. If it’s a short scene then there’s no issue with regular use of a simple he or she. Perhaps Pyanfur is wrestling with yet another tricky real space entry. Perhaps Slartibartfast is considering the beauty of fjords, and whether that particular coastline would look better with stony beaches or dramatic cliffs.
Pyanfur comes from a culture and setting where she spends a lot of time with other people. Scenes where she’s the only person presented to the reader, with no interaction or even mental consideration of others, will be comparatively rare, at which point we’re back to her name or an occasional epithet to help distinguish her from other players. Slartibartfast, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to get out a lot.
There’s no reason that a story featuring Slartibartfast, all by himself and obsessed with geology and geography, would need anything more than the pronoun ‘he’. It’s perfectly clear to whom that pronoun refers. However, there may be other stylistic issues that the writer needs to take into account along the way. Like I said earlier, names do have power. Perhaps it’s worthwhile using Slartibartfast’s name at the opening of a new scene to give the reader’s mind and eyes a rest from ‘he’, or to emphasise that Slartibartfast is taking a particular action, or feeling a particular emotion. It depends on the length of the scene involved and what mood you’re trying to evoke.
If you feel that a scene will be enhanced with using Slartibartfast’s name, once a paragraph or so is fine. The next question is how long are your paragraphs? Are you putting Slartibartfast’s name at the beginning of the paragraph every. single. time. or are you mixing it up with mentioning his name mid-paragraph instead?
Let’s take a Stargate universe character and shove her through a stargate to an abandoned world. Sam Carter is all alone, and we know that she’s alone. We don’t need to be reminded of who she is. The next question is - what is she doing while she’s all alone? Is she alone because she’s on an important solo mission? Has she made a desperate escape from a bad situation, is she on a training exercise? What is she thinking about, or not thinking about, that will justify the writer not including any other character or any thought or memory of other characters?
Perhaps she needs to catch her food, and we can follow Sam through the process of creating a trap or snare. She gathers her materials, she works steadily to create something useful, she sets her trap and then - success! Does ‘she’ feel triumph, or does ‘Sam’ feel triumph? Names have emotional impact when you pop them into the right place. Leaving them out can also create impact. Has Sam been alone so long that she doesn’t need to think of herself by name? Or does she think of herself as ‘Sam’ all the time to retain some sense of identity? You choose.
The short answer is that there are no hard and fast rules about using names versus pronouns when a piece of writing features a single individual. Whatever you choose, you want it to read smoothly and to be clearly understandable.
Thank you to C J Cherryh, Douglas Adams and the Stargate:SG1 creators for your characters.
Names are useful things and in writing, as in magic, they have power. We get a completely different vibe from Pyanfur Chanur than we do from Slartibartfast.
In writing, two things that add to the reader’s experience are clarity and variety. If a character is entitled in a scene or a story to warble ‘all by myself, don’t wanna be all by myself, anymore’, then you can serve clarity with one use of the character’s name and then the appropriate pronoun. If it’s a short scene then there’s no issue with regular use of a simple he or she. Perhaps Pyanfur is wrestling with yet another tricky real space entry. Perhaps Slartibartfast is considering the beauty of fjords, and whether that particular coastline would look better with stony beaches or dramatic cliffs.
Pyanfur comes from a culture and setting where she spends a lot of time with other people. Scenes where she’s the only person presented to the reader, with no interaction or even mental consideration of others, will be comparatively rare, at which point we’re back to her name or an occasional epithet to help distinguish her from other players. Slartibartfast, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to get out a lot.
There’s no reason that a story featuring Slartibartfast, all by himself and obsessed with geology and geography, would need anything more than the pronoun ‘he’. It’s perfectly clear to whom that pronoun refers. However, there may be other stylistic issues that the writer needs to take into account along the way. Like I said earlier, names do have power. Perhaps it’s worthwhile using Slartibartfast’s name at the opening of a new scene to give the reader’s mind and eyes a rest from ‘he’, or to emphasise that Slartibartfast is taking a particular action, or feeling a particular emotion. It depends on the length of the scene involved and what mood you’re trying to evoke.
If you feel that a scene will be enhanced with using Slartibartfast’s name, once a paragraph or so is fine. The next question is how long are your paragraphs? Are you putting Slartibartfast’s name at the beginning of the paragraph every. single. time. or are you mixing it up with mentioning his name mid-paragraph instead?
Let’s take a Stargate universe character and shove her through a stargate to an abandoned world. Sam Carter is all alone, and we know that she’s alone. We don’t need to be reminded of who she is. The next question is - what is she doing while she’s all alone? Is she alone because she’s on an important solo mission? Has she made a desperate escape from a bad situation, is she on a training exercise? What is she thinking about, or not thinking about, that will justify the writer not including any other character or any thought or memory of other characters?
Perhaps she needs to catch her food, and we can follow Sam through the process of creating a trap or snare. She gathers her materials, she works steadily to create something useful, she sets her trap and then - success! Does ‘she’ feel triumph, or does ‘Sam’ feel triumph? Names have emotional impact when you pop them into the right place. Leaving them out can also create impact. Has Sam been alone so long that she doesn’t need to think of herself by name? Or does she think of herself as ‘Sam’ all the time to retain some sense of identity? You choose.
The short answer is that there are no hard and fast rules about using names versus pronouns when a piece of writing features a single individual. Whatever you choose, you want it to read smoothly and to be clearly understandable.
Thank you to C J Cherryh, Douglas Adams and the Stargate:SG1 creators for your characters.