??

[sholio]

Let us say, simply for the sake of argument, that one might be writing a short Dresden Files story from Murphy's POV, in the third person. Which would be a more natural-sounding name to call her, "Karrin" or "Murphy"? I started out with "Murphy" because it's how I think of her, then decided that most people probably don't think of themselves by

Comments

[trobadora]

Actually, I'd started out with "Murphy" because I was in a pretty distant third-person POV, but as the story wore on, it got tighter and tighter, and started to feel less and less appropriate to use her surname, until I ended up going with the first name all the way through. It was an interesting exercise for me in being drawn closer and closer into the character's head, to the point where the name I'd originally used to refer to her didn't feel right anymore.

Yep, that sounds pretty interesting!

Agreed about consistency, although I have to say it took me a long time to warm up to "John". Eventually I got used to it, partially because people started using his given name on the show more frequently, but it felt wrong to me for a long time. *g*

You're right, I noticed that too - slash writers (and het writers too) often prefer the given name. It's probably an attempt to create intimacy, to anticipate the way lovers would use each other's given name? (Just like first time stories often make a point of stressing the switch from surname to given name.) But it doesn't always work for me, especially if there's not enough basis in canon. "John" at least works for me now, whereas I will never, ever warm up to fic from Snape's POV that uses "Severus". I don't care how the man thinks of himself; it sounds false to me.