??

[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 their surname and went through and replaced it all with "Karrin", but now it reads a bit odd to me since the books always call her by her surname. Thoughts?

ETA: After trying it both ways, I think I'm going with Karrin because that's what sounds right for the story and for the level of third-person that I'm going for here. Thank you for the input, everyone; I'll be back to answer comments but right now I'm rushing off for work! :)

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/290939.html with comments.

Comments

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

I'd go with Murphy, if only for consistency with canon. I imagine if you get called by your last name all the time, you start calling yourself it, too.

[sholio]

Yeah, I sort of waffle on this -- I think I can go both ways, honestly. I tried it both ways in the story and found that "Karrin" sounded more in-character to me, but I can see how someone else might choose differently (and I hope that readers aren't thrown by it).

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Was this the story you just posted? I definitely wasn't thrown by it-- I honestly didn't even notice you'd used Karrin, despite having made this comment! So, really not a big deal, I think. :)

[sholio]

Yep, that's the one. :) And I'm glad it wasn't jarring! I think skieswideopen is probably right in her comment below, that it doesn't really matter all that much what terminology you use as long as you're consistent about it.

[trobadora]

Haha, I've had that problem before! The conclusion I came to is that in third person, strictly adhering to the character's own POV isn't actually a virtue if it creates unintended alienation effects for the reader, so it's better to use the familiar character name. (Fanfic often insists on very tight third person, so much so that I suspect some people have forgotten that's not the only option. *g*)

(Er. YMMV, obviously - that's just the conclusion I came to, the last time that problem came up for me.)

[sholio]

Heh, I do totally get what you're saying here. :D 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.

But I also agree with skieswideopen in the comment below this one that consistency is probably the most important thing from the reader's point of view, as long as you're not using something completely off-the-wall (like always calling one character Snookums or whatever *g*). I don't usually care if a writer refers to John Sheppard as "John" or "Sheppard" as long as they don't do too much random switching back and forth. (Although there is a really interesting trend -- I don't know if you ever noticed this -- for gen writers to use surnames and slash writers to use first names; it's not true across the board, but in general it seemed like gen writers tended to use surnames more often. I'm not sure if it was narrative distance or social convention or romance vs action or ... I'm not sure, but I found it interesting!)

[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.

[skieswideopen]

I was faced with this recently for a story I was writing for a different (television) fandom, and ended up going with the character's first name. But I think people will adjust quickly to either one as long as you're consistent.

[sholio]

Heh, I think I actually agree with you that consistency is the most important thing! I've read stories that used a bunch of different ways of referring to the protagonists, and as long as they didn't shift around randomly, I never really paid much attention to whether they were using "John" or "Sheppard" ... or whatever.

[skieswideopen]

Well, there are times when you might use both names, but generally there's only going to be on in the narration, right? Dialogue is another matter...

[sholio]

Oh, yeah, sure. What the characters call each other is a whole different can of worms. :D

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

Karrin. I don't believe she'd think of herself as Murphy - I've been working phone-heavy jobs where I introduce myself to hundreds of people as "My name is RealLastName" every day, and I still wouldn't think of myself like that.

[sholio]

Yeah, I ended up going with Karrin, although one thing I found really interesting was how I started out calling her Murphy and, as my viewpoint got slowly tighter and tighter as the story wore on, it started to feel more natural to call her Karrin. It was a very intriguing glimpse into how much of POV word choice depends on just exactly how close you're getting to your viewpoint character.