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Do the Characters in My Name is Not Easy Have Voices

Written By Friday, July 29, 2022 Add Comment Edit
  1. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I've been told before to always name characters even in short stories. What do you guys think about that? And why or why not should all these characters be given names?
  2. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin I don't feel tardy.... Staff Supporter Contributor

  3. Laurus

    Laurus Disappointed Idealist Contributor

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    "Names" in the traditional sense like Chuck or Lyall? Nah. They just need identifiers. Otherwise a lot of your sentences wouldn't have subjects.
  4. I don't think, that it is necesary. At least not if it fits the tone or story. Take for example fight club. We don't know the narrators name because that is a vital plot element. Naming the narrator would be stupid.
    Also, I don't think that it is always necesary in short stories eigher. For a great example of that take 'The bread', where the two characters are simply refered to as he or she and it works perfectly.
    There is also thcase in which your characters don't know the name of the unnamed character for some reason. That would also be a reason not to name them.
    But I do think that yes, in general you should name your characters. Especially in novels as it can get annoying if you don't even know the characters name. You can get away with it more in first person but still. I you are going to not name a character, ask yourself why. Is it vital to the story? Does it contribute to the tone? Does it add to the character?
    If you can answer any of these questions with yes, then it is okay not to name your character.
  5. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    The argument I've heard is that names help a reader connect emotionally with the main character, but I dunno if I buy it, myself.

    In one of my published pieces the main character is only referred to as 'the robot' and I think it worked out all right.

  6. Maybe, I'd say it greatly depends on context, sometimes having something in place of the name is better.

    Answer this question: Who are Jonas Grumby, Roy Hinkley and Ginger Grant?

    What if I called them The Skipper, The Professor, and The Movie Star?
    The cast of Gilligian's Island
  7. Kater

    Kater Member

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    As others have said, I think it depends on context. There are times where you don't need a name, even times where a story is more powerful if you never name the character(s) involved. It's good as others said to have identifiers and descriptions of the character so readers can tell them apart, but they don't need a given name -- or even if they have a name that you know, the reader doesn't necessarily need to know the name.
  8. You need identifiers but not necessarily names.
    Walter Hill wrote and directed a movie called The Driver (1978). None of the characters have names. They are know only by what their characters are:

    The Driver
    The Detective
    The Player
    The Connection

    and so on.
    Granted, it is film and you can see who is speaking or doing whatever. But this same device can be used in print.

  9. orangefire

    orangefire Active Member

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    H.G. Wells comes to mind in the way of authors who don't name their characters.

    The main thing I'd be careful of if you don't name your characters is making sure the reader knows who is doing what. I'd say first person is easier to write in that regard since the main character is "I" and thus easy to tell apart from the "he"s and "she"s.

  10. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    This is almost exactly what I was going to say (without the H.G. Wells reference).
  11. Laurus

    Laurus Disappointed Idealist Contributor

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    I've never read any H.G. Wells. How does he go about identifying characters if not by name?
  12. orangefire

    orangefire Active Member

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    He tends to center around one main character and write in first person, at least from what I've read of his works.

    A lot of minor characters get referred to by the main character's relation to them, or by their job. That's his main way of identifying characters.

    War of the Worlds is pretty much the main character and a handful of minor characters.

    The Time Machine does actually name one character. (Weena)

  13. Laurus

    Laurus Disappointed Idealist Contributor

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    Oh, interesting, I like that. I'll have to make a point to read some of his stuff.
  14. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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  15. raine_d

    raine_d Active Member

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    Sometimes an identifier can work even better - I recall a short passage from Elena Bonner's memoir, where she mentions a nameless soldier who was searching the family's home after her stepfather was arrested: the only description she gives is "his eyes were ampty and without any colour. White." From then on he is simply "White Eyes"... and it works, it always stayed with me as making him real and unique, even for just a few pages.
  16. Privateer

    Privateer Senior Member

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    In The War of The Worlds the unnamed Narrator gives the names of only a handful of other characters (Ogilvy, for example) and identifies others as 'the Parson' or 'the Artilleryman'.
  17. Short stories or flash fiction don't necessarily require names for Character's. I have written stories in first person that don't reveal the main character's name or even the secondary character's name. It's a lot of fun and feels mysterious. :3
  18. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I'm kind of surprised that more of you aren't into a more strict character-naming process. I don't really know where I fall on this. I've left characters nameless only to be told they need names. I've never regretted naming an unnamed character. And I've never sold a short story that had nameless characters. I don't know if that really means anything. I'm just so bad at picking out names and tend to reuse the same names over again because they are usually the only ones that come to mind when I try to name characters. I don't know. Thanks for the responses.
  19. raine_d

    raine_d Active Member

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    If you wrote a story from a person's POV about their family, we might never know their parents' or grandparents' names - and whether they used Mother, Mummy, Ma or Mama, Grandad or Poppy, this would be an identifier that could tell us a little extra about the person than finding an excuse to mention that her name was Ruby (and in a story from the child's pov, even her husband might call her Mum)

    It does all depend on the story and the characters.

  20. 33percent

    33percent Active Member

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    Through out my whole book I don't mention the older brother name. I just mention the MC "older brother". I do this on purpose to make the MC brother more of a mystery.
  21. See, in that particular context, I see the two professional titles as being the same as names, or at least filling their places. If I were to write a story that referred to Jonas Grumby as just "the overweight man" or some variation of that, I think it would be distracting, but referring to him by his title helps the hypothetical reader much more than using his name would. As a counter-example, in The Road, by St. Cormac, the two primary characters are only referred to as "the man" and "the boy." It works there because the author is going for stripped-down gloom and doom, but it would probably be distracting in a different context. There's another book I like, however, where we are given to think that we know the MC's name, when in fact we're being led astray. I'm not going to spoil it by saying which one, but throughout five hundred-odd paperback pages, we are presented not with Instead, the author manages to subtly maintain the pattern ofNever once is Bob* referred to by name, except by another character, and the only time he introduces himself he says "They call me Bob," which is factually accurate and an unremarkable speech pattern except for the fact that he is very very much not Bob, no matter what they call him.

    But the reader is left with the impression, until the very end, that (s)he's been reading a story about Bob.

    *"Bob" isn't his name in the story either, just being used as an example.

  22. Seraph751

    Seraph751 If I fell down the rabbit hole... Contributor

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    One of my characters does not have their own name. Rather they are simply referred to by their job. The job is pretty unique so that works, but it isn't a one and only, just a rarity, which leads to some pretty funny scenerios when meeting one of the same profession.
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2018
  23. Identifiers, not necessarily names. As long as you're not just saying "he" or "she" over and over again - you don't really need names. I mean, look at Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca - we never find out the name of the narrator.
  24. No names & written in the second person 'you,' and played over the radio. I'd kill the radio. I can see it now, the future, my mind's eye.
  25. OB1

    OB1 Senior Member

    I have a few scenes in the book I am writing where I have a group of men who are running away from an unknown dark entity. I name one of the men who is not necessarily a main character, I name him because I use him to convey an emotional event. The other 3 men are nameless for now. One of them will turn out to be an important character another dies, but I want his identity to be hidden for now.

    What would be the best way to refer to them in the omniscient POV narrative?

    So far I have been referring to the eldest of the three. and in another dialogue example I refer to the other one. E.g

    "Dave and I will take the left path you take the right" said the <blank>

    I Can't think of a way to refer to the other man that will make sense to the reader.

    Thanks

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