Help!

[aldebaran8423]

I am looking for an article or portion of an article on writing that addresses a certain problem (I am not sure if this writing problem has a formal name).  Say your hero is a male, brown haired, librarian, outlaw, etc., etc.  named Bob.  In writing about Bob, our misguided writer calls him "Bob" or 'he" but also, in their fiction, calls him "the

Comments

[koslorollo]

Matter of opinion, dearie. Everything in moderation. If I do it, it's usually from calling a Longcoat by rank, ie "the captain", etc, and is 95% of the time from distant narration of the articled character. Like it'll be snarky Azkadellia's thoughts about Zero, or Tim's thoughts about Mal, etc, etc… of course, in dialogue, it's fine.

My personal opinion of the whole thing is given from your example. Writers tend to do something like that too much. Way too much. Like I said, it's okay if you're expressing a thought by some secondary character (that would be the "omni-narration" thing we've talked about before). Otherwise it's just lazy writing. Or writing that lacks confidence. A writer trying to over-compensate for its character's thoughts, because the writer (<-- ha!) doesn't think the meaning will come through strongly enough. If it doesn't bother you, cool.

[oddsbobs]

I wish it had a name. All I can think of is 'cringe'. And of course, it all has to do with moderation. I'm with Farine on this one: it's mostly a viable option when it's distant narration, often through secondary character. I think it stems from the rules we had drilled into us at school that you can't have more than one sentence in a paragraph begin with the same word. So, people try to mix it up a bit.

I remember reading a book that had Oliver Wendell Holmes (sr) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in it. I loved the book, but what stuck out in my mind and pulled me from the book each time was the way the author rotated the names to keep from using 'Oliver' or 'Henry' too much. One sentence would be Henry, the next, Longfellow and so on. He also used descriptors to identify them a lot. This author used it far too much, and the writing became bad.

[thsfuhqinsux]

They are called epithets, and sometimes they can be used in moderation, sometimes they kind of need to be used, but they are discouraged, especially if they are used too often because they slow down the flow of the story, and can confuse the reader. Another reason is that excessive use of epithets distances the reader from the person whose actions, appearance, words, ect is describing. Think about it, one case when it is excusable and even necessary to use them is when the writer is talking about a person the readers aren't meant to know yet. They don't know his/her name, what she/he is doing or what part they will play in the story yet. If the reader already knows who the person is, it's no longer necessary to refer to them in this distant way, and it becomes detrimental to the story telling if it's done in excess.

Also, it's just damned annoying. :0)

Eighth grade education over here.

[thsfuhqinsux]

Just wanted to add, this also depersonalizes the person being described, somehow makes them seem less human. Another use of the term, what it's come to be thought of mostly is as a derogatory way of talking about someone, as with the term 'racial epithets'. In classic lit, particularly The Odyssey, one epithet was assigned for a person or thing, and used repeatedly, as in a Homeric epithet. Of course, a lot of time has passed since Homer was around using them. Back in Homer's day, they were used differently. Now, they are used in a way that quite frequently is meant to denote that someone is something less of a person, or unworthy of bothering to use their names with or without any kind of honorific.