Narration question for my writing friends...

[switch842]

In the narration of a story, should people be referred to by first or last name? In my latest story, right now, I have everything as "blah blah blah," FirstName said. But, there are some characters where we don't have first names, so they are "blah blah blah," LastName said. But that's just inconsistent, isn't it? So, should I make up first names for everyone? Or change everything to LastName said?

Comments

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Like regann I also write from a limited 3rd person POV. When I started out I was lucky to get a comprehensive beta/tutorial from an excellent writer who discouraged my "head-hopping" (switching randomly from one POV to another). While I have read universal POV in pro-fic (CS Lewis comes to mind) most of the published literature and fanfic I've read either limits the POV to one character the entire story (think Harry Potter - if he's present in the scene it's always in his POV) or switched POV is denoted by the story being sectioned accordingly. It never changes mid-paragraph.

That accomplished, then the characters are referred to however the person you're writing as would call them. If you're writing as Jack O'Neill then you're going to call your colleagues Daniel and Carter. If you're writing as Daniel you'd refer to Jack and Sam. If you're Sam you'd refer to Daniel and the Colonel. If you're Teal'c you'd refer to Daniel Jackson, Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter.

I recommend Stephen King's "On Writing" as an excellent resource.