(no subject)

[graculus]

Oh no, spamming the livejournal...

Anyway, here's the thing: I'm writing a story which has a character who has amnesia (yes, just in time for my cliché panel at connotations!) and I'm writing it in third person kind of from his point of view.

So, character A has amnesia and for a certain reason, he actually thinks he's B. Is it reasonable for me to call him B once he comes to the conclusion that's who he is (even though that conclusion is wrong, he's going to get told it's wrong but initially not believe it and then discover it is wrong), or am I stuck with calling A 'he' all the way through until he finally does get his memory back? Because I can't call him A if he doesn't know he's A, can I?

And does this make any sense at all? No? Fair enough. ;)

Comments

[rach74.livejournal.com]

I think calling him 'He' would save confusing the reader

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I think if I weren't writing for a teeny fandom where I have confidence that everyone will immediately pick up on the references I've put in the first couple of scenes for the reader about who he is and who he thinks he is, I'd probably not try it since I can see how it could be confusing...

[manna]

Yes, I would go with calling him 'he' until he decides who he is, then 'B' once he come to that conclusion. Especially if it's written in pretty close third.

And then I would get it betaed to hell with a high-power microscope, because I know if it was me I'd be typing the wrong name all the damn time. :-)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

When my head stops spinning. ;)

That's the problem with slash amnesia stories if you're writing them from the pov of the person who's the amnesiac! He doesn't know who he is, he doesn't know who anyone is, so it's all 'he' and 'he' and that's confusing (not to mention tedious to write if you're avoiding epithets).

[manna]

(not to mention tedious to write if you're avoiding epithets).

But surely the beauty of it is that you don't have to avoid the epithets! It's about the only time you can totally legitimately use 'the tall man' or 'the dark haired man' or 'the policeman' as a description for someone because that's really all the character knows about someone he's just met -- they're tall, or dark-haired, or a policeman (but turn out to actually be a stripper in police uniform). I think you should go all-out for it.

[amycooper.livejournal.com]

I'm writing it in third person kind of from his point of view

My creative writing profs called that "over the shoulder third person."

And yeah, I think you can call him B during to part of the story in which he thinks he is B. You could call him A or B in italics. I think it will all work.

Or, over analyizing it to break it down further...

Even though the character thinks he is B, the narrative voice does, I assume, know better. Hence he could be called A.

By calling him B in the narration, the narrative voice is getting inside his brain, so to speak. Also you might want to call him "B" or even B which indicates something in between.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

No getting all technical on me! ;)

[amycooper.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm a sucker for amnsia stories. Who is it?

[graculus.livejournal.com]

It's a Wild Wild West story (the tv series, not the icky movie).

[amycooper.livejournal.com]

Oooo...I always wanted to see that series. I suspect I would really enjoy it.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Only if you like shows where the main character wears unfeasibly tight pants, gets tied up a lot and only has an emotional attachment to his (male) partner and I can't imagine there are many people who like that sort of thing... ;)

[amycooper.livejournal.com]

Oh, now you're just messing with me! *drools*

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Well, season 1 finally came out on dvd this year, so I dare say it's out there on Netflix or something... ;)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I think I've done that and will hope to continue to do so. And also having a potential audience of about 5 people who know the source material really well helps the clues I've put in the first scene tell them he's A, not B. ;)

[katyabaturinsky.livejournal.com]

I vote for calling him B, if it's from his POV; otherwise it seems to me that you'd be tainting his POV with omniscient POV. And I think that his realization of his error would come across more powerfully, or appear more deeply felt, if he had to switch from calling himself B upon discovering the truth. But YMMV, of course. (I believe I've read some amnesia stories that used this type of device -- or something along these lines -- to fairly good effect.)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

What I didn't actually add to the original post is that A thinks he's B because of seeing his picture (A's face) on a wanted poster for B (who may or may not actually exist) and that's why he thinks he's B once he sees himself in a mirror. Because maybe he is B? ;)

It seems to work, and also the first scene is heavily laced with clues for the five people who make up the WWW fandom and they'll immediately know he's A.

[khek.livejournal.com]

Yikes! You don't ask easy questions!

I think I've seen it written both ways. Does the reader know that he's not B? Because if the reader *does* know, then I think I would stick with calling A A. If the reader *doesn't* know, then I'd go with calling A B. I think you could carry off either though. :)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

It's not specifically stated that he's A, but there are enough clues for the people in the tiny fandom to pick up on, but also to understand why he'd think he was B - in the show (Wild Wild West), A's picture has been put up on wanted posters that say he's B, so when he gets amnesia and finds one of those posters, he thinks he's B once he sees that's his face on the poster. So actually, A is B, at least physically. Even more confused now? ;)

And thanks for the vote of confidence. :)

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

Totally reasonable, IMO, to call him B. As you say calling him A wouldn't make sense, if he doesn't know he's A.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

And calling him 'he' all the way through is driving me up the wall. I had to make the other main character introduce himself to B so it wasn't 'he' and 'he'. ;)