(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

[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! ;)