(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

[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.