Julia sent
in a question which I know many writers agonise over. She says: I think I've more or less got the knack of
when to use a character's name and when to substitute for "he" or
"she" within a paragraph. However, is there a grammatical rule about new
paragraphs? If the story is continuing - and no other characters' names are
mentioned - is it okay to continue using she/her and he/him, or should you
refer to the character by name again?
There isn’t a grammatical rule. The only thing to
bear in mind is clarity for the reader. If it is obvious from context that you
are still referring to the same character, then there is no need to name him or
her again.
However, if there is the slightest possibility of confusion or
ambiguity, then use the character’s name. Just because another character’s name
hasn’t been mentioned doesn’t mean there isn’t someone else in the room. The
last thing you want is to cause your readers to come out of the story while
they try to work out to whom the pronoun refers.
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I do wish Hilary Mantel had taken this advice. Although she's probably laughing as The Booker prize judges obviously don't consider clarity to be very important!
ReplyDeleteSound advice, unfortunately often ignored. It's a fine line - not using the name too often or not using it where it should be placed.
ReplyDelete