From: djheydt@kithrup.com   
      
   In article ,   
   John W Kennedy   wrote:   
   >On 2/7/19 8:26 AM, Brian P. wrote:   
   >>   
   >> My latest story is coming along in fits and starts.  I've noticed   
   >myself doing something that I fear might look terribly amateurish in the   
   >finished work.  Half of the time I refer to my heroine by her name,   
   >Eleanor, and the other half of the time I call her Ellie, according to   
   >the mood of the paragraph.  It bothers me to use one name when I think   
   >the other fits better.   
   >>   
   >> I can't think of another written work in which the narrative voice   
   >doesn't settle on one of a character's possible names and stick with it.   
   >Does anyone see any possible chance that this tactic will work, or is it   
   >just going to look dumb when it's all done?   
   >>   
   >> I don't think reader confusion is an issue here, as there are very few   
   >named characters and none with a name at all similar.   
   >   
   >If this is in the narrative voice and she’s the POV character, some   
   >readers may suspect that you’re subtly hinting at MPD. If, on the other   
   >hand, the two names are what other characters call her in dialog,   
   >following some kind of regular pattern, it may not stand out at all. For   
   >reasons too involved to go into here I've been 'Jay' to my family and   
   >'John' to the world for 64 years. My wife has actually learned to   
   >code-switch.   
   >   
   >(Indeed, these things can be complex. My wife is actually named   
   >'Eleanor', but her two older sisters called her 'Ellie' until   
   >the two of   
   >us became engaged. Once she 'had a feller of her own' [see 'œarousel'],   
   >she immediately graduated to 'Eleanor'. 'Nought so queer as folk.')   
      
   Perhaps they figured that children got nicknames but when someone   
   started courting, she must be an adult.  Cf. the right wing   
   trying to diss Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because she was called   
   "Sandy" as a kid.   
      
   My husband, now known to everybody as "Hal," was actually   
   christened "Wilson."  So was his father.  His family called him   
   "Willie" to distinguish him from his father, and his mother went   
   on calling him that to her dying day.  When everybody he knew in   
   the SCA started calling him "Hal" because he'd chosen the SCA   
   name "Hal Ravn", the rest of his family switched over.  Now, when   
   I answer the phone and somebody asks to speak to "Wilson," I say,   
   "Hey, Hal, it's somebody who doesn't know you.  Probably a sales   
   pitch."   
      
   --   
   Dorothy J. Heydt   
   Vallejo, California   
   djheydt at gmail dot com   
   www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)