Need advice

[janetbellinger]

In my novel in progress, Rain, I had the character, Emily change her name to Felicity, part way through the novel, then change it back to Emily, later. Would this be confusing and off putting to the reader? I am thinking maybe I should just leave her name as Emily, all the way through, for consistency.

[Zolah]

In my novel in progress, Rain, I had the character, Emily change her name to Felicity, part way through the novel, then change it back to Emily, later. Would this be confusing and off putting to the reader? I am thinking maybe I should just leave her name as Emily, all the way through, for consistency.

If it is vital to the plot and characterisation, then you should try and make it work. If not (maybe you just throught it was a cool idea) then you should probably cut it even if you CAN make it work, because it'll be excess baggage on the story.

[James D. Macdonald]

One of the big rules is: don't confuse the readers.

[janetbellinger]

Dear Zolah and James,
Thanks. I thought that too. I just wanted to do it, because at one point, I wanted to change my name. Seems kind of pretentious now.

[glutton]

I have sort of a similar situation in my current WIP, where the main character has lost his memory and so goes by a new name (after the dead brother of his wife who he meets after his memory loss). So flash forward ten years, his old love finds him and is calling him by his old name. Uh oh... But it's either that, or somehow his new wife knows his old name so he keeps it- which would either look contrived due to him having a *shudder* name tag of some sort or another, or she'd have to research his past and find out about it only to deceive him, which isn't what I'm going for with her. Or maybe that would work... will have to think about it.

[Vomaxx]

My main character adopts an alias partway through volume I. I refer to her by her original name always. (Naturally, those who meet her use the alias in dialogue.)

[veinglory]

I wouldn't know without having some idea why she changed her name. I mean entering witness protection seems like a good reason, for one.

[janetbellinger]

She changed it to acknwlege her transformation as a person. It's written in first person, and so it's confusing to have her being addressed by different names. I have revised that portion of the book.