Changing the MC's name after a couple of chapters?

[JLiana]

Hello lovely people!

So I think I've decided for my MC, Mielli, I want Mielli to be a name she chooses to adopt to better hide while she's on the run. However, whenever there's a POV change I title the chapter that way (eg, the first chapter is now ONE: Liora, followed by two, three, until we get to FOUR: Talisien).

So chapter seven is where Mielli comes back into POV focus, but at the end of chapter three she will decide her name is now Mielli, making her next chapter SEVEN: MIELLI.

Is this going to confuse readers? Does the way I worded this make sense?

After seven, she will forever be known as Mielli. I just want the shift to not confuse people.

 

[Karlin]

You are naming the chapters to help the reader know who's viewpoint it is.
1. Do you really need to? Won't the reader understand whose viewpoint it is after a few sentences?
2. My attitude is: write first, worry about such details later.

 

[JLiana]

You are naming the chapters to help the reader know who's viewpoint it is.
1. Do you really need to? Won't the reader understand whose viewpoint it is after a few sentences?
2. My attitude is: write first, worry about such details later.

Haha, that's fair. I may be getting ahead of myself.

I want to say readers would understand, but a critique on another story I wrote said that the dialogue was confusing and they couldn't follow who was saying what, even though the scene was between two people and there were only two lines of dialogue...it makes me nervous about not signalling it haha.

There is also mini chapters between each POV shift though, so that might help signal it too.

 

[Penpilot]

In chapter 7, in the first paragraph, simply remind the reader what name she was using before and that Mielli is her new name that she has chosen, and you should be fine.

It doesn't hurt to give readers a quick reminder on certain significant elements when the story has been focusing on other things.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

For my current story.

Main Party: Has their 'planned names' and probably won't deviate from them through editing.
Minor Characters: Giving them filler names for now until I come up with ones I like more.
Major Minors (Odd way to say it but): These minor characters have many more return appearances throughout the story, so I try to give them their 'canon' names. BUT those are subject to change too.

In chapter 7, in the first paragraph, simply remind the reader what name she was using before and that Mielli is her new name that she has chosen, and you should be fine.

It doesn't hurt to give readers a quick reminder on certain significant elements when the story has been focusing on other things.

Kind of unrelated, but Dragon Quest is fairly good about doing this for you in the modern games. The last few story beats in the game are shown to you in 'previously on the last episode of' fashion when you play again and in DQ 11 you can choose to skip it if you want.

For a book though, I think reminding the reader of their original name is a good move.

 

[RoccO]

Skins episodes are titled that way, and sometimes they are just titled, “everyone,” but only once every season. You also have books titled by the MC, and that is actually quite common amongst the classics.

The problem you may face is having a POV chapter titled by the previous name, or another name in addition, if Star Wars: Rogue One is any standard.

 

[WanderingBard]

I think if you make it clear from the character's perspective, such as a few maybe internal reminders to themselves of their new names, that should make it click easier in reader's heads. You could even make the title chapters more clear about it if you want, like SEVEN: MIELLI (LIORA). I do think using the characters to remind themselves and thus the reader of the change is the cleaner way to do it though. Also if the context makes sense, which in your case it seems like it does, readers should be able to adapt to that really easily.

 

[Karlin]

In my novel, The Second Journey, on of the main characters originally went by multiple names. The monkey King, Sun Wukong, Pilgrim, Great Sage....i was following the Chinese Journey to the West. Very quickly i discovered that this was confusing to readers ( beta readers complained).

 

[ThinkerX]

In 'Labyrinth War,' I have a POV Character who initially went by 'Singer,' though other characters did use his real name from time to time. After assorted adventures, his real name replaced 'Singer.'

 

[Gurkhal]

Hello lovely people!

So I think I've decided for my MC, Mielli, I want Mielli to be a name she chooses to adopt to better hide while she's on the run. However, whenever there's a POV change I title the chapter that way (eg, the first chapter is now ONE: Liora, followed by two, three, until we get to FOUR: Talisien).

So chapter seven is where Mielli comes back into POV focus, but at the end of chapter three she will decide her name is now Mielli, making her next chapter SEVEN: MIELLI.

Is this going to confuse readers? Does the way I worded this make sense?

After seven, she will forever be known as Mielli. I just want the shift to not confuse people.

I don't think it will confuse the reader if we can follow this development in the story so that we know before chapter seven that she has adopted the name of Mielli.

 

[Prince of Spires]

It's good to remember that no matter what you do, there will be a reader somewhere who will be confused. That's just because people will be people (if only because there's bound to be a reader who read the first 6 chapters, then put the book down for a month and opened to chapter 7 wondering who these people are again). Just try to get the majority of readers to make sense of it.

I don't think it will be much of a problem for most readers if the change in character name is clear enough. Though I agree with Pennpilot that simply adding a reminder at the start of chapter 7 that her name changed will take away any remaining confusion.

 

[JBCrowson]

I don't think it should be an issue for most readers. In the RW most of us have several names we go by - what our parents named us at birth, a name we use day-to-day, the name our significant other calls us. The on-line era has added a string of avatar names to the list (assuming we're not talking to a genuine wandering bard or prince on this thread