As I'm sitting here hammering away at my WIP I'm finding that I'm almost always using he, him and his when referring to my MC and only very rarely his actual name. This is in a solo scene where he's the only person present so there's no risk for confusing him with anyone else even if I don't use his name.
The issue with just using pronouns is that it gets a bit repetitive so I try to mix it up and swap a pronoun for the name where I feel it fits. This gives rise to another issue. It feels like using the name of the character is a lot more formal than just using the pronoun. I'm trying to go for deep PoV and I feel that whenever I use the name of the character I'm distancing myself from them and looking at them rather than through them.
What are your thoughts on this? As far as I understand it this is something that varies from person to person. Some people often refer to others by their first name whereas others rarely do. I doubt there are any rules about it and it's just a case of going with what feels right for you, but I'm still curious about how you guys do it.
EDIT: I have a hunch we've been over this in the past, but I can't recall what that thread was named.
The issue with just using pronouns is that it gets a bit repetitive so I try to mix it up and swap a pronoun for the name where I feel it fits. This gives rise to another issue. It feels like using the name of the character is a lot more formal than just using the pronoun. I'm trying to go for deep PoV and I feel that whenever I use the name of the character I'm distancing myself from them and looking at them rather than through them.
What are your thoughts on this? As far as I understand it this is something that varies from person to person. Some people often refer to others by their first name whereas others rarely do. I doubt there are any rules about it and it's just a case of going with what feels right for you, but I'm still curious about how you guys do it.
EDIT: I have a hunch we've been over this in the past, but I can't recall what that thread was named.
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