How on earth can an author forget their character's names?
If you have spelling or grammar questions, please post them in the International Grammar section.
If you want feedback for poetry or short stories you have written, please post the poem or short story in either the Creative Original Works: Short Stories section or the Creative Original Works: Poetry section.
If you have a book that you want reviewed, click here to submit your book for review.
- rei_sawakami
- Posts: 53
- Joined: 16 Jan 2014, 17:29
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-rei-sawakami.html
Re: How on earth can an author forget their character's name
But I usually develop my characters starting with their personality and so the name comes last. Needless to say, I need to check back to earlier chapters to see what than darn name was...
- Rodel Barnachea
- Book of the Month Participant
- Posts: 1595
- Joined: 24 Jun 2020, 22:16
- Currently Reading: The Unfakeable Code®
- Bookshelf Size: 85
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-rodel-barnachea.html
- Latest Review: An Accessible Iliad by Emer Jackson
- Rodel Barnachea
- Book of the Month Participant
- Posts: 1595
- Joined: 24 Jun 2020, 22:16
- Currently Reading: The Unfakeable Code®
- Bookshelf Size: 85
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-rodel-barnachea.html
- Latest Review: An Accessible Iliad by Emer Jackson
I think this is why editing and proofreading is very important.rei_sawakami wrote: ↑18 Jan 2014, 17:34 It's something I do all the time (not that I'm proud of it.)
But I usually develop my characters starting with their personality and so the name comes last. Needless to say, I need to check back to earlier chapters to see what than darn name was...
- Rodel Barnachea
- Book of the Month Participant
- Posts: 1595
- Joined: 24 Jun 2020, 22:16
- Currently Reading: The Unfakeable Code®
- Bookshelf Size: 85
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-rodel-barnachea.html
- Latest Review: An Accessible Iliad by Emer Jackson
Woah, I actually haven't experienced this. Maybe I need to read more books? Anyway, I agree that it could be a huge turn-off.TrishaAnn92 wrote: ↑04 Dec 2013, 10:16 It definitely drives me nuts especially when I am getting into a book and then it's a name change and I'm like huh? and then I have to go back and reread what I just read to make sense of it with the characters name used throughout the rest of the book for it to make sense. It's a real turnoff for me when reading a good book.
- Bigwig1973
- Previous Member of the Month
- Posts: 1007
- Joined: 16 Apr 2020, 19:57
- Favorite Book: Notes from Underground
- Currently Reading: The Elements of Style
- Bookshelf Size: 503
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-bigwig1973.html
- Latest Review: You, This Is Me...OVER?! by Clinton Beaudel Dooley
La Belle Dame Sans Mercy, Merci, Maria - Chartier, Keats, Hamik?
-
- Posts: 286
- Joined: 20 May 2020, 08:15
- Favorite Book: Tortured in Ashram
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 38
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-emidio125.html
- Latest Review: The Fox by M. N. J. Butler
-
- Posts: 76
- Joined: 15 Aug 2020, 22:40
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 20
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lhammamy.html
- Latest Review: Manasakd by Kelly May Andrews
- hmayotte
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 09 Oct 2020, 18:35
- Currently Reading: The Catcher in the Rye
- Bookshelf Size: 3
- Sarah Langley
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 09 May 2021, 09:25
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Black Jewel
- Posts: 307
- Joined: 29 May 2021, 14:11
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 65
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-black-jewel.html
- Latest Review: The Game by Molly Perry
- Sohana Hasan
- Posts: 83
- Joined: 06 Jun 2021, 17:40
- Favorite Book: shadow and bones
- Currently Reading: The Beautiful
- Bookshelf Size: 37
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-sohana-hasan.html
- Latest Review: Waterworks by Jack Winnick
WOW! An author of an edited book accidentally changed a character's name halfway through a book? And neither the author nor the editor noticed? I'm equally fascinated and horrified by the complete disregard for--you know--this thing called proofreading.booklvr62 wrote: ↑11 May 2013, 12:34 Ok, this is a pet peeve of mine,on top of getting history wrong in an historical,but this just happened to me again the other day while reading.Suddenly a character's name was changed from Fletcher to Witcher,and I thought "Whaaaaat,who the heck is Witcher"! I find this especially inexcusable when it happens in a trilogy or series!
BTW,the books that I recall this happening in, have not yet occured in self-published books,so no editor is not the problem.
Does this drive other readers BONKERS like it does me,LOL?
- Mason Garrod
- Posts: 125
- Joined: 15 Jun 2021, 05:21
- Currently Reading: Uncommon Poems Common People
- Bookshelf Size: 17
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-mason-garrod.html
- Latest Review: Island Games by Caleb J. Boyer
-
- Posts: 26
- Joined: 18 Jul 2022, 15:11
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 26
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-brittany-tatman.html
- Latest Review: Riven Calyx by Mark Leon Collins
But that's what editing's for. If a published book has an error like that, it's not a memory problem. The book had to go through several pairs of eyes, if it went through the proper channels for being published, which means multiple people missed that one error. If you have a big cast of characters, somewhere along the way, yeah, you're going to forget that John had the long black hair and Michael had the curly red hair, unless you do a Pinterest board or something. Words on a page are hard to keep track of sometimes. But that's no excuse for a supposedly polished work to show an error like that, though.