[ SECRET POST #6595 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6595 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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[ProZD Let's Try series]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 44 secrets from Secret Submission Post #943.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You're right and you should say it. My partner bounced within the first few pages because a character explains how to pronounce his name in dialogue, right after he introduces himself... also in dialogue.

Like, author, I get it, you want your readers to pronounce the name a certain way, but please.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, as someone not well-versed with literature, I am curious what makes those choices bad? Genuine question!

[iff_and_xor]

I think they’re just referring to the fact that the other characters have just heard him pronounce his name aloud when he introduced himself.

Having him then explain the pronunciation out loud to them is awkward because it’s clearly for the reader, not the characters who he’s speaking to.

There are lots of ways of giving readers information that should already be obvious to the characters. Some of them can feel very clunky and some of them are a bit more masterful.

[(Anonymous)]

I have to say, as much as I detest JK Rowling, her way of telling people who were struggling how to pronounce 'Hermione' using a character who was struggling to pronounce it just because it's weirder than most names AND he was foreign, actually wasn't the worst way to do it.

[(Anonymous)]

Except people really do that if they know their name is weird to the people they're talking to?

Just off the top of my head, I met a lady who introduced herself in conversation as "my name's Feryal - like 'Ariel' with an F." It worked really well for her. She was dealing with westerners who'd never heard that name before and struggled to remember what it was and how it should be pronounced.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Because no one would do that? You wouldn't say "My name is Jimmy, it's pronounced Jim-my" because...you just pronounced it when you introduced yourself so they know how it's pronounced?

If the author wants to be sure the readers know how to pronounce fantasy names, they can have a phonetic guide at the beginning, which I've seen some of in fantasy, or at least mention it in dialogue another way.

I'm reading a book right now where a character has an unusual name and one character was like "what was your name again?" and then the other says it, but it's spelled out phonetically. Maybe kind of clunky, but at least the character only says it once, and isn't like "my name is ___, it's pronounced ___" which is just ridiculous.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

...and I just now saw that someone else already explained it. Sorry.

[(Anonymous)]

Fritz Leiber got away with it in the first Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story, but probably because he did it just the once and figured the reader would get it from there.

[(Anonymous)]

As someone who has lived in an internationally diverse city, it's actually pretty common for someone with a "difficult" name to repeat their name with an emphasis on the pronunciation when they introduce themselves.