When writing a novel in first person, how often do you drop in the MC's name? For example, if someone calls the MC, who is also the 1st person POV character, by his name in dialog on page one, how many more times or how often should I put this name out there? I don't want people to forget the name of the person telling the story, but I also don't want to see it on every page. I would love to hear how some of you have handled this. Thanks.
Mention their name in dialogue here and there. It has to be natural of course. Listen to how people talk to each other. They might use the name once in the conversation, but more than that is usually pretty unrealistic.
Melville did it right, I think. "Call me Ishmael." That's the first sentence of Moby-Dick. I don't remember how many more times Ishmael is referred to by name in the novel, but it doesn't really matter, does it? He introduces himself right at the top, and nobody forgets his name because of that. If they do, they just have to turn back to the beginning of the book to remind themselves.
Names can be used for emphasis: "Stop it Jason!" Or, "You don't understand, Jason, I had to have chocolate or I'd hurt some stupid fool!" But be careful not to overdo that. Overall, if there are only two characters in the scene, once you've established who's there the only other reason to use their names is to keep the reader straight on who said what.
I mention the protagonist's name once in the first chapter, right at the end where she right out states "my name is Alexa and I am undead". I mention it a second time on page 4, and it looks like so far I have mentioned it 58 times in a 221-page manuscript. I don't know if that's a lot or not enough. I haven't even thought about it, I just use it wherever it feels natural. I guess I kind of expected the reader to remember it since she's the narrator.
Yes. Exactly. And keeping the speaker straight is best done via dialogue tags, not directly addressing each other using a name. I discovered I was using names far too often in my dialogue in my first draft. It had started to get silly. Think how often you actually use a person's name when you're speaking directly to them. Not often is it? Not unless you're making a very strong point, whereby the name acts like a verbal shoulder shake. "Listen, Fred, I've told you this over and over. Now will you pay attention?" or "Maureen! What are you up to this time?" Best keep name repetition to a minimum, when discussing ordinary things.
Never. Other characters address him by a nickname but his real name is never given. It maybe seems a bit odd, but I once had some very close friends whose real names I actually struggle to remember now as we never used them. Whitey, Vortex, Bubblewrap, Stealth and Smurf I remember, but what they were called on their birth certificates is lost to the mists of time as far as I'm concerned.
