So I have 4 main characters: a leprechaun, a korrigan, a vampire and a human who go on a journey blah blah. Instead of saying, the leprechaun, the korrigan, the vampire and the human do this, that and the other - what can I call them? They are not heroes so they can't be something lame like the fantastic four or intrepid explorers. They have been thrown together through highly unlikely circumstances but are mostly friendly on a beneficial quest. I can't keep saying the leprechaun, the korrigan, the vampire and the human did this, neither can I keep saying Lorcan, Young Ned, Chaleur and Niámh did that. Any ideas?
The kooky combo, the fellowship, the foursome, the curious combo, the pack...I need a better idea where you want to go with this.
The unlikely friends might work once, but their relationships evolve throughout the story. I'm trying to avoid The Four did this or that. Think I'm onto a loser with this, but you might have something with calling the collective as to their relationship at the time so they might start unlikely friends and organically grow into whatever...
What you could do (to avoid staleness of using the same word over and over again) is over the course of the book, change the word for these four. Start out with something clinical/boring like "assemblage" or "company", and then as their friendship progress, of course assuming that it's friendship, you can write friendlier words, such as "the friends", "quartet", "companions", and "comrades", although obviously spend more time deciding on the words.
You're right - staleness or redundancy is the word I was looking for. Thanks TK but I might have just mentioned that. My concern is I don't want them all to be 'friends' until near the end when they've come through near-deaths and morph into one. One of them has been more or less kidnapped or forced through a spell to go on this quest so he's not exactly best pleased with the situation and proves quite the imp. How did Tolkien refer to Sam, Frodo and the other guy all through LOTR?
but did Tolkien keep saying The Fellowship did that, the Fellowship did this? I've never read it but I'd imagine that would get a tad tedious...
The problem you are going to run into though, is if you keep changing what you call them it becomes a turn off to the reader. It makes it seem as if you are trying too hard. It's best to find a name or two and stick with them. Why not even have one of the members of the group joke around and suggest a nickname for the group, but then the rest like it and they adopt it? It would be like the Wolf Pack on the movie The Hangover.
hmmm possible... although I don't have a joker but I get what you mean. I'm not doing any hangover-type funnies but it does have a lot of comique-noir so maybe...
idea: you could call them (at least on some occasions) "[character's name or species] and his (companions, enemies, friends, &c)", and alternate this according to who's your focal character in said situation...
I would be trying to tell it from a point of view of one character. Usually, they can communicate only with one other person at the time, which reduces the need to keep listing them all. In a scene, you establish they are all together, doing something, or who's doing what, and refer to them by name. On rare occasions you need to refer them as a foursome, you can use any of the above suggestions.
Foursome? Moresome? I like @jazzabel 's suggestion. Perhaps just try to avoid it to the best of your abilities. You could use "the group" once in a blue moon, of course...
Could just stick with they or us. As it will be inferred already that they're a group if they're traveling together. As in... They headed up the mountain, the leprechaun in lead.
