Hi here is a question that I so apologise for if i dont get it across correctly and sound like a babbling fish, but here goes... I have two main charaters john and dave that meet at one point, seperate and meet up again later on. However the second time they meet dave has a friend with him called June who john doesnt know, but has been intrioduced to the reader earlier. At this point I am taking it from johns view point so he would know nothing of june, not even name. So can i use her name from the start or do i have to wait till i basically introduce June to John. Thinking mostly in terms of speech tags and simple actions ie: Can i say - dave lungned at john too quickly to be friendly landing a furosious right hand on his jaw. June tried to stand between them but failed. or do i have to omit her name until john becomes aware of her name since we are in his head. I know the readwers know her name but not john. Sorry if it makes no sense, i will be happy to elaberate if possible
I think if the reader already knows June, then it's alright to use her name before she's been introduced to the other character.
I think that if this is from John's point of view and he doesn't know her, even if the reader has been introduced to June before then her name shouldn't be used. Especially if some variation of this story will be told again by Dave. If John is telling the story how would he know to use "June". I think her description will be enough for the reader to understand who it is. Besides, it's more fun that way. The reader knows something that the main character doesn't.
If you are writing from John's POV then you should wait for her to be introduced. Otherwise you call her June and you are peachy.
If we're "in his head", then omit the name, but make sure that the readers can identify her in some other way.
If you're writing in first person, don't use the name until the narrator knows it. But in third person, even close third person, you can use the name.
There some really helpful points thanks guys, just to confirm it is third person but focusing mostly on John. The scene starts with him alone with dave and june joining him a third the way through.
I always struggle about when we can introduce the name of a new character to the story. Do we just go along and use their name, does someone have to ask their name. I have seen examples of both in books I have read but always wondered which seems more real.
There's a lot of different angles you can write from, third-person omniscient being the easiest because the narrating voice knows everything. Restricting yourself to a character's voice is more challenging, but can payoff well.
