A little backstory: I’m planning a story about a young woman who was born on another planet, then sent to Earth and is now being called back to fight a war. Her given name is Abygail, but when she was sent to Earth she was put in a foster family and then had a whole life of memories implanted. Her (false) Earth birth certificate has her name written as Abigail. Through the story she goes by Gail, but there’s one instant when an another character from her birthplanet calles her by her full name and this occurs: Throughout, more characters will approach her and call her Abygail, and she will feel conflicted about it. But she believes her name to be written with an i, so when she is being called out, can I shift between the y for dialogue and the i for thought/Gail’s dialogue? Am I making sense? Alternativaly, TLDR; character’s name is Abigail, goes by Gail, except on the planet where she comes from it’s written Abygail. Am I allowed to switch between y and i?
Sounds a little unnecessarily confusing. If the foster parents could get her name right as Abigail why the discrepancy with the y?
I think as long as you have a character and/or document present the difference, then it should be fine. It might be weird at first when there's a different spelling for the same person, but as long as you only have ONE person named Abigail/Gail, it shouldn't be too bad.
Maybe I should’ve mentioned that her family also gets false memories, and the spelling with an i is used because that is the common way to go on Earth. On the other planet the common way is Abygail. Which is exactly where my question arises. She won’t know it’s written when people address her. So would it be an idea to write it as Abigail until she finds a written document that has her name listed as Abygail and then start using that? Or just scrap it all together?
I think it would probably be better for her to be never known as anything other Gail or something like that, and her name ends out as Abygail. Like she's been called Abigail all her life, it's on her driver's license, ex. and her name ends up to be Abeegal/Abeegail/Abbygail. Though I did read a book earlier this year where her name was Alyss. But she dissapeared to England, and they changed her name to Alice. When she meets back up with people who knew her as Alyss she was referred to as Alyss, but they still wrote her name as Alice until she realized it herself and accepted back the name Alyss. I would make the spelling a more drastically different than just one letter if you were to write it like this. Like I said before, Abeegal/Abeegail/Abbygail. Like Abygail and Abigail would sound exactly the same when said, but if there is a more drastic spelling difference there would be a slight difference in the pronunciaction and would help more.
Thank you, that’s very powerful. I have always liked calling characters by their full name when they mostly go by a shortened version, but I may have to forsake this.
Does the spelling really matter to the story? I'm asking that honestly because it might. But it might not. Such a small change in the spelling doesn't seem like it would be such a big deal to the character. If it is a big deal, I think you need to really bring the aspect up in your story. I have done something similar in the past. I spelled the character's name the right way throughout the prose. Then I reached a point where someone gets it wrong and showed how my character reacts. But it was such a small aspect of the story, and I stayed consistent with the correct spelling throughout the piece. If it doesn't matter, it might make things a little confusing. If it does matter, make sure to show readers why.
Thanks for this. I’ll go over everything and see if it’s really important. But this is al useful advice.
When people are talking to her they don't know spelling. But why do it that way anyway? I would think another planet would name her something completly different, why would they think it's necessary to play with spelling. Unless it is important in the story arc I would have the names be completely different and not even rhyming.
I'll throw my two cents in here for what they're worth. When hearing other's speak (assuming you're writing in third-person limited) it would be tinted by her viewpoint, so she can think that people are calling her Abigail whenever she hears it spoken, but the difference should only be seen when its written down as she won't be able to alter the perception of that. In short, call her Abigail in dialogue (as that is what she is expecting to hear) and only switch to Abygail when she knows that's what is meant (i.e. when it's written down).
I'd say use the spelling she would use (Abigail) except when she's reading it off of something. I've two uncommonly spelled names. If I quote something funny someone said to me (e.g. in a text to my friend) I automatically spell my name correctly even though most people would spell it wrong!
Unless this ties into some themes on identity and labels or something, the whole thing seems a little superfluous to me. Why would it matter whether or not her name is spelled 'Abigail' or 'Abygail?' The one spelling is definitely more common, but the other is still in use right now.
In dialogue, characters are talking so the difference is pronounciation, not spelling. Spelling would only come up if your protagonist saw their name written down, though this too is a little bit questionable: do the people on the other planet really speak English? If not, there could be multiple viable spellings of the name in English, and the aliens may not really care about which is used. As for how to spell it in a particular scene: use the spelling that the current POV character thinks is correct. Your character would think of herself internally as Gail, unless she comes to fully accept her alien persona. Alien POVs would think of her by her name on their planet, spelled in that way. Her parents may think of her in terms of her full earth name’s pronounciation, Abagail. In dialogue, spell it how the POV character thinks the speaker is saying it.
