: In my opinion it's jarring when the narrator uses different names for the same character. It has to be done for a reason. Possible reasons why you'd want to do it: If a particular passage

@Karen856

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In my opinion it's jarring when the narrator uses different names for the same character. It has to be done for a reason.

Possible reasons why you'd want to do it:

If a particular passage is meant to reflect the internal monologue of it's POV character, and that person strongly prefers the nickname (or strongly rejects)
If a character has different personas or roles, and is acting in one of those roles that's different from their main role, or if the characters they're interacting with (and possibly the reader) aren't supposed to know that this person is the same as some other person
If the character has changed their name and want to be anonymous, and are referring to themselves differently now (in passages written from that character's POV)

Absent a good reason for the narrator to switch between names, I'd say you should pick one and stick to it. As a child, the multitude of names that practically every character had in The Lord of the Rings confused me, and I read the books at least once thinking that Saruman and Sauron were the same person. As an adult, I was annoyed when reading the Malazan series, where Ganoes Paran is called "Paran" by the narrator, but his sister Tavore Paran is called "Tavore". Some other characters are incognito or using rarely-used nicknames and that's annoying to keep track of. So be careful. Don't change the names lightly.

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