: Re: Referring to different instances of the same character in time travel I am writing a story that involves time travel, and I have a chapter where a character from the future interacts with his

Clarify each character's motivation in the scene.

The best way to keep dialog straight is when the dialog makes sense. This shouldn't be any different than any other two characters engaged in dialog. The limited-POV MC certainly won't be confused by which one of the two is speaking. Stick closely with him since he can lampshade the weirdness of talking to another version of himself, even to the point of copying your question:

"What am I supposed to call you, Other Meâ€¦? Are you Older me, or
Earlier Meâ€¦?"

"Shut up and listen!"

Presumably "other Adrien" has done this before and is less impressed by the moment, but also needs to communicate something of importance and wants his younger self to focus. They should have clear but different motives in the scene, so readers should be able to tell which is speaking just from their dialog.

Use "he said" (etc) as sparingly as possible, only when absolutely needed. It's possible that too many of these "he said" indicators is what's actually leading to the confusion, as readers mentally switch between speakers assuming the indicator is telling them something different than expected.

In other words, too many signposts is possibly more confusing than letting the dialog sort itself out.

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: Re: Referring to different instances of the same character in time travel I am writing a story that involves time travel, and I have a chapter where a character from the future interacts with his

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: Inanna's Journey and "girly" heroes There are traditional "girly" heroes â€“ often they take the pattern of Inanna's Journey. Rather than "leveling up" like a plucky male hero, Inanna's Journey

: Past vs. present tense when referring to a fictional character What would you write when referring to a fictional character in a non-fiction work? e.g. Tom Sawyer is a boy, he has no parents,

: Balancing setting, theme, and character arcs: how to deal with a setting that carries emotional weight but is left behind? When writing a story, how do you find a good balance between the significance

: I think native speakers of the same language can generally develop a good ear for variations in language and achieve passable mimicry of a specific person without an explicit analysis, but

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