: Re: Is it typical to add variation to the words used for a character's name to keep it spicy? A friend has asked me to read through a chapter of his story and give my opinion. Lets say he

@Debbie451

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It's not about "spicy," it's about not being boring. Using "John" in every single dialogue tag can grate on the inner ear. That said, don't overdo it.

I would say you should use character names (or he/she) 90% of the time, and the other 10% can be "the detective," "the doctor," "the captain," "the younger woman," "her older sister," etc. You want to do it just often enough to prevent monotony.

If you're having trouble figuring out who "Mrs de Havilland" is in a conversation between a husband and wife, then the writer is doing a poor job of attribution, period.

EDIT TO ADD: As JSBangs notes below, using a character's full name and courtesy title (Mr John de Havilland) in a dialog tag sounds very strange to the modern ear. Unless there's some compelling stylistic reason, pick one version of the person's name (Mr de Havilland, Dr. McCoy, John) and stick with that in pretty much all iterations.

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