Writing Usage of a "nickname" in the narrative (different PoVs)

TheIcMan

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Hey all!
To clarify, I wanted to know what people's opinions are on using a "fake name" in the narrative.

Say there's a character named Sarah, and she introduces herself to other people as Rah (or whatever I fail at spontaneous names), because she's an incredibly cautious person and only uses her real name with her closest friends.

In a third-person omniscient narrative, we'd read from her perspective with her real name being the pronoun, such as "Sarah did this" or "Sarah shot his foot"

But from another perspective who only knows her as Rah, would the narrative change to that name? Say we're reading from John's perspective. There's a sentence that goes, "John went out into the cold night, looking for Rah". Would that make sense?

Strictly from that point of view, would the narrative stay with the name Sarah because the reader knows who she is, or go with Rah because the character only knows her that way?
 

binarysoap

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If it is from a character's perspective, I would find it more natural to use the nickname.
 

bananapink

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Hey all!
To clarify, I wanted to know what people's opinions are on using a "fake name" in the narrative.

Say there's a character named Sarah, and she introduces herself to other people as Rah (or whatever I fail at spontaneous names), because she's an incredibly cautious person and only uses her real name with her closest friends.

In a third-person omniscient narrative, we'd read from her perspective with her real name being the pronoun, such as "Sarah did this" or "Sarah shot his foot"

But from another perspective who only knows her as Rah, would the narrative change to that name? Say we're reading from John's perspective. There's a sentence that goes, "John went out into the cold night, looking for Rah". Would that make sense?

Strictly from that point of view, would the narrative stay with the name Sarah because the reader knows who she is, or go with Rah because the character only knows her that way?


Hmmm, as for me, I mostly go for the character's perspective to convey their thoughts and feelings more intimately. How they view the other character, how much information they know about her/him. That includes nicknames/alias as well. (Did I make sense?) Hahahaha...
 
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