NaNoWriMo RE: Multiple pronouns - how do you keep them straight? (Dialog Tags)

Multiple pronouns - how do you keep them straight?

[quote=terraluft]Help! I constantly have several characters in the same place at the same time. How do you talk about two female characters using 'she' without getting them all confused? I hate having to use their names or how they are related to my MC because it doesn't seem to flow as well as using the pronouns. And maybe the best answer is "don't worry about it because that's what the editing phase is for" applies? I have a tendency to obsess about things like this sidetracking me into "edit as I go" mode and I swore this year I wouldn't do that. But, I keep getting hung up on this one area. Someone tell me how you do it and save me from myself?

[/quote]

I have three male MCs in mine.

I can't think of how to explain what I do, so I'll just copy a section from a scene that has all three of them talking to each other, so you can see how I do it:

[quote=EelKat]
The downstairs phone was ringing. "Answer the phone!" Zeb yelled, "I can't find my pants."

Xavier ran out of the bathroom, rubbing his wet hair with a towel.

The door bell rang. "Answer the door!" Zeb called from upstairs. "I still haven't found my pants. Why haven't you answered the phone yet?"

"Answer the phone. Answer the door. Can't find your pants. I was in the shower you know." Zeb wasn't listening and Xavier knew it. By the time Xavier had gotten a bathrobe on, thrown a towel over his red hair, run down the stairs and reached the phone, it had stopped ringing. "Probably just a telemarketer anyways," he muttered as he stumbled towards to door. It was Azreal, a tall skinny kid from down the road.

"Thought you guys were supposed to meet me by the creek," he pointed to his watch, indicating that they were late once again.

"Yeah, I know, the alarm didn't go off and Zeb lost his pants."

"Lost his pants? How'd that happen?" Azreal walked in and made his way to the kitchen.

"Don't know. His mom probably threw them in the laundry." Xavier was Zeb's cousin. He was visiting for the year while his parents went on some adventuring trip. Xavier never knew for certain what it was his parents did exactly. Paparazi reporters, is what the kids at school called them. Whatever. They were never home and Xavier ended up spending most of his months bunking out at his cousin Zeb's house.

Azreal opened the fridge, "Why is there an old penny wedged behind the cheddar?"

"Azreal!" Zeb came down the stairs.

"I hate cheese." Azreal was still poking around in the fridge.
[/quote]

uhm, yeah. That's how I do it. Not sure if that helps you out or not. I don't really use pronoun as dialog tags much.

All Hail Bela Lugosi!



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