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Q&A How to refer to a character who doesn't know her name?

One solution, at least at first, is to just use the pronoun: She woke up in a room she did not recognise. How had she got here? Where was she? Come to think of it, who was she? With a horrible ...

posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T21:57:22Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36205
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:50:47Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36205
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T08:50:47Z (almost 5 years ago)
One solution, at least at first, is to **just use the pronoun** :

> She woke up in a room she did not recognise. How had she got here? Where was she? Come to think of it, who was she? With a horrible sinking feeling, she realised she couldn't remember her name.

Such a structure emphasises the disorientation of being unable to remember one's name.

However, after a while, using nothing but a pronoun can become tiresome, and also confusing if there are other women present in the scene. Then, maybe **someone gives the protagonist some temporary name**? After all, it would be as hard for other characters to refer to the nameless MC as it is for you. The protagonist might find it jarring, but use it nonetheless in the absence of anything better.

Depending on your setting and story, **Jane Doe** (whatever the parallel is in the language you're writing in) is also a possibility, but that would create a distance between the reader and the story. It would cast the MC as a random nobody. I'd use it only if this particular effect was what I wanted to create.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-05-17T11:10:16Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 3