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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47411
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Sometimes you'll see authors avoid constantly repeating character names by replacing them with descriptors. For instance (assume that all three descriptors are referring to John, the tall man who is Martha's son).

> John walked to the window. The tall man looked across the field. Martha's son was feeling lonely this morning.

**Don't do that**. It's unnecessarily confusing. Character names disappear into the background, like other functional words. This reads like someone trying too hard --and making the reader try too hard. If you're wanting to tell the reader (for the first time) that John is tall and Martha's son, there are better ways to do it. If they already know, this doesn't add any benefit to them.

That, of course, assumes that we know the character's name. If we don't, that creates a challenge for the writer. We can try giving the mystery character a consistent descriptor (for instance, always referring to him as "the tall man") but that's a bit objectifying --especially if the descriptor refers to ethnicity or disability.

Original score: 5