Character identification

[LitFanGuy]

When multiple couples are involved in a swapping type story, it becomes distracting to remember who is attatched to whom. Maybe it would help to identify characters with first name plus last name initial, such as JohnQ took SusanM's hand... . Even if the coulpes are not married in the story, a common initial to link them could help. I think any distraction from the added initial would quickly fade.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Always the names! So difficult-- such a pitfall! Especially when you have a lot of people on the page at the same time.

I once edited a story that had characters named; Drin, Dance, Hal, and Dar. The writer got very upset when I pointed out how easy it was to misread such similar names. I was murdering her baby!

The problem you mention comes in where there is a lot of action performed by a lot of people, with very little frame or change of context. We remember people by their mannerisms, the things they do. If everyone is humping, there comes a deadening sameness...

Personally, I have always given up in disgust when I try to write more than three people having sex together. Or when I try to read it, for that matter.

 

[sr71plt]

Adding a surname initial each time would, I think, make the story more stilted than the identification was worth. The best you can do naturally, I would guess, is to use names with the same first letter for couples--and/or formal names like Tom and Mary for one couple and jazzy ones like Buffy and Buzz for the other. I agree with Stella, though, that everyone should avoid using similar names for different characters.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Each of your characters should have a different name and, to avoid repeating the same name too often, each should have a short form of that name, and maybe even a nickname or diminutive. I posted a story recently named Happy Hot Tubbers with four gay men.

If it's couples, sometimes identify the people involved by some physical characteristic, such as hair color or height.

ETA: Adding the last initial just wouldn't work. It would make the story read like a psychiatric or medical report with names being concealed.

 

[Weird Harold]

When multiple couples are involved in a swapping type story, it becomes distracting to remember who is attatched to whom.

And this is a problem?

Depending on how wild and crazy your group-grope is, it may be that even the characters can't keep track of who is connected to whom and don't really care. If the characters can't keep track, why should the readers be able to?

In a less complicated groping, each character would know who they are attached to but not be paying attention to other couplings; your narrative and POV selection should reflect that level of knowledge as necessary.

The only way to describe all pairings and attachments in a group-grope, you have to use a non-participating POV which removes your reader from the immediacy of the participants' feelings.

Don't be afraid to allow a little confusion to show through when describing an inherently confusing scene. Unless your list of participants includes three Barbies and nine Kens, even similar sounding/looking names aren't going to cause an undue amount of confusion.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

If it is confusion with an orgy scene, I say just roll with it.

"I was being royally fucked by Chris. Or, wait, maybe it was Walt? Did it even matter anymore? It didn't to me. Whoever it was, or however many of them there were, they had me in heaven for hours on end."