Characters with pseudonyms

[ElectricBlue]

There are only the three in the example and one other for whom it’s an issue. Any other characters with stage names only appear in the club, so their real names are irrelevant.

I'd say write their names as they flow for you as the writer, with context as guidance. These suggestions all seem forced to me, to be honest; they're overthinking what might not be a problem. If the name demarcation is important, it will come across that way without signposts. Subtlety doesn't need a sledgehammer to be effective.

You want readers to think, "Ah, I see what you're doing there."

Besides, four names and another four? How hard can that be to keep straight, really .

 

[SimonDoom]

I suspect EB is right, that we may all be overthinking this, and that the right answer will emerge as you write the story and the specific scenes. The needs of one scene may differ from the needs of another. I'd probably try to use the real names as much as possible but might conflict with whatever your artistic purposes are and, just as importantly, with whatever the needs of a particular scene are.

Go ahead and write the story and then see how you feel about this issue after you've done it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Yes. The whole issue of personas plays into where I'm trying to go with this. The falsity of the notion that you can just become someone else and separate what you do in that guise from who you really are is one of the central themes. So, there is more to this than just keeping track of the names, that's just the first hurdle.

This is something I've been playing with in "Red Scarf": the main two characters are friends who've also ended up in a sugar-mommy relationship with one another, and they use different names when they're 'on the clock'. This then gives me a shorthand way to indicate that they don't always have the same understanding of how far that arrangement extends.

It comes up in another way with online communities where people use pseudonyms:

"Jane, this is Bob. Bob, this is Jane."

"Hi, nice to meet you." "...and you."

"You might know one another better as ChampagneTaster and SockGlueConnoisseur."

"YOU'RE SockGlueConnoisseur!?! Friend buddy pal!"

 

[MelissaBaby]

Lots of great advice here, and I appreciate everyone's thoughts.

I think EB and Simon are on the mark. Write it as it comes, and then revisit the issue, perhaps after running it past a couple of beta readers.

Back to work on it...