How to write a missed introduction?

[astuffedshirt_perv]

"Hi, I'm Adam."
"Hi, I'm Lisa."
Except Lisa was distracted and didn't catch Adam's name. How would I write that?

 

[nice90sguy]

You just did?

 

[SimonDoom]

I think you need to explain what you are asking, because I can't figure it out.

 

[XerXesXu]

'Hi, I'm Adam.'
'Hi, I'm Lisa. Did you say something?'

 

[ElectricBlue]

"Hi, I'm Adam."
"Hi, I'm Lisa."
Except Lisa was distracted and didn't catch Adam's name. How would I write that?

That makes no sense - she just responded directly to him, yet didn't catch his name? There's some context missing, I think.

 

[nice90sguy]

"Hi I'm Adam."
"Nice to meet you Callum, I'm Lisa."

is how I'd achieve that, and make it funny to boot.

 

[SimonDoom]

I honestly do not understand the situation you want to write.

Adam approaches Lisa and says "I'm Adam." She replies to his statement, "I'm Lisa." How would she not hear him, if she's replying to him? I don't get it. I think you need to walk yourself very precisely through what is happening, and then figure out how you want to say it. I can't figure it out based on the information you've given.

This would only work in third person POV. It would make no sense for Lisa to narrate:

I approached the man.

"Hello, I'm Adam," he said.

"I'm Lisa," I said. But I didn't know what he said.

Figure out exactly what's going on, and then the words will follow.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

OK, it’s happened to me, TBH. I just replied, “I’m sorry, but it’s a bit noisy here. What was your name again?”

I wouldn’t overthink it.

 

[NoTalentHack]

The guy in front of me said something; his name, I suppose, but I couldn’t swear to it. But I knew my part of the social dance was coming up.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lisa.”

 

[lovecraft68]

"Hi, I'm Adam?"
"Come again?" Lisa frowned, "I didn't catch that."

The come again is of course used deliberately because its erotica.

 

[NoTalentHack]

That makes no sense - she just responded directly to him, yet didn't catch his name? There's some context missing, I think.

One symptom of ADHD is memory issues; more specifically encoding memories between immediate > short > long term memory. If I’m even slightly distracted, I will literally forget a new person’s name within seconds unless I actively try to remember it.

 

[AlexBailey]

“Hi, I’m Adam.”

“Huh?” Her thoughts suddenly came crashing back to earth. “Oh hey, sorry. Hi Alan. I’m Lisa.”

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

OK, it’s happened to me, TBH. I just replied, “I’m sorry, but it’s a bit noisy here. What was your name again?”

This. Happens to me all the time! The issue is Lisa is distracted and replies instinctively, only to realized that she is now in a conversation with him and too embarassed to ask for clarification. Sort of a tip of the tongue 'he just said his name, what was it?' type of scene. However, when I wrote it, actually writing his name there makes it obvious to the reader that his name is Adam and it just didn't seem to work. Overthinking?

Edit: The not knowing his name becomes relevant later in the story.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I see your point.

 

[nice90sguy]

From the variations in replies I'm getting a good idea of a lot of people's writing styles!

A few replies don't satisfy the demands of the O.P.:

The O.P. must be distracted, not hard-of-hearing or in a noisy room.
The respondent should say her name, not just tell Adam that she was distracted.

 

[ElectricBlue]

One symptom of ADHD is memory issues; more specifically encoding memories between immediate > short > long term memory. If I’m even slightly distracted, I will literally forget a new person’s name within seconds unless I actively try to remember it.

Okay, there's the context, your query now makes sense. On the assumption that Lisa is the same, how about:

"Hi, I'm Adam."
"Hi, I'm Lisa. I'm terrible with faces and names, could you say your name again for me?"

That is, somehow acknowledge the cause, but don't make it a big issue, but don't joke about it either. It's not just an ADHD thing by the way, I always need something to reinforce a name for someone I've just met, so I'd often say something like that.

Edit: And now I realise I've confused the OP with NoTalentHack. And I've not seen either of their faces...

 

[Voboy]

He stood there smiling, saying something, lips moving in what I could only imagine was an introduction. I nodded, "mm-hmm"ing vaguely, but my eyes were on the fresh dick pic that had just come over my phone.

At least I was smart enough to keep the screen hidden so he wouldn't see it. But then I glanced up, and caught eyebrows expectantly raised, a hand extended. I shook it blindly.

"Um. Hi! I'm Lisa!" I beamed up at him, making sure I showed my dimples, his hand warm as it gripped mine. A good grip, firm but not painful, the grip of a man who knew just the right amount of pressure and no more. I blushed, willing him to say it again, channeling my inner Gandalf, sending powerful bludgeoning waves, and all those waves said the same thing: repeat your name, cutie!

But alas. Men have no intuition.

"Pleased to meet you!" he winked.

 

[Bramblethorn]

That makes no sense - she just responded directly to him, yet didn't catch his name? There's some context missing, I think.

I honestly do not understand the situation you want to write.

Adam approaches Lisa and says "I'm Adam." She replies to his statement, "I'm Lisa." How would she not hear him, if she's replying to him?

Oh man, you guys don't know how good you have it.

One symptom of ADHD is memory issues; more specifically encoding memories between immediate > short > long term memory. If I’m even slightly distracted, I will literally forget a new person’s name within seconds unless I actively try to remember it.

Motherfuckin' THIS. My ears work fine, but unless I'm really REALLY focussing, names don't stick.

"Hi, I'm Adam."
"Hi, I'm Lisa."
Except Lisa was distracted and didn't catch Adam's name. How would I write that?

I've seen it handled a few different ways.

Courtney Milan's When The Devil Comes Courting has an ADHD-coded heroine who's absolutely terrible at remembering names. Milan's approach is to give the conversation, including the name, but then to establish soon after that she's forgotten it:

“I’m Captain Grayson Hunter.” He held out his hand.

“Oh!” She glanced at his hand and then colored. “My manners! Where have they been? Mrs. Amelia Smith.”

...

“It’s very good to meet you, Mrs. Smith. I’m heading up to the Acheson household on some business. Maybe you can assist me in finding the person I’m looking for.”

“The Acheson household.” Her cheeks colored with a hint of pink. “Are you—you’re not, you’re not Mr. Flappert by any chance? No, of course not. You just told me your name.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry. I’ve already forgotten it.”

This happens repeatedly in the book, and Grayson's reaction to it is one of the ways Milan establishes him as Amelia's Mr. Right.

This can work even from a first-person perspective, if it's okay that the reader knows the name. OTOH, if it's important that they don't - say, if you don't want the reader to figure out that the person whose name she's just forgotten is the same "Adam" that somebody else mentions in a different scene - you probably have to elide some of that dialogue:

"Hi, I'm ..." He said a name, but it didn't register; I was still trying to figure out how the mynah bird had escaped.
"Hi, I'm Lisa."

Or perhaps:

"Hi, I'm A–. The manager said you had a problem with a bird?" What was that name? Pretty sure it began with an A. Arthur? Anthony? Adrian?
"Hi, I'm Lisa."

 

[Bramblethorn]

This. Happens to me all the time! The issue is Lisa is distracted and replies instinctively, only to realized that she is now in a conversation with him and too embarassed to ask for clarification. Sort of a tip of the tongue 'he just said his name, what was it?' type of scene. However, when I wrote it, actually writing his name there makes it obvious to the reader that his name is Adam and it just didn't seem to work. Overthinking?

I understand why it'd feel that way, and I would've been reluctant to do it, but when I read the Milan I mentioned above it worked a lot better than I'd expected. Generally I think the best way to bring the reader along with a POV character is to keep them knowing only as much as the POV character knows, but letting them see the name is a relatively minor deviation.

If you really want to bring them along there... usually the advice is not to have a bunch of characters whose names all begin with the same letter, because it's confusing for readers, but this is one time where it might work for you. Drop in a bunch of those Anthonys and Adrians and Andrews to muddy the waters, and even the reader might have to go back to remind themselves what this guy was called.

 

[SimonDoom]

This. Happens to me all the time! The issue is Lisa is distracted and replies instinctively, only to realized that she is now in a conversation with him and too embarassed to ask for clarification. Sort of a tip of the tongue 'he just said his name, what was it?' type of scene. However, when I wrote it, actually writing his name there makes it obvious to the reader that his name is Adam and it just didn't seem to work. Overthinking?

Edit: The not knowing his name becomes relevant later in the story.

From whose point of view are you telling the story? Once you decide that, then put yourself in that person's head and narrate only what that person would see, hear, and know. The way you describe it, it makes no sense that you would narrate the line "Hi, I'm Adam" because the person narrating the story didn't hear that line being spoken. It would only make sense if you have god-like, omniscient narrator, who can narrate BOTH that line by Adam and Lisa's failure to hear it. Figure out exactly what you want to DO with the scene, and the words will follow. Nobody can answer the main question for you.

 

[XerXesXu]

From the variations in replies I'm getting a good idea of a lot of people's writing styles!

A few replies don't satisfy the demands of the O.P.:

The O.P. must be distracted, not hard-of-hearing or in a noisy room.
The respondent should say her name, not just tell Adam that she was distracted.

The OP didn't mention his critical requirement until #15

Edit: The not knowing his name becomes relevant later in the story.

He asked how YOU would write it. He didn't specify PoV whether close or omniscient. He didn't specify 'tell not show' or 'show not tell.' Only in #15 did we find out that his response to her response to him must not contain his name. Where else it's going is anyone's guess. Best give him an appropriate nickname to keep his real name secret from Lisa.

'Hi, I'm Adam.'
'Hi', I'm Lisa. Did you say something?'
'You're throwing some cool moves. Care to dance, I'm the Dancing King.'
'Ok, Dancing King, let's do it, see who takes the crown.'

She can continue to call him Dancing King until the significant revelation:
He drops his pants. Lisa exclaims, 'Hey I recognise you, you're Adam, the pervert who's been harassing me online with dick-pics.'

 

[ElectricBlue]

Oh man, you guys don't know how good you have it.

You missed my next post there, Bramble.

Context needed to make proper sense of the OP's post, and the name to face thing being very common, both ND and NT.

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

The OP didn't mention his critical requirement until #15

OMG IKR? Who does that. Made sense in my head when I posted. Actually have been thinking about how to post this question for about a week and that is what I came up with. Lol.

 

[Bramblethorn]

You missed my next post there, Bramble.

Yeah, I don't think it was up when I hit reply - quite often I'll start a post, get sidetracked, go do something else, and come back and finish and hit "post" an indeterminate number of hours later. I saw it after I posted and then I got sidetracked again.

Context needed to make proper sense of the OP's post, and the name to face thing being very common, both ND and NT.

In the same way that it wasn't obvious to you that somebody could forget a name so easily... it's not necessarily obvious to others that this might be an unusual thing that needs any explanation.

Ms. Milan tells a story about how when she published one of her earlier books, a lot of readers wrote in to tell her how lovely it was to see a character with ADHD, and how her response was "but I didn't write her with ADHD! I just wanted to write a heroine who experienced the world like me... oh."

 

[ElectricBlue]

In the same way that it wasn't obvious to you that somebody could forget a name so easily... it's not necessarily obvious to others that this might be an unusual thing that needs any explanation.

It happens to me often enough that I don't think it's unusual nor odd - but then I remember Oliver Sachs with his face blindness, and comments made by folk like yourself, and that's when I think, oh wait, it really can be more difficult than noise in a room or too many introductions all at once (which is why at conferences everyone has a name badge).