Magewar Online Game

How do you refer to characters in narration?

Basically, I read somewhere that you should refer to a character by how they call themselves when writing a narrative. But what if your character has a title like King, Regent, Queen, General, Archmage, etc.? Example in Ursula K. Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" she writes this: "It came to the hem of the Archmage's robe and stood there all black with its dagger beak and eyes like pebbles, staring sidelong at Ged. It pecked three times on the white staff Nemmerle leaned on, and the old wizard ceased his muttering, and smiled." The character is Archmage Nemmerle and as you can see Le Guin refers to him as both Archmage and Nemmerle. When do you refer to them using their title and when do you use their name? I know in formal writing you use last names but in prose fiction I usually see people referred to by their first name or nickname or whatever name they prefer, but when a character has a title it seems kinda weird to refer to their first name, nickname, or whatever name they prefer constantly.

Public Comments

1. Gut feeling and sense of smell :) There isn't a right answer to this. In the case you've posted, I'd say she used his title in the first case so that we picture the robe as formal, something an archmage would wear. Plus, she may not have wanted to repeat his name twice in quick succession, and "he" would have been ambiguous since Ged is also male. You just have to make it clear, make it flow, and try to avoid what's known as "burly detective syndrome", where writers jump through ever-increasing hoops to try to not have to say someone's name.