Round 14 Support Thread!

[verloren1983.livejournal.com]

Hello, fellow Hikago fans! As you've probably seen, sign ups (DW and LJ) for round 14 of blind_go have arrived, and you guys know what that means: lots and lots of flailing, starting now! For anyone new to our challenge here, this is the place we come to chat, flail, cry, procrastinate, plot, ask and answer questions, and support each other. ❤

Anonymouse is encouraged for writers, especially if there could be clues to your fic, but obviously isn't required, and comments will be screened during the guessing period just in case. Participants also often use their blind_go ID's once they get them, which adds a fun twist to things and you're certainly welcome to do that as well. ^_~

Writers: Complaints about lack of progress, procrastinating, requests for ideas, and more are all awesome.

Readers: You guys are more than welcome to participate too! Leave your reassurances, fanfic ideas, and helpful random spam here.

Go go Hikago! \o/

Edit: Comments should hopefully be unscreened now for posterity. If they're not, poke at me and I'll take are of it. :D

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Probing general opinions. Canonically, the characters are most often referred to by surnames. Touya, Shindo, Waya. Of course, fic is different. I've seen fic written two ways and can't decide which is best. So if you were reading a fic narrated by Touya Akira, do you prefer the text to refer to him as Touya or as Akira? "Akira thought it might be safer" or "Touya thought it might be safer"?

[(Anonymous)]

Personally, I'd say it could go either way. Whatever you choose would probably sound just fine. Akira is an only child from a traditional family, so I would think that it would be reasonable to assume that he thinks of himself as "Touya." On the other hand, if he's being referred to as "Akira" by the other people in the story or something, well, it wouldn't be out of place or anything for him to think of himself as Akira.

I guess the only advice I'd offer is... listen to your muse. What feels more comfortable? What's going to be easier for you to stay consistent using?

[(Anonymous)]

I'd tend to go with personal names for PoV characters in third-person narration - it feels odd for Akira to think of himself as Touya, when Touya-san is also what people call his parents. But you could go either way with how he thinks of Shindou Hikaru, thought I'd tend towards Akira-PoV narration using 'Shindou' and Hikaru-PoV narration using either 'Akira' or 'Touya'. This also shifts if they're in a relationship, though, since the personal name is considered more intimate in Japanese and thus they'd be more likely to think of a lover by 'Akira' or 'Hikaru'.

[(Anonymous)]

Either goes. Personally I use Touya more, but it's not a big deal.

[(Anonymous)]

Op: thanks, everyone! This was helpful. I've made my decision.

[(Anonymous)]

I know you've made your decision, but I still thought to specify a bit what I said earlier (that I personally use Touya more, that is.) I just realized, writing this fic, that if they're still kids, ~12 yo or so, I'm more likely to use their given names, and if they're older, 16+, family names. If they're something between, it varies, I guess. Depends on the fic.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! That was a very helpful series of comments.

In my fic they will be older... but I've chosen to go with Akira for the purpose of the story. For one, there'll be quite a few references to his parents. But I also want a, shall we say, less dignified narrative. I want him to seem smaller and younger.

But I think in other, more, uh, normal fics, I'll be more likely to go with Touya.