Desiderius Price

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One thing I appreciate here on AFF is that we don’t have to consider sexuality a gift of the 18th birthday, that it’s part of the human condition from the day we’re born. Stuff I write is usually underdogs, their development, which tends to include youth, teenagers, and college-aged characters because its these early years that tend to set them up – sure, can happen later too, but way more likely with early indoctrination. Jeff? He’s eight, in the middle of taking a bath, when the father comes to execute a custody order in the middle of a divorce, thus Jeff’s leaving his family home in his birthday suit, and gets relocated to a nudist environment as that’s a good hiding spot from the ex … that’s got underage all over it. Nah, I’d totally understand it if you had minors doing those acts… happens today with teenagers, how many “wait” until they’re 18 to get frisky if given the chance? Some do, but not most, and I try to write with a fair bit of realism to it. And even if the teens aren’t actually getting frisky, they’re dreaming/joking about it. Even in star trek, most red shirts had a name, maybe added to the captain’s log “Death of Lt Smith”. So, if the character’s around for most of an episode, a name’s likely the right thing to give them. If you’re having difficulty with names, try a random name generator, that’ll suggest names fast. (I tend to use http://random-name-generator.info/random/)

Felt like digging… Definitely sage advice there! I tend to keep the flashbacks short, focus on the one thing needed, and usually to show the character dwelling on something. Because a “flashback” to add in something earlier into the story’s time-frame tends to hint that I failed to simply put it in at the appropriate time. If I “flashback” to right before the story started...why didn’t I open up with that instead? (Obviously with fanfic, sometimes you do have to retcon something into canon, so your hands are a bit more tied.)

I don’t follow Riverdale… but yeah, given the author set on this website, especially as most of my stories have the underage warnings on them, “minor characters” has dual meanings. Suppose even primary & secondary could in a school setting. Suppose a good hint for names is “love interest” vs “sex object”. If it’s simply another hole (or dick), then names are less urgent. If it’s in the name of romance, then a name would be more important.

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Context is everything here. If it’s a long scene with only that other character, you might get away with “naval officer” and use “he” or “she” pronouns; M/F being easier at than over, say M/M or F/F. And your main character not remembering the name the next day. Going down a line? Maybe a name, maybe not. If I’m portraying the opening run of football players within cheerleaders? Describe the paint job, the similarity, or even one or two differences as you’re going down that line. If you’re bouncing between characters, back and forth, well, names are likely more critical. (ps. trying to retire “minor” from this conversation unless you’re wanting it to be under-18.)

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And TBH, even IF I given a name to a background character, I’ll go to referring to them by their role anyways. ie “I’m Officer Burton,” the officer said. “Was that your vehicle son?” The officer pointed at the smoldering burned metal frame. Because the burden of remembering the name/association for a short period of time… is that where you want the emphasis of your story to be? However, when you’ve got multiple of the same role, as pointed earlier, Hermione gave nicknames to her attackers so I didn’t have to repeatedly say “tall one with a freckled face” and “short fat one”, when it became easier use “Freckles” and “Chubby”. Maybe the reader shed a tear when the coroner’s report described their internal organs as vindaloo?

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A name is something the reader needs to keep track of, so the role itself might be alright, but context is usually everything. Having a full character workup on that character can certainly help in giving non-standard reactions to what your primary characters are up to. “Reminds me of my sister” or similar. However, that might be overboard for the needed role, so you could instead mention “They paid.” and simply move on, even cutting out that minor character all together. Of course, you can still have a character workup for them and never drop the name too. If you’ve got two or three minor characters interacting in a slightly more significant way, now you have to differentiate them, so you could always go “blond” vs “black” haired, or use names or their roles or something else; though names require a way to get them, or fast nicknames (as I did in one scene where Hermione “nicknamed” them in her head, just to keep them straight).

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I’ve done both good and bad flashbacks. The bad one is why I split up my first original story, because I was using them to cover backstory that was better to split off to other stories (ie, I was confusing myself). The good is a quick flash “forward” of a future suspense point (ie Voldemort exclaiming the potion in his cup is the “Elixir of Immortality”) with a “two years earlier….” as the fast move back in time point. Which ever way it’s done, flash-forward or flash-backward, that scene should be kept relatively short. If it needs to span chapters, then consider a separate backstory, and snippets for the flash back itself.

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42724 and a palindrome

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