He came to me with no background really, he is like a minor character, but I later plan to bring him back as the main character(yes back, I'm going to kill him off and reincarnate him) So my question is, "should I reveal his name(that will appear later in the book when he is the main character) or leave him as an (unknown character) for now, or I should I assign him a temporary name?" Thanks in advance, Eurlo.
One thing that works is describe him just a bit the first time you see him. When he comes up later, you can have another character remember him and say, oh, you're the guy from x! And do introductions. Then drop a little more description and there you have it. I wouldn't give the audience a name right off the bat, unless you want them to have that detail for all the time when he's not really important.
A name is the safest thing to reveal about a character. It just be there, give the readers something to remember him bu without weighting down the book. No one will be excited if you reincarnate the nameless extra that died.
In my Japanese Vampire Radiation Opera, one of the two key antagonists shares the same name as my MC.
Or...as opposed to a name you could give him a memorable description that makes us think we should probably pay attention. In Babylon 5, Zack Allan started out as kind of a regular background character. When you saw him you dismissed him as just another extra. (Unless you were Jeff Conaway fan) Then later on his character grew and eventually replaced Garibaldi as Chief of Security on the station.
I tried writing a story like this (one with a nameless character) and it worked out well. But, my story was a first person perspective so it was just a little easier for me to work with. In your situation, though, I would think providing a name would be better. Give your character a name and some details. Make your readers LOVE the character, so that they are upset and distraught if he dies. Then, when he is reincarnated, everyone will be even more excited that their favorite character has returned. If you kept him nameless, it does not allow your readers to really connect with the character, and therefore, they would not really care either way if he lives or dies.
re: I am naming him with a temporary name, that I have chosen and will now write for the first time in my book I cant wait to see how this ends...Who knows maybe he will live, I don't really know
I remember once being a thousand words into a short story before I realised I hadn't named the protagonist. In the end I made a gag out of it and just had him giving out a random name every time he met somebody. "Hi, I'm dave." "Hi, My name's Pecan Treefall" "Do you know who I am? I'm Flash McGarry!" And so on in that vain. It was rubbish really. Don't do that, that's my advice.
Lol, funny, dont guess the story went anywhere did it? Dont worry I wasn't about to randomly name him, lol!
