Do extras/minor characters need names? +another ?

Just curious, I am writing a scene where the hero's sister is aboard a space station. I'm asking here because it's more of a general question than genre specific (since you could apply this question to any other genre).

Anyway, I was wondering if I needed to name every single character with at least a generic name? It won't matter terribly, because they are all going to die shortly anyway (imagine Pearl Harbor in space, and it's the driving force for the hero to join the military).

I realize that the commander will need a name, as well as a few other characters (such as anyone the sister knows personally), but for say, a radar operator in the bridge room, can I just call him operator and get away with it? I suppose giving him a name would make it seem more "realistic", but again, they're all going to die anyway, and the only really important character here I expect readers to remember there is the hero's sister (aside from some of the major bad guys of course).


EDIT: Another quick question, how would you handle the POV shifts in the same chapter? Although this chapter happens in the same general area, some characters are very far apart (say about 50 miles or so, and in different ships, outer space is rather big. Plus the sister is not in the same area as the station commander, but I want to cover her POV too). I want to convey thoughts and messages from both the good and bad guys, but I'm not sure how to do it. Do I just start a new paragraph, or do I have to do something else?

Any help here would be appreciated.

Re: Do extras/minor characters need names?

How minor is minor, for extras, I tend to not give them a name. In my first novel, I have multiple minor characters with no names -- an old man in the park (no names, and the protragonist doesn't care to ask), a ticket-booth clerk, a fisherman, etc. I only name them if the names would be revealed somehow (to the POV character). For example, for a while an old woman has no name because she hasn't told the POV character. Then during a conversation, the name of the old woman comes into play and from then on, the old woman is referred to by her real name.

So, for example, if your POV character knows the operator, then his name should be used. Otherwise, "the operator" would work just fine.

To show a POV-shift, do a line break. One blank line in between the different POV's. In the manuscript, mark this by a centered # on the line.

Thanks for the quick replies. Obviously this would be a ton easier if it were a movie (as movies always tend to show many POV's, going from point A to point B rather quickly, and I wanted to try and do something similiar, because this chapter is basically an important "action sequence" after the very beginning).

A quick scene cut (continuous time): # (line break). If it's a big scene cut (different time frame, settings, etc.) you can use *** or something like that.

No, you don't need to have actual names for all the characters, but you need to have a way to refer to them. Some of my detective fiction ways:

"Duggan was talking to two uniform cops when he spotted me. He excused himself, came over, shook my hand."

"One of the bodyguards glowered at me. He was a tall guy with tattoos on both sides of his shaven head, and he was wearing one of those long dusters that everybody in Matrix wore, so now all the cheap crooks emulate this. He tried to be fierce and all, but I didn't buy it."

And so on.

Shifting POV's: Read some Mary Higgins Clark. She has some chapters where POV changes every paragraph. See how she does it. A large portion of her audience does not even realize she is doing it.

About the soon to be dead crew: Let me make a suggestion. Rather than thinking of them as "just some extras who die soon," think of them as ways to draw the reader's interest and sympathy. I would consider giving the reader just enough about each character, say a paragraph, to draw the reader's desire to see the bad guys get their comeuppance to the point they will not want to put down the book until they see it done.

don't they refer to crew members as 'mister so-and-so' in the navy? well, spacefleets typically lean more towards that military branch's traditions, so the operator might become 'mr. yokelson.' i think you'd do good to talk to an ex-navy guy and do a little research on naval traditions. in lieu of that approach, i'd probably mention how the military makes everyone look generic, describe the typical look, and let that serve as a description for these minour characters. they're not even minour characters, though, so either way is probably okay in your case.

sometimes it just feels more appropriate than other times, know what i mean? you wouldn't have a huge fantasy battle and assign a name to a commander who charges his unit forward. you could, but it would be pointless in that case because you know that you'll never need to know that name again. in mr. yokelson's case, you can reference back to him when the attack starts and show how he dies at least, which i think is better than a *completely* random crew member.

remember in star wars: anh when the rebels are taking position inside the capture ship's corridor? lucas focuses in on one dude in particular, some white-haired guy with funky coloured eyes. the first time you see it you're like, ah, okay, this is going to be a main character. twelve seconds later and he's got a hole in his chest big enough to drive a sandcrawler through. five seconds after that and you need a bulldozer to push aside all the rebel corpses. the point is even if you've got cannon-fodder, that's cool, but you still need to show, i think, some personalized deaths, at least to a certain extent. that's just what i'd do, but then again i'm just a hack.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been in the army, so I know something about military lingo and what not, but I'm not entirely sure if they do the same thing regarding rank and addressing higher ups in the navy. I guess I should find out more about how the navy works too, since the main hero will eventually become a fighter pilot as well (I considered making him a grunt, but there's too many vital events in the plot that require him to be flying in a jet, otherwise he won't seem as important).

I don't show too many characters, partly to avoid confusing readers with too many characters, but also because I want to focus mostly on the hero's sister stationed aboard the space station, as well as one of the villians (which I'm making more "humane" by having him question if he's really doing the right thing by attacking them). A rough draft shows about seven characters that I'll focus on, three of the bad guys and four of the good guys, is that okay?

And yes, I otherwise want to write the chapter out in such a way that people will be saddened by her death, and can relate to the hero when he finds out about this. I also want to try and make the bad guys seem like "the enemy", but at the same time I want to show some of them as having morals, so that people will hopefully come to hate them with a passion.

But I also want to show some of them as appearing to have morals, so that hopefully people will try and see that not everyone is as evil as they may think. But I still want them to hate the bad guys as much as possible (and yes, I'm giving the bad guys a lot of cool toys to play with to carry out their evil plans hehe).

You might give a small tidbit of info about each character in relation to the hero's sister. Could be done with or without shifting POV's.

Thus the entire chapter / scene would be about her, but her in relation to the others. She went on a picnic with this person, that person's wife gave her a gift, she helped on at one time, another helped her, etc.

If it helps I sometimes mull over a scene or chapter for days and sometimes I'll write something a dozen different ways before I come up with what I want. I figure if nothing else I will have had practice writing.