Should I refer to character's aunt as her aunt every time I mention her?

If your MC is the narrator and she calls her Aunt Gwen, then yes, she probably should be referred to like that.

Does she use her name a lot? Could they have some minor disagreement about it, like your MC calls her "Gwen" to her face and the aunt corrects her, but MC still uses Gwen in the narrative?

Close third means we are inside the MC's head in the narration. So yes, Aunt Gwen, unless you can find some reason she wouldn't call her that.

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I don't think it would be confusing if she were just "Gwen" (obviously it's the same person), but an editor might pick you up on it.

ReadWriteRachel said:

I see what you're saying -- I realized that I never really think of third person as "in" the narrator's head, but it totally is. Thank you!

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Picky, but... 'in the narration' is not the same as 'in the narrator's head'. In the POV character's head would be more accurate, I think. The MC is not strictly the narrator - you are. If she were, it would be First Person.

In narrative theory, you'd call her the focalising character; she's the one "seeing" the story, which is focused through her. The narrator doesn't know anything she doesn't know

ReadWriteRachel said:

Since it's third person, Gwen's name is always used to describe what she's saying or doing. When my MC actually speaks, she is always Aunt Gwen or Captain Veranes. But since it's a close third person, does it needs to be Aunt Gwen every time I mention her doing anything, even though we're not inside my MC's head in the narration?

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Well, actually, the convention with close-third is that the narrative does represent what's in the character's head. There's no external narrator like there would be with omniscient. Rather, it works very much like a first-person POV. So yes, to be consistent with POV, it probably should be "Aunt Gwen" in the narrative, although it's not the end of the world if you decide against that.

I don't have anything to add to the actual solution here, which has clearly been worked out. Just wanted to share that when I first read the title of the this thread, I had an amusing mental image of something along these lines:

....

Susie's Aunt Marina stopped by the store to pick up some groceries. At the checkout line, the cashier recognized her. "Hey, aren't you Susie's Aunt?"

"Why yes, I am her aunt. Do you know Susie?"

"We studied music together." The cashier lowered her voice to a whisper. "I performed at the flute recital."

Susie's Aunt Marina blanched. "We all swore we'd never again speak of that terrible day."

"I know. But Susie hasn't been the same since then, and since you're her Aunt... well, have you stopped by to see her lately?"

"No. I, her aunt, live two towns over and don't get a chance to visit often. And after all, it's not like I'm her mother. I'm just her aunt."

"I understand. My own aunt was at the recital, too, and she hasn't been able to look me in the eye since. But Susie blames herself for what happened. She always spoke so highly of you, and even pointed you out as her aunt at the beginning of the recital. I thought, since you're her aunt and all, maybe you could talk to her. Tell her it wasn't her fault, you know?"

"Oh, but it WAS her fault. I'm her aunt; I should know."

Etc.

No, you don't.
Instead of telling that "my aunt said", you can simply say that "she said" or simply just dialogue.

ReadWriteRachel said:

I'm writing a YA fantasy right now involving pirates in a made-up world. My MC is a pirate on board the ship her aunt is the captain of, and she's going to be one of the primary side characters throughout the entire story.

I introduced her as Captain Gwen Veranes, and have since been calling her "Gwen" in the story (i.e. "A knot of people parted to let Gwen through."), but my character calls her "Aunt Gwen" in one-on-one situations and "Captain Veranes" when she's among the rest of the crew. The story is narrated in third person, but close third -- only my MC's thoughts and feelings. Is it going to be confusing if the narration refers to her as Gwen when she's actually Aunt Gwen? I think it looks weird to have Aunt Gwen repeated so often, but maybe it's needed.

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If you are in limited third, especially a close limited third, then you'd refer to each character in the way your viewpoint character thinks of her. If she is "Aunt Gwen," or "her aunt" to your pov character, then that's how you should refer to her in the narrative when you aren't simply using pronouns (like she, which will probably be most of the time).

Of course, different characters can call her Captain if that's how they think of her or what's expected. And maybe someone else, who might know her in another context (say a sibling or parent) can call her Gwen. Your pov character would also call her "Captain" in dialog if that's the protocol on the ship, but she'd likely still think of her as her aunt (unless she's very good at compartmentalizing, in which case that should be clear from other aspects of her character too).

Now if you have scenes or chapters from the captain's viewpoint, you'd refer to her however she'd refer to herself in those scenes (assuming you are writing the whole book in limited third).

It shouldn't be confusing if you make the situation clear.

ReadWriteRachel said:

Since it's third person, Gwen's name is always used to describe what she's saying or doing. When my MC actually speaks, she is always Aunt Gwen or Captain Veranes. But since it's a close third person, does it needs to be Aunt Gwen every time I mention her doing anything, even though we're not inside my MC's head in the narration?

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If it's close limited third, then you'd always be in someone's head for the narrative. Switching between omniscient third and limited third generally doesn't work well. Is your main character the only viewpoint character, or are some scenes told from gwen's viewpoint? If you are in a scene from Gwen's pov, you'd refer to her as "Gwen," or however she thinks of herself. But any scene where your main character is the pov, even when you're not specifically relating internal thoughts, you'd refer to her as "Aunt Gwen." This is one way you keep the reader grounded in the narrative viewpoint for that scene. Switching around within the same scene would feel like head hopping and be confusing.

This is a great article on writing with a deep, character-referenced narrative viewpoint. It provides other tips as well for keeping readers grounded in your pov character's perspective.

http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com/2011/11/checklist-for-deep-pov-in-1st-or-3rd.html

If it's established that Gwen is the MC's aunt then you're reader will not forget the relationship as long as Gwen plays a substantial part. On the other hand if Gwen was only mentioned a few times, several chapters apart, then I would reiterate the relationship. I think how your MC refers to Gwen makes a statement about the relationship. If the MC always calls her Aunt Gwen then that implies they are close (kind of like a nick name of auntie etc.) If the MC refers to her aunt as simply Gwen, it works to distance the relationship. Think of it like calling someone your step-father vs. My mother's husband. Same person, same relationship, very different connection implied.

I have a character in my WIP who's called Chris's dad and is referred to as such throughout the entire story, apart from where people who aren't my MC call him by his name. And Chris calls him Dad.

I have a novel where I mention Aunt Aurelia and Uncle Flavian because this is how the character thinks about them (first person POV). In another, even if it is also first person POV, an aunt whom deliberately I didn't want to name (and who was mentioned like... 4-5 times in 210 pages) was simply called "Mihaela's mother", because probably the close relationship with the cousin, more closer than with the aunt, justified it.

I think it depends on whether the POV character thinks of her as Gwen or Aunt Gwen. No, your reader isn't likely to forget if you don't put "aunt", but it might just be how the POV character thinks of her. I still think of my aunt as Aunt Lee Ann, not Lee Ann, even though I'm 31 years old!

In one of my WIPs, I have my character refer to his godfather as Graham in the "present", as an adult, and as Uncle Graham in the past, when he was a child.

I only ever called my character's Aunt Mara "Aunt Mara" whenever it was from his viewpoint. I guess you don't have to do it that way, I just felt that would sound natural for the character.

Have you read Of Mice and Men?

ReadWriteRachel said:

I had the realization the other day that in Harry Potter, it's always Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, so that's definitely what I should be doing here. I do think it undermines her character a bit, though -- it loses the sense that she's also a captain of a pirate ship and an authority figure over my MC and the crew. I decided to go with the idea that my MC refers to her as "Gwen" when speaking to her privately because the captain never warmed to the idea of being "Aunt," which actually fits her personality.

Thanks everyone for the help!

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And what is interesting here is that Harry Potter was in omniscient, not limited third. But Rowling chose a narrative voice that would be relatable to her target readers. Adults tend to refer to other adults as "Aunt so and so," "Mr. Whatever," or "Your mother" or even "Mother" when speaking to kids about them, rather than using their first names. Omniscient narrators can also choose to use the names kids would use for a given character (like "Snape" and "Dumbledore" instead of "Professor Snape or Dumbledore") as well, or they can use the names the person would use for themselves, or even a more distant description (the blue-eyed professor). It can be complicated and has much to do with the voice and tone the author wants to use. With HP, the overall narrative was omniscient third, but there were long stretches where she moved the camera in to focus pretty tightly on Harry and his perspective (she also had scenes where the narrative was completely external or objective, as with the spinner's end scene with Snape at the beginning of one of the books).

Narrative voice and focus are very complicated subjects. When a writer does them well, readers don't tend to "notice," which might be why there are so many questions once we start writing our own stories. Limited third (or even first) person narratives can also move in and out in terms of distance, but if one jumps from a narrative voice that feels very internal to one that feels very distant or external, it can be disorienting for the reader.

In Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain universally refers to Aunt Polly as "Aunt Polly".

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