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I have a somewhat tricky situation and am not entirely sure my solution will satisfy readers. I have two main female characters (one will be the focus of book one, the other the focus of the sequel.)
The two girls, through a combination of their own desire and some supernatural hocus-pocus, end up switching not only bodies, but places in time. Sort of like a Freaky Friday situation, but across two centuries as well.
Obviously, the girls know their own "real" names post-switch, but everyone they come into contact with post-switch, sees them looking the same as the old girl still. Only one or two very close friends will ever know about the switch.
The solution I have come up with for now is to have the girls want everyone to call them by a nickname (based on their original name) post-switch, that they weren't called by before. Which will, of course, seem strange to those around them, but it will only be one more thing out of many others, since they will also be acting very differently--enough so that everyone can tell something about them has changed.
I guess where I am confused is, do I start the first few chapters referring to the girls by their "real" names, then when the switch happens, do I still have the people around them refer to them by the name they THINK should be their name? Do you see how that is confusing? Ugh. I'm not even sure if my question makes sense. I guess I'm looking for a more experienced author, here, to give me a clue as to how something like this would be handled in dialogue or narrative. My main question is how to do this without confusing the reader. Or at least if someone could point me to a resource or some books I could read that are written this way and I will be happy to do the research myself, I just have no idea where to begin looking.
The two girls, through a combination of their own desire and some supernatural hocus-pocus, end up switching not only bodies, but places in time. Sort of like a Freaky Friday situation, but across two centuries as well.
Obviously, the girls know their own "real" names post-switch, but everyone they come into contact with post-switch, sees them looking the same as the old girl still. Only one or two very close friends will ever know about the switch.
The solution I have come up with for now is to have the girls want everyone to call them by a nickname (based on their original name) post-switch, that they weren't called by before. Which will, of course, seem strange to those around them, but it will only be one more thing out of many others, since they will also be acting very differently--enough so that everyone can tell something about them has changed.
I guess where I am confused is, do I start the first few chapters referring to the girls by their "real" names, then when the switch happens, do I still have the people around them refer to them by the name they THINK should be their name? Do you see how that is confusing? Ugh. I'm not even sure if my question makes sense. I guess I'm looking for a more experienced author, here, to give me a clue as to how something like this would be handled in dialogue or narrative. My main question is how to do this without confusing the reader. Or at least if someone could point me to a resource or some books I could read that are written this way and I will be happy to do the research myself, I just have no idea where to begin looking.