Spoilers from companion short stories

[alhawke]

I'm nearly finished with a companion short story that I'm planning to release as a reader magnet. It's a romantic urban fantasy "sequel" of sorts involving the same main character. I want to use it to draw new readers for my upcoming urban fantasy. It'll be about 20k words.

Here's the question. I was thinking of not naming the boyfriend in the story. But not naming a character is weird during romantic scenes and also during regular dialog. Should I go with the name and not worry about it being a spoiler? The problem is that the short story takes place after my upcoming novel. If someone enjoys the main book, they're gonna know my character lives to see another day. Does that matter? Does it take away drama from the novel?

Extra marketing question. Should I push the release of this short story for the same time as the release of the novel? Or can it still drum up interest a month or two after?

[Post-Crisis D]

I have a story that's about 53k words now and I have two characters that haven't been named yet.  It was fine for a while as it kind of left the unnamed character mysterious, but then adding a second unnamed character just made it annoying.  Probably would have been fine without the second unnamed character.

So, I think it comes down to how it's handled.  I think it could be done.  I mean, in normal conversation, it's common for people to not use names.  I don't know how many conversations I've had with people and never said their name once.  It's a bit awkward if another friend they haven't met comes around and you need to introduce them but, outside of that, it's hardly an issue.  In a romantic relationship, you can probably get away with pet names or "honey" or "dear" or whatever.

Might be tougher when the character is discussing their boyfriend with a third party.  With strangers, it's common to say "my boyfriend" but with friends, you usually talk about another person by name.

[Jeff Tanyard]

One of my pet peeves as a reader is when the author refuses to name major characters.  I simply can't get emotionally invested in such characters.  A nameless character is just a movie extra, someone lurking in the background to help establish a setting, not main cast.

It almost always feels contrived, too, as if the author is trying to pull a trick on the reader, and I don't like that sort of thing.  It reminds me of the "card tricks in the dark" entry from the Turkey City Lexicon.

I'd personally much rather go with the spoiler than having a major character without a name.  As long as you label the story a sequel, then the readers know there will be possible spoilers for the previous stories.  Besides, we all know characters like Jack Ryan and Dirk Pitt are going to keep coming back in future books, but that doesn't prevent us from enjoying their harrowing escapades in the previous books.

Just my opinion.  Hope it helps, or at least gives you food for thought.

[TimothyEllis]

One of my pet peeves as a reader is when the author refuses to name major characters.  I simply can't get emotionally invested in such characters.  A nameless character is just a movie extra, someone lurking in the background to help establish a setting, not main cast.

That's the whole point, isn't it?

I've got a cast of somewhere near 300 now.

In recent books I've stopped naming people for the sake of naming them. So they go the entire book with some attribute as a name instead.

The whole point is I don't want people emotionally invested in them. Not yet, anyway. 

And while some of them do have major dialogue, that dialogue could be said by anyone without changing the story at all.

I even commented on it in this book. The people were not introducing themselves, and the MC wasn't asking. And at the same time, the normal 'social mechanisms' the MC is used to, are not there. So people don't get named.

And for the most part, the situations don't need names. Next book though in that series, will definitely need a lot of new names. But it also needs some new structures thought out in advance. Where this book didn't need them, since most of the existing structure was sacked in the first chapter, and not formally replaced.

[alhawke]

  still brainstorming.

I'd personally much rather go with the spoiler than having a major character without a name.  As long as you label the story a sequel, then the readers know there will be possible spoilers for the previous stories. 

But in this particular tale, he acts as a minor character.

I can't label the short story as a "sequel" because that will mess up the book as a reader magnet. People won't grab it and check it out if they think they have to read my prior novel. And a prequel for a book about hero development doesn't work well (example, there's not much of a story about Peter Parker before he becomes Spiderman). So I have to dodge spoilers to make it work. And not just names. Characteristics and plot points too. Its nearly impossible to avoid spoilers completely, but I think I can manage it enough to work well.

There's two other options for names. 1) I could use a term of endearment. Trouble with this is it can be annoying to constantly refer to a character as "babe" or "hun". On occasion, sure, but all the time? 2) I could develop a nickname by the end of my novel and then use that as the boyfriend's name for the separate story. This might work if distinctive enough.

[TimothyEllis]

But in this particular tale, he acts as a minor character.

I don't see the need to name.

Just use something distinctive about him as a nickname, and then put that observation in the novel as well. A sharp reader will spot it and make the connection in the novel, especially if binge reading both.

[notthatamanda]

You could just name all the characters something new. You are introducing the readers to the world, and your writing, not necessarily the characters. Then down the road, you can possibly take these two characters on some new adventures in a parallel series.

[alhawke]

I don't see the need to name.

Just use something distinctive about him as a nickname, and then put that observation in the novel as well. A sharp reader will spot it and make the connection in the novel, especially if binge reading both.

Yes, I'm leaning to nickname or nothing. I'll see if I can limit references to satisfy all the above. Thanks!

You could just name all the characters something new. You are introducing the readers to the world, and your writing, not necessarily the characters. Then down the road, you can possibly take these two characters on some new adventures in a parallel series.

I could, but I try to have my cake and eat it too. I love having tie-ins throughout books. Little Easter eggs are fun for readers and I think as writers, are minds love connecting things. It's how I can write novels without outlines. But this is a bit of a silly dance back and forth between connections and spoilers, particularly with my introduction book following a novel. I suspect many readers have no idea how much thought goes into our stuff.

[TimothyEllis]

I love having tie-ins throughout books.

That's how I've built a universe. WIP at the moment is book 58 in the same universe.

Book 1 still hits the top 10 daily income on a regular basis, because I keep referring backwards all the time, and new readers go back to the start.

I just planned a forward tie in just now, with a casual mention for this book, a vague happening in the next book, and the actual happening in the book after. This book follows events in the previous book in this series, which itself tied back to a previous series. Next book ties back to series 3. Book after that ties back to pre series 1.

It all converts into income as new readers find me.

[Post-Crisis D]

Little Easter eggs are fun for readers and I think as writers, are minds love connecting things.

I have a fair number of Easter eggs in my books, some of which I've even forgotten.  There's one I think I messed up while editing.

I always think they're too obvious, but then people rarely find them.