Pronouns

Pronouns serve as nouns in sentences.

Bob cracked open the crate with his crowbar.

He cracked open the crate with his crowbar.

The invention of the pronoun saved the human race from sounding like Tarzan:

Ted Mitchell opened the crate. Ted Mitchell wondered if the smell of rotting human flesh was coming from inside. Ted Mitchell scratched Ted Mitchell’s chin and worried about what Ted Mitchell’s mother Eleanor Mitchell would think.

Follow these guidelines when using pronouns:

• Use pronouns sparingly to refer to your characters.
• Use proper names periodically to remind your reader which character is which.
• Readers associate pronouns with the most recently mentioned noun, so be careful how you use them.

Use pronouns sparingly to refer to your characters.

It's easy to get lost in pronouns, especially if there are a lot of characters on the stage:

Mac, Mark, and Tony entered the room, shotguns ready. "Who wants a mouthful of buckshot?" he shouted, cocking the weapon.

"Yeah," he chimed in. "Me, too."

He nodded after his friends spoke. "And I'm the toughest of the three."

This is an exaggerated example (if anything like it appears in your writing, this Web site won't be able to help you, I'm sorry), but the concept is clear.

Red rolled down the window. "Hey, good looking," he crooned. "Want some candy?"

The nun kept walking.

Use proper names periodically to remind your reader which character is which.

As a rule of thumb, refer back to a character's name at least once a page after using pronouns (more if there are many characters in the scene).

Paul shrugged. He couldn't care less if they lived or died.

Avoid the temptation to "vary" your writing by using different ways to refer to people:

"So that's how your reactors work," the cunning Russian said.

The confusion created by this method is worse than any repetitiveness you may perceive by using the character's name or his or her pronoun. Readers are only using these tags to provide a flag about who is speaking, and the clearer those flags are, the better.

Readers associate pronouns with the most recently mentioned noun, so be careful how you use them.

Tom and Ray opened the fire hydrant valve cover. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked.

Who's speaking? We can't tell. The reader will assume that we are either talking about the viewpoint character or Ray. You don't want your reader guessing like that, though. It's only a matter of time before he or she gives up on you altogether.