Hello! I have a character that uses they/she/he pronouns and doesn't have a preference, I figured what pronouns to use in dialogue depending on who's talking, but I'm having problems figuring out what pronouns to use in the narration. I'm afraid of using whatever pronouns and making it confusing to read
Hi!
I think there's a few different creative options you could go with this. These ideas are just jumping off points. I'm going into this assuming that this character is one of the main perspectives, and this isn't a third person omniscient thing where you're going into all these other characters' heads where they are using different pronouns. (If that's the case, you can probably just stick with the pronouns the perspective character was using, just to keep flow.)
you could designate specific chapters for specific pronouns, and mark this at the head of the chapter (similar to how books with multiple POVs tend to mark the name of the POV character at the beginning of the chapter). I think you could decide which one to go with based on whatever, but I think if it were me I would go in a set order of rotation (like the same pronouns every third chapter).
you could have certain pronouns for certain scenes or settings. certain pronouns at work, certain pronouns at school, at home, with friends, etc.
if the character is being written about in a context with someone with she/her pronouns (for instance) you could write this character as having consistently/exclusively he/him or they/them, just within that scene with this other character.
The main thing is clarity and consistency. Pronouns exist when using a name would be clunky, so people know who you're talking about without the name being repeated. Confusion around who is being referred to still can happen in stories where multiple characters use the same pronouns, if the writer is not clear about which "he" (etc.) is being referred to.
If you start a paragraph with, "[Name] was looking for his phone," and then use he/him pronouns in narrative until another character is named, this should be fairly clear who you are talking about. The key is to introduce whoever the pronouns are referring to by name, or otherwise have it be very clear who you are referring to. Here's a little example scene where it should be clear who is being talked about at any given moment.
Name was looking for his phone. He knew he was running late but he didn't know by how much, and he couldn't leave without something to play music through his headphones on. Name missed her old place, with a tray set up by the door, another by the laundry basket, another by her bedside table. Three default, easy places to look for the standard pocket contents. She'd had a system for everything. Character 2 was usually pretty understanding about things like this but Name didn't want to stress him out further. Character 2 just started working a job with a weird shift schedule, and it was hard to find time to catch up.
In this blurb, when a new character is introduced, I made sure to make it clear who was being referred to by using the first character's name as being someone interacting with [pronoun of Character 2]. It takes more effort to write this way, and will probably mean a lot of practice and experimenting until it feels natural, but it's definitely doable. Paragraph breaks also will help distinguish who is being talked about, if you want to go this route.
Sometimes, using a name more often, just for clarity might still be helpful if you are switching up pronouns a lot. I would also try to cap the pronoun switches to like 2 per paragraph tops (mileage may vary in practice, experiment and see what reads okay) just for flow reasons, but that's just me personally.
If you're not sure what to go with, you can always try out one option while drafting, and make adjustments according to what feels comfortable for you as a writer.
This is something that doesn't have a lot of precedent, so you have a lot of creative room to work with. There isn’t really a wrong way to do this. There's probably going to be a learning curve while you get the hang of writing this way.
Another thing you could do is mention the rotating narrative pronouns in an author's note at the beginning. Pronouns aren't the whole of who a person is, and I don't think it compromises the art of character introduction/development to have a little note at the beginning explaining how the character's pronouns operate within the narration. It can also help people who haven't encountered anyone with pronouns like this before (or who aren't reading in their first language) to pick up on things quicker and focus on the plot once they do.
Having someone else proofread just to make sure everything is clear and understandable should also be really helpful to your writing, more so than it would be for a character who you don't switch any pronouns for at all.
Hopefully this helps somewhat!
-mod nat














