Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

This is a story about the military declaring martial law to throw out a liberal president they didn't like.
Except for the two main characters in this story, the author chose not to give names to the other characters. Some of them, thinly disguised, could be deciphered without the names. But most were either figments of the author's imagination or, if they were based on real people, I wasn't smart enough to recognize them.
What I'd like to hear is your opinion of not giving the characters names. I liked the story, but found the lack of names disconcerting and had trouble knowing precisely which unnamed character was involved in some scenes.

It isn't something I would finish reading. It doesn't make it through chapter one without devolving into pure fantasy.

What I'd like to hear is your opinion of not giving the characters names.

I haven't read it, and I'm probably not going to.

That said, I can give a general opinion.

People in a scene that are just bits players, part of the scenery don't need names.

A story about a high school student. The scene is in the halls between classes. The hall is filled with other students. They aren't important to the plot, but they are an important part of the setting. The MC wouldn't be attending a school where he and his few friends are the only students. Those other students are an important part of the background scenery. They don't need names unless they get pulled into the foreground of the story.

On the other hand any character that appears more than once and is part of the plot should have a name.

What I'd like to hear is your opinion of not giving the characters names. I liked the story, but found the lack of names disconcerting and had trouble knowing precisely which unnamed character was involved in some scenes.

To avoid confusion by the reader a re-occurring character must be identifiable otherwise you wouldn't know it was the same character but that doesn't necessary mean by name. Minor characters could just as well be identified by "the blond" or "the weirdo".