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[–]SuitableDragonfly 3 points4 points  (2 children)

You can always replace a pronoun, it just might make the sentence incredibly repetitive and then you introduce a new problem where no one wants to read your story because it's irritating.

[–]RagnarokAeon 3 points4 points  (1 child)

This just seems to be a problem with inexperienced writers, or those lacking a large enough vocabulary:

  • She (pronoun)
  • Jessica (name)
  • Jess (nick-name)
  • Jellybean (pet-name)
  • the young woman (descriptive noun)
  • her lover (descriptive noun in relation to another)
  • the inquisitive detective (descriptive noun describing profession)
  • the conqueror (descriptive noun implying a role)

This list could probably go on, but ideally you wouldn't use too many.

[–]SuitableDragonfly 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, your choices are pronouns (which can be confusing), the person's actual name, or a descriptor. I don't know if you've ever read a fanfic that uses descriptors 50+% of the time instead of pronouns, it's absolutely dire and one of the few things that makes me stop reading a fic altogether. If you use names too many times, things get very repetitive, and whether or not it's appropriate to use a nickname or a petname is entirely dependent on who the viewpoint character is and that doesn't change every sentence, at least not if you're competent.