urgent capitalization issue

[ritaxis]

So in this phase of my story I'm often referring to characters by their occupational titles because there is a cast of thousands and most of these people walk on, deliver some portentious lines or do some portentious deed and walk away never to be seen again, or only to be seen again once or twice more.  However, there are some more enduring and sometimes more important characters who seem to be most conveniently referred to in this way too.

This leaves me confused as to when to capitalize the label. Obviously if it's descriptive it doesn't get capitalized.  If it's part of a name -- Lieutentent Kargburn -- it does.  If it's in lieu of a name, though -- as in "The Lieutenant is always like that" -- as opposed to when it's purely descriptive -- "there was a lieutenant in the wagon" -- that's a little less clear. Because sometimes it's sort of both. "The corporal emerged from the office, saying 'The Lieutenant will see you now.'  . . ."

I need more finely-tuned guidelines for capitalizing these things, because I think I'm being rampantly inconsistent at the moment.

Comments

[redbird]

I would go with lower case on "the lieutenant is always like that" unless it's a nickname that isn't the person's actual job title: "the Colonel is always like that" for a retired officer who now runs a pub.

That said, it's not an urgent issue. Your job is to write the story. The copyeditor can sort out those inconsistencies later (or, if you self-publish and don't pay for copyediting, you can worry about it at some stage of revisions).

[ellarien]

I have much the same problem -- I always thought my main character deserved/needed to be the Admiral with a capital A, back in my fanfic days, but formal style tends to disagree. I have no advice to offer, other than what I did in November, which was to do it utterly at random and hope to fix it in revisions.

[pameladean]

I am still in sulky rebellion against the new capitalization rules, so am not much use.

P.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

What she said in both instances, with the addendum that if worrying about capitalization with your forebrain allows your backbrain to move on with the story, then go ahead and worry. If worrying about capitalization is cat-vacuuming that keeps you from getting on with the story, well, that cat is clean enough for now.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

"The Lieutenant" is the name of an individual, like "The Doctor" in Doctor Who, but "the corporal" is the description of one of many corporals, like "the doctor" you see in the hospital. I understand that the Lieutenant is also one of many lieutenants, probably many within a few hundred yards even, but my intuition tells the capitalizing works in this case anyway. The corporal is undoubtedly The Corporal (or "Corp") to his squad.

I think if replacing the definite article with indefinite made the sentence look absurd, then I would capitalize, but if it wouldn't, then I wouldn't. "A corporal emerged from the office" sounds okay, so "The corporal emerged...", no capital. "A lieutenant will see you now" sounds silly, so "The Lieutenant will...", capital. "A dog trotted round the corner." That would have to be a very significant dog indeed, to be the Dog.

We use capitalization a lot in science fiction, to forewarn: "The Ship appeared in the skies above New Xinjiang." We know we're being told that's not just any ship. In fantasy we use it maybe a bit too much.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I went through that too in Daughter of Mystery. I kept wanting to capitalize "the Baron" because I always heard it in my head with an upper case B. But then things got less gut-level the further I got from my main characters and when I delved into every style guide I could find, I came to the conclusion that capitalization was only appropriate when it was clearly standing in as part of a proper name (e.g., Baron X). I suspect your usage is going to follow the same rules. If the label is clearly being treated grammatically as a common noun, then it should be lower case.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

And thereby lies the exact crux of the problem, I think I am not always sjure when I am referring to the lieutenant as a common or a proper noun. It's mostly this one lieutenant that gives me trouble. He gives me trouble in other ways too. He also gives my protagonist trouble too.

[pierrot-dreams.livejournal.com]

I vote you capitalize everything, like in a twee British novel.