I came across this excellent post on Chris, the Story Reading Ape’s blog and thought it interesting. Such good advice.
Here is some of what Jaq D. Hawkins has to say.
I recently came across an article offering advice about choosing past, present or future tense and first, second or third person pov. I didn’t finish reading the article after I got to a part that said first person works best in present tense.
No. It doesn’t.
In fact, many people like myself refuse to read books written in first person present tense, despite the growing number of books on the market, mostly self-published, written that way by young, mainly Romance authors.
There will be people who disagree with my opinion on this.
What are your opinions on tense? Do you like present tense? And what about second person?
If you’ve been and read the rest of this post, do you agree or disagree with Jaq?
Please answer in the comments box.
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Thanks, V. M.
I agree with Jaq. Present tense irritates me more than long fingernails scraping across a blackboard — and yes, I’m old enough to remember what that sounds like.
Flash fiction? Ok. Short story? Maybe. Novel? Uh uh!
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Sadly, I find many other wise excellent stories are in present tense nowadays.
I would, in my writing, tend to stay away from it. I’ve yet to hear anyone complaining about the use of past tense, but there are people who won’t read present.
It’s similar to grammar in some ways. No one complains about a book or story written with good grammar, but many an author has lost stars in a review for poor grammar, or even readers. (Me for one).
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Present tense can work for very specific reasons and–as others have said in their comments–for a short period of time, such as a short story, maybe even a novela. The other reason is that it’s hard as hell to write! We are so accustomed to relating a story in past tense that writing in the present tense is a minefield. The longer you write, the closer you get to THAT hidden bomb that you step on when you revert to past tense! I should try it some time in a short story just to see how long I can go before blowing myself into a thousand pieces… RJ 😉
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Haha. I did write one short story in first person present tense. From the pov of a cat. It was done for the reason that at the end, the poor moggy died, so couldn’t really be anything else.
I have had it accepted for a charity publication in aid of a cat charity in the US, but had to change the ending because it was unsuitable for a feel good book of stories! But the pov and tense stayed the same.
It was tricky, though, remembering to keep the tense in the present.
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