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 Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:09 pm
Does anyone visit this subforum anymore? Well here's a question for those who do.
So I'm writing my novel. I'm in love with the fact that's finally taking off and getting somewhere... but I have a concern. I originally debated over writing in the past tense since, y'know, that's how most fiction novels are told these days (at least, the majority I read are.)
But I somehow fell in love with writing in a present tense and have stuck to it so far. It can be a little crazy, since I'll go back to do some editing and notice that I'll have put some part instinctively in the past tense. But I'm enjoying it.
Here's my question:
What are the pro's and con's of the past and present tenses?
And just for kicks:
What's your favorite tense and why?
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Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 7:03 am
Personally, I find present tense to be rather annoying. I think it's the immediacy - at a philosophical as well as physical level there's no fluidity, no reflectiveness, just bang bang bang. And you get some awkward corners of grammar and syntax, too. Which may be just what you want for a particular purpose, but I think writers and readers who assume that present tense is automatically more immediate are making a mistake.
Having said that, quite a lot of the new novel is present tense, but that's because two of the three narratives have an extremely fluid relationship between 'Now' and 'Then', so it's clearer if I can slip-slide between the two, with the tense keeping the reader on track.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:58 pm
I like past. I'm just not fond of people halfway in the middle of doing things. And also, why woulkd you be telling a story from present tense? It's like you stop every few seconds and write what you're doing in a journal or something. Things work out better when you go through everything that's happened and THEN write it down (in the case of journal entries or something) so you have time to let everything settle in your mind so you can understand.
I'm not making too much sense...I just like past. Same thing Tak said, present has no reflection, no fluidness, just bang bang bang.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:53 pm
I find that in present I have no chance to explain things. For example, one wouldn't explain the background behind their actions every moment normally, would they? It's just always been a hassle to me, and never sounded right.
But that's me. It varies with each writer and their skills.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:53 pm
Kirby has reminded me, I have read books that work extremely well with present tense. "Go ask Alice" for one but it consisted of journal entries.. alot of the best present tense stories are put together from someone's direct diary entries.
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:06 am
Go Ask Alice was so depressing...
But that's beside the point.
another present tense book that worked extremely well was a million little pieces. I loved that book, even though I am NOT reading it again. The style was very strange, like he was telling it to you in person, and he wouldn't censor things and he would randomly capitalize things...it was kind of cool.
But I'm still not reading that book again...X.x
Anyway, I'm not too sure about present tense outside of journal entries...but then, I read a first-person book in eighth grade adn I thought it was the weirdest thing I had ever read. Now...well, I see that it was just a weird book. The Dark Hills Divide, or something.
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 7:38 pm
The style "A Million Little Pieces" was written in was called Typographical, loverly.
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Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:41 pm
......was it?
Well, it would help if I knew what that meant.
...........
*is too lazy to look it up.* Hmm.
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Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 9:29 pm
I,myself, like past test the better. That way the writer can look back at the moment and add in even more of the character's thoughts and feelings of the events, espescailly with first tense.
But now, really thinking about it. I like to write in present tense, first. But then at a moment, usually after the intro, tell what has happened to the characters, using past tense of course, starting with the first happenings and so on and so on. Then coming back to the current moment, switch back to present. Does that make sense? <.<;
And now, I'm curious what that one word means ><;
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