Hi. I'm new, by the way, for those of you who haven't already busted my balls *cough*averydoll*cough* in my introduction discussion. I'm long-winded as hell so there's a tl;dr at the bottom for your convenience.
Anyway, I have roughly two hundred pages of this... thing that I've been writing. In the beginning I made it pretty typical in the usual kind of omniscient past-tensey way because I haven't really written anything substiantial before and so I didn't want to mess around too much.
As I worked on it, I started reading more about writing. I read some other stuff on here, and then I read those craft essays by Chuck P. Then I thought, man, he knows a lot about writing. I should give Fight Club another chance. So I finally made myself read all of Fight Club (which I still don't like, by the way). And, well, you know what happens when you read Chuck P. I personally don't favor his writing style, but he makes a lot of good points in those essays.
So I got this idea that writing things in kind of a more present way would be more engaging, I go through my story as I'm writing and convert everything to this present tense/limited point of view stuff. To me it seems to make a lot of difference in the way the story sounds. It makes a lot more sense logically, I guess, and maybe it is more engaging. But as I've gone on it has become kind of unwieldy in the scope of what I am trying to do, especially with relatively limited experience writing longer stuff. So I've been contemplating changing it back. I just don't want to spend all my time switching back and forth every time something sounds funny.
I don't really find one to be any more or less engaging than the other, and I certainly prefer more traditional omniscient things like Gaiman to Chuck P. so I think that maybe I've just overstated its importance in my mind.
tl;dr
Do you have a preferred tense, or how do you decide which one to use?
In this case I'm talking like.. I don't know – "he nodded" vs "he nods," for example (but with more important things).
Just trying to get some insight into how you guys rationalize using one or the other.
I'm sure something this general has been asked before but I looked through like four pages before I got tired.
I prefer past tense, but I do find that taking out things like "was" and "had" move the pace along and make it feel more "in the moment". I don't mind reading present tense but I find it cumbersome to write in.
Also--I hate omniscient. I prefer a third, limited where the author can come in close and pan out when necessary. I do love Gaiman, but he tends to balance omniscient pieces with third limited narration from one character's point of view at a time.
I typically write in the past tense. That said, I'm currently working on a rewrite and experimenting with the present tense. I'm not sure I like it. Personally I think it takes a lot of skill to write in present tense and I often find stories written that way boring.
I hate writing in first person. I'm currently trying to write a short horror story in the first person to try and, you know, expand my skills, but urgh... it's excruciating. I think I'd rather get a tooth extracted. But I'm perservering.
I'm not too fussed on reading first person point of view stories either. Though, I loved Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, it's one of my favourite books.
Funny, I said the same thing about writing in first person. Hated it. Then I tried it and now I can't seem to get myself to go back to third. I think one of the difficult things about writing in first is that it's hard to keep thoughts organized and coherent. Also it's easy to rant on endlessly in first person.
I typically write in past tense, although the last two stories I've written haven been in present. One was past through the bulk of the story, and then switched to present in the end. I still feel more comfortable in past, but what Sparrowstark said about the "was" and "had been" shouldn't be ignored. It does make the writing more engaging.
I'd say stick with what you're comfortable with at first, but don't be afraid to try new things and branch out. You might find you like other styles, tenses, and narration POVs than you thought you would.
Matt
I'm working on a project now where I am writing first person present tense. It's difficult, but I'm at the beginning. Hopefully eventually it will be easier. I just have to go back over every 1000 words or so and find all the past tense stuff, because I usually slip about two or three times for every thousand words. But I'm hoping it will make it feel more personal somehow.
I'm a first person present kind of fellow for the most part. It's a pain in the ass with the tense shifts. I really do want to write in third more, but I'm kind of awful at it.
I really hate reading in second person though. Can we just complain about those people for a while?
Think of it in terms of scale:
If your story is all a lead-up to single event and takes place over one single continuous period of time, present-tense can work pretty well.
If you're writing about a person's entire life, past is probably the way to go.
I recently read a book that tells the current plot, the traceable story arc in present-tense, but has regular passages of background stuff in past-tense; it worked fine.
I prefer first person POV but had to go with third for the current book.
I really do hate reading second person most of the time. Not always. But about 98% of the time I hate it.
I generally use past tense, except screenplays obviously. I went through a phase where I thought I was trendy and wrote everything in present tense, but I got over it. Generally, I don't like writing in present tense for fiction. I think it distracts from the narrative illusion because readers aren't used to seeing it. I am trying to avoid anything that takes the reader out of the story, even slightly.
I like all POV's. I prefer a third person limited to third person, but it is a lot of fun if you can really channel an authentic first person voice separate from your own. I've had some good experiments with second person, as well.
I've never read a completely 2nd-person book. Unless Choose Your Own Adventure counts.
God, now I'm questioning my first person present tense! You bastards. I'm leaving,
Gah... me too, me too! I thought past tense would fuck with the immediacy I need for this story. But now I'm not sure...
@averydoll - I'm doing the same thing, going back through each scene and finding a handful of changes in tense. I think when I focus on just hammering out dialogue and action, I can get forgetful about tense.
Oh good grief.
Well. To add onto it, the chapers are not chronological exactly. I've created a disaster and I just realized it! OR
OR
I'll just write it all and see where it stands. That may be a better idea than panic.
Pretty much always present tense. Did past tense for a children's novel I wrote a while back since I intend to try to get a traditional press to publish it rather than the small press and most fiction books published by traditional presses are written in past tense. Plus maybe pretty much all children's books.
Often when I first start a story, when I'm free-writing it, with no idea about plot, I use present tense without meaning to. It just happens. But then I get into trouble when some passages are past tense (because they happened in the past, duh), but then I'll find myself writing in past tense after that for several paragraphs or pages until I realize I had switched tenses. So I stopped writing in the present tense.
As for POV, turns out that I write in third person with "free indirect discourse," which I didn't know was a thing until I read: http://litreactor.com/columns/the-benefits-of-free-indirect-discourse
I also do first person at times.
@McKay. A trick I do when I feel too distant from my POV character in 3rd person is to write him/her in first person and then go back and edit the character into 3rd person.
I find my non-POV characters to be rather two-dimensional. As an exercise I'm going to write a story, or maybe a few scenes, in 1st person omniscient (i.e., every character is in 1st person all the time), just to see if I get into the supporting cast better. This might also show me if I'm using the correct POV character.
I've created a disaster and I just realized it!
Ha! That's what you get for beating up my driver's license story!
Thanks for the advice guys. I think I will switch back to regular old past-tense and just try not to be too godlike all the time.
I think what J.Y. and Jack Campbell Jr. say about scope and distraction, respectively, are very good points to consider. And my scope is pretty broad so its really exhausting trying to make everything present in a way that doesn't sound shitty or boring.
I suck at first-person too. I think that is one of the weakest areas for me.
Second person is... well, I think you guys adequately summed that up.
That article about free indirect discourse was interesting, but that seems like one of those things that looks cheap if not used in moderation (as is the case with most things in writing I guess).
Tenses are for wankers. You got a story to tell or what?
