![]() Location in Time – Using the past tense, you also need to consider where the narrator is telling the story from.This is true both for first person and third person narrators. This gives the narrator some perspective about those events and allows the narrator to have some hindsight. Distance –The narrator has more distance from the events in the story it because they happened in the past.The trick here is practice, practice, practice. This could lead to writing that sounds a bit hokey or gimmicky. “Once upon a time there was a…”) This is not to say that all present tense sounds weird, but for some writers, it may not come as naturally as past tense. Our ears are more used to hearing stories told in past tense (e.g. It Can Sound a Little Unnatural – Let’s face it, present tense is relatively new in the world of fiction writing.If the story is in present tense, the reader won’t know until the end if the POV character survives. ![]() Suspense –This is especially important if your story is one where the POV character is in peril.Immediacy –You feel like you’re right there with the main character.Here’s a little cheat sheet to help you choose. The best way is to understand the benefits and limitations of both, then decide which one serves your story best. But how do you choose the verb tense to begin with? If you choose the past tense, stay in the past. If you decide you want to write in present tense, stay in the present. When it comes to tense in fiction writing, there’s only one “rule” you need to remember: b e consistent. (Yes, there’s also future tense, but, really, have you ever seen an entire short story or novel written only in future tense? If you have, please post the title and author in the comments. The choices are pretty simple because essentially there are only two options for you to choose from: past and present. As I thought about this point, I realized that verb tense also affects the narrative distance, hence this post about verb tense and how that affects the viewpoint choices we make. Last week we talked about Point of View and one reader raised a fascinating point in the comments about the narrative distance between first and third person.
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