Do you prefer past or present tense? When to use them?
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Do you prefer past or present tense? When to use them?
Do you prefer past or present tense? When to use them?
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I use the past tense in my stories to force myself to do more than just describe a sequence of sensory details. I have a bad tendency to want to make a story like a VR experience for the reader: 'Come step into this vivid scene I'm imagining in my head right now.' But that always feels empty. No one can ever experience the exact quality of your the imagined image. Better to stick to what words do best: drawing abstract connections between experiences. If I say, 'I see her standing there in mist made incandescent by the streetlamp's eerie glow,' then, so what, it's just an image. But if I say, 'I first saw her below the streetlamp where, one year later exactly, we would break up,' then it's a story.
No that’s not “a story” because it’s hackneyed/been done/cliche/moronic/shit
My point obviously wasn't that my offhand example was a good and original story. I was illustrating the difference between 'writing as simulationist immersion in experience' and 'writing as trying to make sense of experience'.
Ready to pounce on someone with negativity at any opportunity. Nice life you have there.
You literally just pounced on that anon with negativity...
Shut up moron
Haha cope and seethe
>literature being about the "how" and immersion rather than being plot driven is bad
>not the most natural and common thing for the medium and the most common form of literary fiction
>if only it were more like muh plot driven genre fiction
Actual underage moron. Never post again.
Trite, contrived, mediocre, milquetoast, amateurish, infantile, cliche-and-gonorrhea-ridden paean to conformism, eye-fricked me, affront to humanity, war crime, should *literally* be tried for war crimes, resolutely shit, lacking in imagination, uninformed reimagining of, limp-wristed, premature, ill-informed attempt at, talentless frickfest, recidivistic shitpeddler, pedantic, listless, savagely boring, just one repulsive laugh after another.
Curious, I hadn't looked at it that way
This is the most feminine sounding post I have ever read. I mean nothing negative in saying so either. Men function in images; there is a reason you don't see women being sold newer and bigger TVs.
I'm not sure why should present tense exclude storytelling, or past tense exclude vivid imagery... of course you're not saying that literally, you're implying there's a slant in those directions, but I still don't see the connections there
>8 posts
>1 of merit
Great work, IQfy
for some reason, when i write or even imagine writing, i find myself doing it in present tense. i don't know why. it's like an unavoidable compulsion. maybe it's because i'm too influenced by movies and movie scripts, which have a present tense process
to me, past tense words ("was", "went") often don't sound as good or alive as present tense ones ("is", "goes"). is that weird? i don't know. when i try writing in present tense, it feels kind of old fashioned and archaic to me, and i think it's harder to maintain interest
*when i try writing in past tense
>Pauline experienced many perils, but none to compare with the perils of the present tense. She was tied to tracks, left to teeter on window ledges, allowed to hang from cliffs by the lace in her pantaloons. Yet in the week while we waited for her bloomers to rip or the train to come, time held its breath as we held ours -in serial suspension; that is, we calmly ignored the pause in her plight as we went about our business, placing our modest cares in a parenthetical phrase; because, when the lace on her undies relaxed at last, when the train's hoot grew cruelly closer, or when Pauline's delicate balance seemed to have slipped beyond refooting, then her peril continued as if there had never been an interruption, not a shiver was missing, or a screech from a scream; and, in order to reassure us of this, the second episode would reprise the conclusion of the first, and so on, right through the fearful 15.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/01/specials/gass-present.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The version in Finding a Form is longer/more in depth, I am on the fence as to if the longer version really adds anything but I do prefer it. So you may just want to download Finding a Form and read that version. It taught me too look at things in a more fluid way, suspense does not exist in the past and to create suspense in the past we must take inspiration from the present.
Thinking on this, I think the version in Finding a Form is just more refined and better written in general, not being limited by the NYT on length, but the restriction on length may make it more concise which is probably what I am on the fence about. Is it good to be concise about things which are not concise?
>When to use them
never, because frick genderneutralpronouns !
>t. literal all caps full stop moronic.
bamp
Past. The present pisses me off because the present is already me reading the book.
It depends whether you want the reader to be in the narrative or a short step removed from it. Neither is better, that's up to you.
Past tense is more flexible for different types of stories. Present tense can be effective in particular stories but for the vast majority past tense will be as good if not better.
nothing screams "shit" louder than present tense
>he said in the present tense
>The joke
That is not a joke and putting it in the past tense would have been more humorous since present in the past and suggests present is no longer the present.
>nothing screamed "shit" louder than the present tense
Also,
>the joke
>
>
>
>(You)
Tenses are not real
t. B time enjoyer
Your grammar suggests otherwise, clearly a slave of the tenses.
>privileged present
Don't bother with the subjective shifting of tenses anon. View events based on whether they occur earlier or later than different events.
I prefer 3rd person past tense. It's the most immersive.
I am learning French rn and I find it interesting that there are literary tenses
This is probably moronic but I've wondered if you could make future tense work. I don't see how you'd do it without tacking on "will" twenty times a paragraph though.
In the past tense the future is known and certain, the reader just may have to wait to find out what will happen. The future tense is uncertain, some things could happen or should happen. What would happen if? What can happen and what can not happen? The modal verbs will be your friend in the future. Not everything will happen because your story is finite but that does not mean it is certain. Future tense would start known and explore the possible instead of start unknown and reveal fate. This will happen today which means this should happen tomorrow and these things may happen the day after.
We're more used to past tense and it comes more naturally to us. Present tense can be more effective in certain situations, which is why many amateurs favor it, but it doesn't work the same way as past tense, and writers often struggle immensely with it. Just don't use it unless you know what you're doing.
Present tense is very tricky to get right. Best reserved for emphasizing the immediacy of actions, and then difficult to maintain tension.
who wimming ?
any of the experts here want to post an example of shitty present tense writing that would be better served in past?
Present tense is for contemporary goyslop. There's a reason no one used it before the mid 20th century
How come when Pynchon uses present tense, it sounds so good?