Past and Present

[Lucius]

There's a fine thread on character perspectives and narrator styles by @Claire, but we haven't really discussed tenses. Most of our tales of woe rely on past tense -- incorporating present for dialogue, past perfect for backstory, that goes without saying. So does the great majority of stories, it's the literary norm, I guess.

Does writing in present tense do a lot for you? We know that first person present is baiting @Vela Nanashi , but would you say it creates greater immediacy? Why don't we use it more often?

Multiple POV stories where the POVs themselves are split into 'present' and 'past' -- I think there must be something along these lines here at the Academy, but I can't name a story right away... Does it hold any attraction for you?

Okay. Future tense. A gimmick, right? Right?

[Shocker]

I’m only an author for a few years, but have been a reader almost all my life. So it’s not surprising, that entirely unquestioningly I adopted the literary norm of telling my stories in past tense. Anything else feels wrong to me, I think I would need to force myself to write in a different time, same as if I would write in second person.

Not saying that others can not create fantastic stories that way, but my fingers refuse to cooperate if I try it.

[AdmiralPiet]

To me past tense is the norm, as much as the allknowing 3rd person narrator.
But when I recently wrote "Hidden Desire" I just slipped into the present tense and found it surprisingly "comfy" to write, as well as the first person view.

In the past I would have disliked reading that. These days care less about what is done, and more how it is done.

I would argue present tense works much better for 1st and 2nd person.

[Vela Nanashi]

For me when something is written in past tense it feels like it is told by someone at a later time, and I used that early in my writing I think, but after I read some stories in present tense those felt so much more alive and vibrant and urgent, like I was there at the very moment, not sometime later, so I adopted that after I felt that way about it. Same for why I want first person, it is more intense, you are inside a character, second person is clunky though, I don't know why, but it feels like agency is taken away from you there. Though it can be particularly hot when role playing to have each player when it is their turn have their main character be I (first person) and your main character or the main target of their actions be you (second person) that becomes more intimate, though most people are not really comfortable writing that way. I also know some people who said it was too intense and uncomfortable and scary to write in present tense and first person. It makes a lot of sense if that is them retelling either some event that happened to them or something inspired by that, I notice that myself sometimes when I am telling about some past bad things, I layer distancing language into what I say to sort of make it less about me for some reason, I even sometimes refer to myself in third person then.

Let me make it clear that although I have a strong preference I can enjoy stories written in other points of view and tempuses.

As for the more exotic tempuses those can be fun to use with time travellers:

"You will have ordered this potion in a year's time and asked me to deliver it to you now, you will pay for it in the future not now." - Iswas Willbe (a lich who's phylactery is time itself, and he/it is a time traveller, his name is rather silly but also true in the setting I created that he/it is in: he Is, he Was, he Will Be )

Or even more complex things, I think hitchhikers guide to the galaxy has some fun ones and a few other stories as well Though if you write time travel stories from a first person point of view you probably need those less, only if you need characters to explain things

Anyway that is my two cents.

[KittyUmbrass]

I tend to use past tense for most of the story, but slip into present when something needs to feel direct and immediate.

E.g.

Kitty was walking home from the bus stop. The wind rustled in the trees, and she tugged her thin plastic coat tighter round her. A sound made her turn, but there was nothing there. She picked up the pace a little eager to be home. Then, rushing steps. She starts to run, but there's an arm reaching across her chest, a hand clamped over her mouth as she tries to scream, dragging her down to the ground.

And so on. As the emotion intensifies, it shifts from past tense to present. As the POV character has a chance to collect their thoughts, it would return to past tense.

I don't do that in every story, or every high-tension moment. It works best with a very close character POV perspective rather than e.g. omniscient 3rd person. Present tnese as a framing device rather than telling the whole story is also an approach, explicitly having the protagonist narrate from a scene towards the end of the story arc - which can also involve future tense "And now I'm going to..."