Past, Present, and Future tense in writing

[sensei]

I've always had a hard time keeping tense consistent, but that's aside from the point... point is, which do you all prefer? I normally use past and present about equally, but I don't even have a clue how to write a quality piece in future.

[peachifruit]

I've always written my pieces in past tense. However, I am thinking of writing a story that features a comic book-esque narrator, and will consequently be in present tense.

[Tdyans]

I usually stick to the norm-- past tense.

[sara]

I also like to stay in past tense. I believe the future tense would be somthing like this -

Patrick will go out to visit Mars when the moon and the sun are going around in circles together. He will take a computer and use it to bash against Mount Olympus Mons. Suddenly he will be happy, and run all the way to the Martian ice cap.

That's a really ridiculous story, but as you can tell it's something which will happen in the future (unliekly) and not something that already happened nor something happening right now.

Speaking of tenses, which person do you guys like to write in. I have heard that it is easiest to write in first person for beginning writers, but I have almost always preferred writing in thrid person. I think I like to have the freedom to skip to a scene where the main character isn't present, though I don't always excercise this freedom.

[Tdyans]

If I see future tense (which is rarely) I think it's almost always linked with a 2nd person point of view-- making the reader the main character (in other words, the author talks about "you" instead of either "I/we" or "he/she/it/they". The stories that I've read that are like that are also generally humorous ones-- quite effective when done well, but probably difficult to do well with the combination of strange tense and strange POV.

I think I most often use third person also-- both omniscient and limited. It doesn't strike me really as being more difficult than first person. I do write in first person sometimes also. It just depends on what suits the particular story best.

[sara]

Ah yes, the omniscient and limited points of view - I remember in the 7th grade they prepared us for the standardized test by teaching us a bunch of language stuff which I have never used, but practically none of it was on the test. Instead, we had to answer what was limited and omniscient for 100 things, and we didn't have a clue in hell what it meant.

One of my language teachers taught us that a second point of view was when the second/not-main character mentioned in the story was the speaker. However what always made sense to me (and what Tdyans is confiming) is that 2nd character would be "you will smack Zeus's face for having your roses spoiled" or something.

I have a high esteem for my language teachers, don't I?

[starhamster]

I almost always write in third-person because it's easier for me to describe situations and characters without having to stick with the viewpoint of just one person.

[sollunaestrella]

With the exception of "The Golden Rose" because it was a diary, I always write in the past tense in stories. Diaries have a little bit of each tense in them. However, for point of view, it depends on the story. Some tales are better to tell in first, whereas some stories are just meant for third. First is not easier or harder than third, I think, but it is difficult to tell which point of view is easier just because they are so different. They aren't very comparable to me.

[Tdyans]

It took me forever to find out what 2nd person really was (not to mention some of the finer points of the whole 3rd person/omniscient/limited thing,) because it seemed like every different grade school teacher I had gave me a different definition. I think it was one of my college TAs that finally straightened me out completely on those things.

[L]

Third or first person past tense is the standard accepted.

"I walked up to Sloth, and punched him in the nose."

"He walked up to Sloth, and punched him in the nose."

"They walked up to Sloth, and punched him in the nose."

Present tense tends to be annoying as hell in a story, unless it is used selectively, such as this example:

Lyssa began to recount her dream to Sally. "I am walking up to Sloth, and punching him in the nose. Then suddenly, this green grundo arrives and flashes a scorecard with 'ten' written on it. "

Future tense as well, should also be used selectively.

Lyssa read the agenda for the week. "Huh. Looks like at ten o'clock on Thursday, we will be walking up to Sloth and punching him in the nose. What a strange convention!"

Second person point of view was made popular in 'choose your own adventure' type stories, but should be avoided in most other circumstances.



You walk up to Sloth, and feel the urge to strike him.

If you punch him in the nose, turn to page 3.

If you sing him a happy song, turn to page 5.

[sara]

Shidi said:

You walk up to Sloth, and feel the urge to strike him.

If you punch him in the nose, turn to page 3.

If you sing him a happy song, turn to page 5.

*laughs* I pick up one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories every now and then. They are usually pretty unsatisfactory, and I think I've only see ONE BOOK where "you" character is female.

By quite a bit the best of these gamebooks I've encountered is "The Badlands of Hark" by one R.L. Stine - it's much more complicated than they usually get. i think there are 79 endings, only one of them happy. You also earn points. I recall we went through it as a class in the fifth grade - it was really fun trying to negotiate which move to make, and it took two weeks to finally "win" (and we went back MANY times).

[sensei]

Sara said:

By quite a bit the best of these gamebooks I've encountered is "The Badlands of Hark" by one R.L. Stine - it's much more complicated than they usually get. i think there are 79 endings, only one of them happy. You also earn points. I recall we went through it as a class in the fifth grade - it was really fun trying to negotiate which move to make, and it took two weeks to finally "win" (and we went back MANY times).

Well, I must admit, I've never actually paid attention to the gender of the presumed "you". Of course, I'd prefer to be a male "you"... but don't blame me for being the way I am
I used to lock myself in my room by myself for hours at a time trying to figure out how to win those adventures. I had the complete R. L. Stine series of those, and would always dig my way into every adventure I could. Sometimes I'd just read through the book beginning to end (the way to "win" is usually found somewhere like page 6, just to throw people off...), so as to try to make sense of it in my own fun little way.