I am very tense about this.....

[Jimyfoxx]

I'm a new author and having issuing with what tense to write my stories with. Past or present. Does it really matter as long as you stay consistent?

 

[Ewobbit]

Personally, I don't think it really does if it's well written.

However, someone once said (and I would credit it if I could remember) that past tense is the language of reflection. You can not pause to reflect or even to grapple with understanding while caught in the present tense, the language of thoughtless action.

Take it for what it's worth. Maybe somebody else will come along with better (or at least clearer) advice.

 

[sr71plt]

Matter to the single universal reader lots of folks seem to think exists? Either can be made to work; either can be made to fail. Start writing and perhaps it will tell what tense it wants to be in.

 

[le_kitty]

It shouldn't matter. Consistency is what writers strive for.

I've written in first person and third person past tense. Usually I don't have trouble keeping consistent, though one time I kept shifting from past to present, and kept going back to correct myself. Didn't catch all my errors before I posted, they became glaringly obvious later. Perhaps I should've written it in present tense.

 

[Weird Harold]

Start writing and perhaps it will tell what tense it wants to be in.

This ^^^

Every story is different and demands different tense and POV to suit the story. When in doubt, write in whichever tense you're most comfortable with and then convert a copy to a different tense; you should be able to tell which tense works best by comparing the two versions.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'm currently reading a LIT author telling interesting stories with horrible tense handling. And there are many, many more violators. Ay yi yi. Here are my narrative guidelines:

1) Consistency. Except for special effects, pick a narrative tense and stick with it. Tense disagreement is a common sloppy fuckup.
2) Use past tense to tell what happened. If 1st person, it implies the narrator's survival -- hey, she lived to tell the story, right?
3) Present tense: I find 3rd person offputting. 1st person foreshadows that the narrator will NOT survive. Think of the last verse of EL PASO.
4) Future tense? Don't even go there, not for narratives.

Again, those are my general rules. Speech, diversions, intrusions, explications, can take any appropriate tense. Short passages of odd POVs and tenses can add texture and flavor. And a really skillful writer CAN make a 2nd person future tense narrative work. Theoretically, anyway.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I write 1st and 3rd person past tense. I tried one to write a story in present tense but found that for certain thing I needed past tense to tell the story.

Currently have a problem with keeping a story in 3rd person pov, the narrator seems to want to become the main character all the time. It's sometimes confusing and I find I have to backtrack whole paragraphs.

But good news, everything is in past tense.

 

[blin18]

Past tense is a pretty safe choice. Present tense is probably tougher to make work. Like a lot of difficult things, if it's done well then it can be particularly impressive.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I've used first person present tense here. I used when when writing a main character who is very direct in this thoughts and actions and doesn't do extended reflections and analysis. He's an in-the-moment kind of guy and the style reflects it:

You've been a bad girl. I told you not to fuck with it. I told you to leave it alone. And I come home and it's a jagged mess on the floor, and you're looking for a dustbin.

One challenge with the form is, since you're keeping it in the moment, the narrator doesn't have reason to explain things that are obvious to him. In that sample, I never actually say what "it" Is. (As author I never actually decided.) I think that adds to the immersion and intensity, but it means that if you want to work in extra detail you might have to do it through dialogue.

Present tense doesn't mean hurried or thoughtless. All action and thinking happens in the present, including planning and reflection:

There's different ways to do this, but for repairing cast iron I like acetylene-oxy and silver solder. It's not fussy and the join will last forever. For the supports it's going to be a little more work -- heat the iron rod to red but not bright red, pound it out with a hammer to shape it, and let it cool slowly. Then braze it over the old support. For good measure I'm going to wrap some rod around the rotor drive, because if that thing ever cracks it could do some real damage. I like working iron; it's fire and a hammer and some sweat and you get something that works. I have no love for working aluminum -- I get that it's cheap and rigid, but you need a fucking science lab to do repairs, with special flux and special gasses, and you can't tell just by looking at it when it's ready to be worked. One minute it's the usual dull grey and two seconds later it's melting and sagging to the floor. I like the older ways better; iron's more honest.

I think the tense and the style make this character's maleness leap off the page. When I write from a female I like past tense much better. Females are far more prone to reflecting on past events - and want to tell you all about it.

 

[DwellerDark]

I've read good stories that are in the present tense, but it is definitely harder to do and some readers are automatically turned off by it.

 

[NotWise]

It's common for there to be more than one verb tense within a single English sentence, so maybe the question shouldn't have an open-and-shut answer. Also, you can have narrative in either 1st or 3rd person in the past tense while dialog is in a different tense.

I recently posted a story that I tried to keep narrative completely in simple past tense. It was difficult to do. I thought it made for simple, readable text but I'm not sure I'd recommend that.

 

[ambiguousbob]

My stories operate exclusively in the pluperfect subjunctive. I wish I had jumped her bones when I had the chance. I would have done so if there hadn't been a momentary erectile dysfunction. She would rather I had gone home anyway. Hawt, no?