Favorite Narrative and Tense

[Neonurotic]

Just a few writerly type questions here as I'm writing a story that is different then I have written before so I was wondering the following:

1) What is your favorite narrative and tense as a writer?
2) Have you ever written in a different narrative and tense?
3) As a reader, do you have problems reading a story written in a different narrative and tense you write?
4) What is the reason you write in the narrative you usually write in?
5) Then lastly, what do you see as advantages/disadvantages writing past and present tense (excluding past perfect and present perfect)?

 

[RejectReality]

I'm about equally split by first person past and third person past nowadays. Everything used to be third person past before that.

Recently experimented with a first person present. Don't really like it much, but it worked well for that stroke vignette. ( also left the "me" gender ambiguous )

First works best for me when the characters are quirky, or I'm aiming for humor. I get to inject that into the narrative.

 

[Hypoxia]

Weasel answer: Whatever works for any particular story is best.

My experience: I've only been writing fiction for less than a year. Prior, I was a tech writer and songwriter. (And I wrote dense poems whose audience was computers, i.e. software.)

Forget tech right now. Many modes that don't work well in Anglish prose are perfect for songs and poetry, e.g. 2nd person, any tense. At least with contemporary Anglish, we don't have to worry much about 2nd person plural, not unless we use y'all or youse. Writing 1st person plural prose, any tense, seems a bit odd; in 3rd person, plural is trivial.

Anyway, back to my fiction. I started (oh, those many months ago) in 1st person past. I may experiment with 1st person present, but probably not future, not for more than a paragraph or three. If I write an anthology of 100-word stories, I may try those odd 1st person modes, all tenses, singular and plural. I'd try all the 2nd person modes too. In for a penny...

I'm shifting in more prose in 3rd person past. Going from 1st person to 3rd person limited (3PL) is easy, and almost as immediate. I'm writing more 3rd person omniscient (3PO), which is where many authors begin -- because it's easy to be omniscient. The author knows all, sees all, writes all, etc. But it's too easy to be all 'tell' and no 'show'. And I still think in 1st person, so 3PO for me means paying attention to details and characters other than the protagonist.

IMHO 1st person past and 3PL (followed by 3PO) are the most usable modes for narrative fiction. 1st and 3PL are more immediate, which is important for short-form erotica when we want audiences to identify with the protagonist. With 3PO we focus on more characters, which puts a little distance between author and reader and reduces the intensity a bit. That's probably better for long-form fiction.

But like I said: Whatever works for any particular story is best.

 

[SamScribble]

I think true short stories (and not all stories here are true short stories; many are snippets from novels or sagas) are the stories told by storytellers - so that means first person (if the teller is involved) or third person. Second person and/or future tense normally looses me before the end of the firsts paragraph.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think true short stories (and not all stories here are true short stories; many are snippets from novels or sagas) are the stories told by storytellers - so that means first person (if the teller is involved) or third person. Second person and/or future tense normally looses me before the end of the firsts paragraph.

Robert Crais mixes 1st and 2nd, and the result works well.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Just a few writerly type questions here as I'm writing a story that is different then I have written before so I was wondering the following:

1) What is your favorite narrative and tense as a writer?
2) Have you ever written in a different narrative and tense?
3) As a reader, do you have problems reading a story written in a different narrative and tense you write?
4) What is the reason you write in the narrative you usually write in?
5) Then lastly, what do you see as advantages/disadvantages writing past and present tense (excluding past perfect and present perfect)?

I don't really have a favourite narrative/tense; each option has its own strengths and weaknesses, and I try to choose the best one for the situation. For a straightforward Literotica story I'd use first person because it's good for encouraging readers to empathise with the narrator. I'd probably use past tense simply because it's the most common choice and least likely to distract readers.

My longest story here is mostly first-person past-tense, but I shifted to third-person present for one passage that's presented from a different character's viewpoint; the tense shift was a simple way to establish the change in voice. (There's also a recipe, which is second-person present imperative, but that's more an appendix than part of the story itself.)

Tenses can be useful for concealing or revealing information. Present tense is often good for stories where you don't want to give away whether the narrator survives the story. (Clive Barker's "Books of Blood" has a different solution to this problem: a framing device establishing that all the stories in the collection are told by ghosts.)

On the other hand, sometimes you do want to give away the ending. In that case, starting in the past is simpler, although you can also work in the present and invoke the future when you need to jump ahead.

For my Halloween entry last year I had a story idea that wouldn't have worked well in chronological order: there was too much stuff happening after the emotional climax, and it had a downer ending. I ended up telling it in a double-flashback format which allowed me to telegraph the unhappy ending early (sets up sense of Impending Tragic Doom and avoids disappointing readers later on) and shift the climax closer to the end.

The introduction was basically exposition that gives a few key details spanning seventy years, so third person near-omniscient was the easiest way to approach that.

The first level of flashback was presenting events from one character's perspective, and I wanted to limit reader to only that perspective (the protagonist has missed something very important, and I wanted to conceal it from the reader as well). The flashback structure meant it needed to be past tense; telling it in first person past tense would have implied that she survived those events, and I didn't want to tell readers that, so I went with third person limited... very limited.

The second level of flashback was told from the same character's perspective, and again it was very important to withhold some information from the reader. But this was the emotional heart of the story so I wanted it to feel as intimate as possible, and here I was able to use first person.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I commented in my review of some Nude Day stories on an effective use of present tense (in Huck Pilgrim's Rainbow Party). CQtRose used a mix of tenses at the start of her Nude Day story to good effect (although I am still hoping she will add a bit more to the story, it's more of a scene than a story). Her story would have worked well in present tense, and some of her recent writing is in the present.

Personally, I best like languid perfect conditionals: he would have been just old enough then to appreciate the delicacy of her beauty. I know this isn't a good way to write! I just like it, LOL. I'm trying to edit out the long run-on sentences and conditional phrases from a big body of my writing, but I shall keep one novella as it is for my personal pleasure.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Let's see...

First person, past, is what I started with.

I have also written in first person present and third person past as well as present.

I too used to be a tech writer, so I have also written in second person present.

Which do I prefer? It depends on the story. Most of my stroke stories are in 1st past. Most of my non-erotic stories are in 3rd past.

It depends on what I happen to start with, although I have found myself going back and changing POV and in some cases tense. I just depends on my mood I guess.

 

[Sammael Bard]

I've got to say that 1st person stories beats everything, in my opinion, if done artfully. I just love these story narratives.

 

[Hypoxia]

I've got to say that 1st person stories beats everything, in my opinion, if done artfully. I just love these story narratives.

IMHO the strengths of 1P are intimacy, immediacy, and reader empathy. The weakness is that readers only know what the narrator knows. 3PL (limited) essentially just changes pronouns but gives a slightly wider scope. 1P might say "I heard a mysterious noise." 3PL might say "She couldn't see around the river bend to the rapidly-approaching waterfall." 1P might say, "He looked alarmed." 3PL+ might say, "He felt doomed. This is the fucking end, he thought." The story can be filled-out a bit.

3PO (omniscient) lets us look at everything and everyone, inside and out -- but that can be excessive knowledge. That 1P very-limited knowledge is most useful for drama and sex -- here's what I saw and felt and did, and nothing else. And 1P present, as mentioned, is MOST immediate - here's what's happening at this very instant, up to the point where the bear eats me.

 

[callmeismael]

In long fiction, I have a deep love of the unreliable narrator; I like the idea that a story not only has a storyteller, but that the story-teller has an audience they are telling the story to, reasons for telling the story, and flaws as a storyteller. The results are stories with gaps in information, with lies and contradictions. It then becomes necessary for the reader to figure out the storyteller, and reinterpret the story with that perspective. It seems like it would work less effectively in short fiction, but honestly I can't think of any short stories that have used it.

 

[sr71plt]

I write in either first or third voice, depending on the story, but first must be my preference, because if I'm not careful, I find myself drifting back to that in a third voice story. I mostly write in the past tense.

 

[AugustElliot]

Erotica is the only genre where I really really dislike first person present. It just feels like the narrator is so busy describing things and telling a story, that he/she is distracted from the action that's happening, if that makes sense. I really like the tense for other genres, though.

That being said, I like to write erotic stuff in third person past. It's more comfortable for me, and since I like a lot of dom/sub stuff, it helps to describe both characters accurately, without bias.

 

[sr71plt]

Naw, doesn't make sense to me. First person is the most intimate voice and erotica is the most intimate genre. They were made for each other.

 

[Neonurotic]

I always write past tense in third person or first person for stories and I don't have preference because some stories kind of tell you which is best. For poetry it's first person because the subject is always me unless it's a poem not about a person.

As a reader I prefer to read past tense, but since I'm reading YA, they're often in present tense. I find present tense a little disorienting the first few pages since I prefer past tense. I see the use of present tense, it does give the feeling of immediacy and the fault I see in present tense is if there is more than one character's head you're in it's hard to find a voice for each character, they all end up sounding the same.

Anyway, the reason I asked these questions was because I tried to write in present tense/first person, but it felt too awkward so I reverted to my natural past tense writing.

 

[Sammael Bard]

Erotica is the only genre where I really really dislike first person present. It just feels like the narrator is so busy describing things and telling a story, that he/she is distracted from the action that's happening, if that makes sense. I really like the tense for other genres, though.

I totally disagree with that fact.

Totally.

Reasons provided by pilot just below that post, are the same as mine.

First person, especially well written female first person character give me the chills. I just love reading them.