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Guest
Guest
Ok. Here are a few thoughts on mixing up the past and present tense. Bare in mind that I'm no expert. I'm just mentioning it 'cause it's one of the things that can spoil a story for me.
I've noticed in a few of the stories I've been reading lately that people haven't been keeping their tenses in order. It's an easy mistake to make when you're right there in the middle of writing some hot passionate scene. All the same, you should be going through your work once you've... uhm... cooled down a bit and checking for mistakes like these.
It really interupts the flow of an otherwise pretty good story when you get something like this:
"Helena gazes at me with those sparkling blue eyes and flicks her long suicide-blonde hair over her shoulder. She looks so hot in that skinny little red dress. I knew there and then that I wanted to fuck her down there by the river."
I think it's totally fine to change from past to present tense, or whatever, in different sections of a story - but only as long as these are separated off from each other. Obviously if your story is in the present tense and you want to show some flash-backs to earlier incidents, you'll want to change to the past tense for that.
It can also work really well to start a story in the past tense, when you're still setting up the situation and characters, and then switch to the present tense for the erotic encounters. It's quite an experimental technique but it can add excitement and make the action seem more immediate. It's a bit like in a film where the camera shows a long-shot of someone (this is the past tense bit in your story) but slowly moves in to a close-up as things become more emotional (present tense). (Think of the scene in 'Silence of the Lambs' where Clarice Starling is talking to Hannibal Lecter through the bars of his cell. As the tension builds the camera moves in on both faces until it looks like there are no bars separating them.)
But, whenever you do decide you want to change tenses you should always start a new paragraph. Otherwise your story becomes confusing and your writing starts to look a bit sloppy.
So, anyway - what are everyone else's pet hates? (You're not allowed to say me, for starting this strand.)
[This message has been edited by roger simian (edited 06-13-2000).]
I've noticed in a few of the stories I've been reading lately that people haven't been keeping their tenses in order. It's an easy mistake to make when you're right there in the middle of writing some hot passionate scene. All the same, you should be going through your work once you've... uhm... cooled down a bit and checking for mistakes like these.
It really interupts the flow of an otherwise pretty good story when you get something like this:
"Helena gazes at me with those sparkling blue eyes and flicks her long suicide-blonde hair over her shoulder. She looks so hot in that skinny little red dress. I knew there and then that I wanted to fuck her down there by the river."
I think it's totally fine to change from past to present tense, or whatever, in different sections of a story - but only as long as these are separated off from each other. Obviously if your story is in the present tense and you want to show some flash-backs to earlier incidents, you'll want to change to the past tense for that.
It can also work really well to start a story in the past tense, when you're still setting up the situation and characters, and then switch to the present tense for the erotic encounters. It's quite an experimental technique but it can add excitement and make the action seem more immediate. It's a bit like in a film where the camera shows a long-shot of someone (this is the past tense bit in your story) but slowly moves in to a close-up as things become more emotional (present tense). (Think of the scene in 'Silence of the Lambs' where Clarice Starling is talking to Hannibal Lecter through the bars of his cell. As the tension builds the camera moves in on both faces until it looks like there are no bars separating them.)
But, whenever you do decide you want to change tenses you should always start a new paragraph. Otherwise your story becomes confusing and your writing starts to look a bit sloppy.
So, anyway - what are everyone else's pet hates? (You're not allowed to say me, for starting this strand.)
[This message has been edited by roger simian (edited 06-13-2000).]
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