New writer thing? Has this ever happened to you?

[TheWritingGroup]

I was just looking at a story in progress, and in the middle of an 11-page manuscript, entirely written in third-person past, I suddenly had one paragraph in first-person present. Does that happen to anyone else, or is it just me?

-Annie

 

[AwkwardMD]

 

[BellaBestia]

Bane of my existence. And why it takes me so long to edit.

 

[NoMoreMisterNiceSpy]

I actually had something similar happen to me last night while working on a new story. I've been bouncing back and forth between writing first-person and third-person POV stories, first-person being new to me, and caught myself halfway through a paragraph that had just swapped POV. I had to stop and go back to re-read everything so far to make sure I hadn't done it previously.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'm editing a story for a friend, and I knew when she was getting excited because not only did she shift from 3rd to 1st person, she also went from past to present tense.

 

[TheLobster]

I mostly write in 3P limited that's close to characters so it'd be pretty easy to slip into 1P. But it never happened to me. I'm actually finishing a 1P one as I'm also jotting down some scenes of the summer story in 3P and I haven't mixed them up yet.

I suspect I'm more vigilant about these things since it's my second language; I have to pay a little more attention to basics like grammar or punctuation.

 

[MrPixel]

I've been pretty good about keeping 1P vs 3P straight ever since I made the shift a year ago. I slipped into 1P once or twice, but caught it in the final read before uploading.

The risk is compounded because my two big serials are similar in general theme - "ideal" MMC and buddies surrounded by pretty ladies, living life in the present - and the protagonist in both uses the same name. However, the earlier series is 1P, the newer 3P. The 1P series has the ending already written, it's about three chapters short of the development to that finale.

I seem to be most comfortable with 3P present. So once the 1P story is put to bed, I'm a lot less likely to do 1P 'cept for "through his eyes" short stories.

 

[KeithD]

It happens to me, as first person is the most natural to me. If it's happening often, I reassess whether or not I'd prefer the whole work to be first person.

 

[Voboy]

It happens to me, as first person is the most natural to me. If it's happening often, I reassess whether or not I'd prefer the whole work to be first person.

Very much this.

Sometimes, these things are messages from your subconscious. For me, I've usually found it's a good idea not to ignore those messages.

 

[djrip]

The only time was when I tried writing in present tense. Every few minutes I'd slip back to past and then have to fix the last couple of sentences.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Past, Present and Future had a quarrel in a bar. Things got tense.

My bad, couldn’t resist.

 

[KeithD]

I don't hesitate to change POVs in well-designated sections--and tense as well. When I want a sex act to be particularly intense and immediate, I'm quite likely to section it off in first-person, present, while the rest of the story is in third-person, past.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

It happens to the best of us, and to me too.

 

[intim8]

Happens sometimes. Even worse, when I am initially developing a story, sometimes I'll decde that it needs to be a different POV, so I go beck and change it. Then when I get back to writing, I forget that I changed it.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I was just looking at a story in progress, and in the middle of an 11-page manuscript, entirely written in third-person past, I suddenly had one paragraph in first-person present. Does that happen to anyone else, or is it just me?

-Annie

Nope. The most PoV mixing I've ever done is while writing the first scene making a conscious decision that a different PoV would be better, and that would be quite rare.

However, I write tons and tons of point form and my point form is always in present tense (she walks down the street, sees him, he looks away, she feels this, etc) so when I go back to flesh the notes into prose I have to convert the tense. I don't remember ever having a tense error in my final draft.

 

[StillStunned]

I've struggled a few times when I've returned to a draft after weeks or months. I might have remembered writing in 1P or 3P, and then when I want to pick up the story again it turns out it was in the other. It can be difficult to adjust then.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I don't remember ever having a tense error in my final draft.

That wasn't my final draft. I'm sorry if I didn't say it right. The story's maybe 2/3 done. When I come back to something after not working on it for a while, I read (and lightly edit) the last couple of pages to get back in the flow.

-Annie

 

[Euphony]

I was just looking at a story in progress, and in the middle of an 11-page manuscript, entirely written in third-person past, I suddenly had one paragraph in first-person present. Does that happen to anyone else, or is it just me?

-Annie

I'd be more concerned if it never happened to you.

Also fun is its "using the wrong name for your main character" cousin.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm editing a story for a friend, and I knew when she was getting excited because not only did she shift from 3rd to 1st person, she also went from past to present tense.

Yep, this. Depending on the nature of the story, sometimes I'll keep it - it can make the sex more "in the now." It's one of those "write at night, edit in the morning" things for me. But ever since that bastard @SimonDoom pointed it out years ago (the only person ever to do so, mind you), I always catch it in edit. I'll never edit that story, though, just on principle.

 

[SimonDoom]

Yep, this. Depending on the nature of the story, sometimes I'll keep it - it can make the sex more "in the now." It's one of those "write at night, edit in the morning" things for me. But ever since that bastard @SimonDoom pointed it out years ago (the only person ever to do so, mind you), I always catch it in edit. I'll never edit that story, though, just on principle.

Is that the "I know Simon's right but I can't let him know I know" principle?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is that the "I know Simon's right but I can't let him know I know" principle?

Something like that .

 

[crookedletter]

To my knowledge I've never switched from third to first person, or vice versa. But often in revision I'll notice I switched from past tense to present, or present to past. I think it happens based on the rhythm of the language, and what's happening in the action. I think sometimes when I'm writing in past tense and I'm really getting sucked in to the action, maybe, I slip into present.

I guess I can see a similar thing happening if you're writing a close third and really get into the mindset of your character. But usually if I'm writing in third person there's some detachment; there's almost a separate narrator character. If I'm really in the world of my perspective character then I usually just do first person.

 

[lovecraft68]

It happened to me a lot when around ten years ago I decided I was tired of first person and went to third. I'd find a few lines here and there that defaulted towards first.

Recently I wrote some stories for an anthology where first worked, and it was the reverse, I had places where I'd shifted to third and had to fix them.

To me its the same as a typo or any other error or glitch in writing. You find it and fix it.

 

[SimonDoom]

I have a hair-trigger sensitivity as a reader to careless POV-shifting and tense-shifting (as ElectricBlue has correctly observed), so I'm always careful as a writer not to do either of these things. I can't recall it ever happening to me. The only time it came up was halfway through writing a story, when I decided to switch the POV, and it took forever to change all the verbs and pronouns until I got it right. My sense is that it happens because people unconsciously default to what is more natural. For some people, first-person POV is more natural, like dribbling a basketball with your right hand, and people switch to it without noticing. Same thing with writing in the past tense: it's far more natural and it's the way most published stories are written, by far. People get the idea that they want to write a story in the present tense, but it's a bit like swimming upstream if you haven't done it before, and it's easy to let the current turn you around and take you back the other way without your being aware of it.

 

[Abbafan]

I was just looking at a story in progress, and in the middle of an 11-page manuscript, entirely written in third-person past, I suddenly had one paragraph in first-person present. Does that happen to anyone else, or is it just me?

-Annie

I don't think it's unusual. Heck, I've come across posted stories where the writer will switch tenses mid paragraph and go back and forth throughout the story.