Which is more likely to win contests: First/Third Person, and Past/Present Tense?

[TheDeepThinker]

Historically, which POV and which Tense have been more likely to win contests?
I know there have been examples of each, but which format has won the most contests?

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never seen anyone do an analysis of the data on this issue. It's an interesting question. I don't know the answer.

I assume past tense is much more common so it's more likely to have won more contests, but on a per-story basis, I don't know.

I've seen both third person and first person stories win contests but I don't know which one is more popular. It might depend on the category.

 

[NotWise]

So far this year there we've completed five special contests. By my quick count, the winners were 1st person in three of them and 3rd person in two, and of the fifteen stories that placed, eight were in 3rd person and seven were in 1st person.

You couldn't get closer to an even break.

Stories in the present tense are unusual. I would be surprised if any have shown up as a contest winner.

 

[Voboy]

As anyone who’s ever won a Lit contest can tell you, trying to come up with a recipe for doing so is foolish and ultimately self-defeating.

Write a good story. That’s the first step. But in general, most stories (of every kind) are in past tense. There’s a reason for that. As for POV? Write whichever one you do best.

If you’re only entering contests in order to win them, you‘re missing out on a lot of the benefits of participating.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I did this analysis of just the BDSM category about a month ago which indicated average scores of 4.19 for first and 4.22 for third, so no real difference.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Stories in the present tense are unusual. I would be surprised if any have shown up as a contest winner.

Wait really? Because most fiction in traditional publishing is in present tense. The only time I see past tense in books is in memoirs, biographies and fiction books written in the form of a diary.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Wait really? Because most fiction in traditional publishing is in present tense. The only time I see past tense in books is in memoirs, biographies and fiction books written in the form of a diary.

That's simply not true. Consider...

"'I’m not going to be murdered,’ Harry said out loud. ‘That’s the spirit, dear,’ said his mirror sleepily." Harry Potter

“Your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.” “And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand them.” Pride and Prejudice

Nobody heard what Big Brother was saying. It was merely a few words of encouragement, the sort of words that are uttered in the din of battle, not distinguishable individually but restoring confidence by the fact of being spoken. Then the face of Big Brother faded away again, and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals: -1984

Past tense is the standard for most works of fiction.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Wait really? Because most fiction in traditional publishing is in present tense. The only time I see past tense in books is in memoirs, biographies and fiction books written in the form of a diary.

You're clearly reading a whole bunch of fiction other than the rest of us. I'd have said present tense in published fiction is the exception, not the rule, at least for the last century.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

You're clearly reading a whole bunch of fiction other than the rest of us. I'd have said present tense in published fiction is the exception, not the rule, at least for the last century.

I'm also a notoriously picky reader so I might just happen to have a strong preference for present tense and just not noticed.

Edit: I just realized I'm used to seeing present tense because I'm in college and that's the correct default tense in academic writing

 

[SimonDoom]

Wait really? Because most fiction in traditional publishing is in present tense. The only time I see past tense in books is in memoirs, biographies and fiction books written in the form of a diary.

No it's not. This isn't even remotely true. Most published fiction is in simple past tense. Nearly all "classic literature" is in past tense. Nearly all popular or genre fiction is in past tense. Present tense isn't rare, but it's definitely in the minority. This continues to be true today.

 

[firmbutgentle]

Wait really? Because most fiction in traditional publishing is in present tense. The only time I see past tense in books is in memoirs, biographies and fiction books written in the form of a diary.

"It is the best of times, it is the worst of times..."

Oh wait....

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm also a notoriously picky reader so I might just happen to have a strong preference for present tense and just not noticed.

Edit: I just realized I'm used to seeing present tense because I'm in college and that's the correct default tense in academic writing

Could be (both points). You're also young, and your book read count is probably in the high hundreds, low thousands, not the high thousands like most of us old farts here. Or Oggbashan over there, with his tens of thousand books.

 

[FelHarper]

I see a lot of complaints about first-person perspective in comments, not so for third. As a writer, I chose whichever one fits the story I want to write. First person is great when you want to get very subjective and filter everything through your character’s experience of events. I prefer to use it whenever I can. Third person is a more universal and safer tense that gives you more freedom in how you relate the events of the plot. I think you will get better results if you choose which one works better for your story.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

I see a lot of complaints about first-person perspective in comments, not so for third. As a writer, I chose whichever one fits the story I want to write. First person is great when you want to get very subjective and filter everything through your character’s experience of events. I prefer to use it whenever I can. Third person is a more universal and safer tense that gives you more freedom in how you relate the events of the plot. I think you will get better results if you choose which one works better for your story.

A third person limited narrator can be just as subjective. Also third person omniscient narrators can be very opinionated if it's done well.

 

[PennameWombat]

I'm also a notoriously picky reader so I might just happen to have a strong preference for present tense and just not noticed.

Edit: I just realized I'm used to seeing present tense because I'm in college and that's the correct default tense in academic writing

I recently read a novel and distinctly noticed it was written in present tense. The fact that I noticed the tense is an indication that, for me, this was indeed rare for what I read. In fact, it distracted me through the whole book, which was kind of shame because I liked the plot, etc. But normally I don't notice if written in past tense, because it's 'normal' to me.

I can't provide any kind of broad stats on this, but for what I've read, other than this one book, the only other present-tense one I recall reading is (if memory serves) is "Bright Lights, Big City," by Jay McInerny. Of course, that also uses the second-person POV...

 

[Trionyx]

My subjective sense about tenses is most amateur writers have trouble using present tense consistently and slip back into past tense intermittently throughout the story.
Writers in past tense have less of an issue remaining in past tense though they still screw this up with alarming frequency.
Similarly, third person POV writers tend to have fewer problems maintaining the POV than do first person POV writers.
I would suggest to the OP to quit worrying about winning contests and use contests as a means of increasing readership while improving your writing skills. Do it enough and that surprising blue W may fall into your lap.

 

[TheDeepThinker]

I would suggest to the OP to quit worrying about winning contests and use contests as a means of increasing readership while improving your writing skills. Do it enough and that surprising blue W may fall into your lap.

Increasing readership is why I'm asking. Trying to find out which one gets more readers. As for improving: experience is the past tense of experiment.

 

[PennameWombat]

Increasing readership is why I'm asking. Trying to find out which one gets more readers. As for improving: experience is the past tense of experiment.

Entering contests at all generally gives a boost to your viewers, even if you don't place in the top three. But, it sometimes also comes with a boost in trolling votes, which usually get wiped off eventually. I've never placed top three in a contest, so can't comment on what that does, but I generally do see more concentrated additions of followers when I have a contest entry active.

As to your first/third question, there is no one answer to that. Don't expect anything decisive. My top rated stories vary between first and third, and I've never had a comment or feedback on that aspect and as the stats attested up thread show, there is no decisive POV. I use whichever I feel is most appropriate to how I want to tell a story. When my focus is tight and on one person, I use that person's first. When it's more of an ensemble or I want to present multiple POVs, I use third. Overall, I'm more comfortable writing third person, but, like I said, it depends on the story.

The best way to build viewers is to build your catalogue of stories. I write across a number of Categories, the ones I enjoy reading. If your absolute goal is views, LW and I/T have by far the highest audiences.

 

[SimonDoom]

Increasing readership is why I'm asking. Trying to find out which one gets more readers. As for improving: experience is the past tense of experiment.

Stick with past tense. It's easier. Trionyx is correct. I'm constantly surprised at how often Literotica authors screw up tense, and the usual reason is that they try present tense, perhaps because they think it's avant-garde or interesting, but they lapse into past tense because whether or not they recognize it, it is much more familiar to them in fiction.

As far as first person/third person, I don't think it matters at all. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Both work. Let the needs of the story decide.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I recently read a novel and distinctly noticed it was written in present tense. The fact that I noticed the tense is an indication that, for me, this was indeed rare for what I read. In fact, it distracted me through the whole book, which was kind of shame because I liked the plot, etc. But normally I don't notice if written in past tense, because it's 'normal' to me.

I can't provide any kind of broad stats on this, but for what I've read, other than this one book, the only other present-tense one I recall reading is (if memory serves) is "Bright Lights, Big City," by Jay McInerny. Of course, that also uses the second-person POV...

FWIW, we discussed this six months ago. As part of that discussion I went through a book of erotic short stories I happened to have handy and found that out of 31 stories, 23 were consistently past tense, 6 were consistently present, one mixed past/present, one mixed past/present/future.

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...tense-consistent.1567329/page-2#post-95255153

Past tense seems to be the default in fiction, but there's plenty of present-tense writing out there, e.g. The Handmaid's Tale, Hunger Games, and from 170 years ago, Bleak House.