Wigwam or teepee, just the tense

[Machu_Gamesmas]

I seem to be having an issue with my tense, slipping back and forth between past tense, and present tense. I try to keep the two separate, of course, but with a proof read, invariably I find both tenses used improperly throughout the story.

Any suggestions?

Does anyone else have this issue? If so, how do you keep your mind in the proper tense?

Machu

 

[TxRad]

Read back several pages when you start writing for the day. Usually tense gets changed after a break. It also allows you to check what you've already written and correct as you go.

That's all I got. I catch myself a lot more when I start to do it than i used to.

 

[Swilly]

I sometimes think a tense change makes sense depending upon the situation. Certainly, writing dialougue that has happened already is one of those situations.

"I'm going to the store," he said.

I think I've done it outside of dialogue too, and it was correct. Obviously, that isn't something that works in all situations.

I agree with Tx. It's kind of how I write anyway, the going back and reading as I'm going along. It helps for a lot of reasons.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Read back several pages when you start writing for the day. Usually tense gets changed after a break. It also allows you to check what you've already written and correct as you go.

That's all I got. I catch myself a lot more when I start to do it than i used to.

^^^^^^His Comanche name is TWO TENTS.

 

[Machu_Gamesmas]

Thank you

I do appreciate the feedback. When I write, it seems to just flow onto the page, or spew if you prefer, and most stories have several pages before I take a break. I always reread before I continue, which is usually when I catch those mistakes in tense that I have made.

Also, I have been thinking about asking for some editing help, but the two folks from the site I have tried to contact have not responded. Could you possibly recommend an editor?

 

[TxRad]

I do appreciate the feedback. When I write, it seems to just flow onto the page, or spew if you prefer, and most stories have several pages before I take a break. I always reread before I continue, which is usually when I catch those mistakes in tense that I have made.

Also, I have been thinking about asking for some editing help, but the two folks from the site I have tried to contact have not responded. Could you possibly recommend an editor?

Go to the editors forum and ask there. I think there is also a list of editors that is updated monthly.

 

[FantasyXY]

My suggestion is don't get too wrapped up in tense. Good stories that are all in one tense are very difficult to write. One example I can think of where tense should be mixed is diving into a scene where past tense is used to set up the motivation for the scene, then the tense changes to the present as you draw the reader into the action.

I recently read part of a story that was posted in a "what do you think of this" thread. One of the comments posted was that the tense was all over the place and was hard to follow. When I read the story sample I had absolutely no problem following any part of it and it all seemed very natural to me. Indeed, the tense was all over the place, but it did not matter.

My point here is when you re-read what you have written, as TxRad is suggesting, first make sure that things are easy to read and seem natural before getting wrapped up in tense.

Now to my own tense issue. I know that I have issues with the use of tense in my stories, and I think I have figured figured out where most of this issue is coming from. In my effort to make my work more compelling. I tend to rework parts of sentences (clauses) that I don't like. What I fail to do when I rework a clause is to go back and reread the entire sentence to make sure it still works. Beyond that, I also need to make sure that the rework of a single clause doesn't change the paragraph or affect the preceding or following paragraphs. Quite often I will inadvertently change one sentence to the past tense in the middle of a present tense paragraph.

 

[Machu_Gamesmas]

Now to my own tense issue. I know that I have issues with the use of tense in my stories, and I think I have figured figured out where most of this issue is coming from. In my effort to make my work more compelling. I tend to rework parts of sentences (clauses) that I don't like. What I fail to do when I rework a clause is to go back and reread the entire sentence to make sure it still works. Beyond that, I also need to make sure that the rework of a single clause doesn't change the paragraph or affect the preceding or following paragraphs. Quite often I will inadvertently change one sentence to the past tense in the middle of a present tense paragraph.

I have had this issue as well, and it escapes notice before submission. I read the story comments and find that, as you said, tense seems to have little effect on the story line as a whole.

 

[Hypoxia]

In general: A piece can be written in any tense or combination of tenses, from any or many POVs. Certain combinations of tenses and POVs give certain effects.

In application: We usually write stories narrated (in past tense) either from 1st- or 3rd-person POV. Conversation, whether monologue / internal thoughts or dialogue, can be in any tense. "'I said I will, so believe me,' Jane promised." combines spoken past, present, and future tenses with a past-tense narration.

Present-tense narration takes some skill to keep from sounding amateurish. If 1st-person, it's very immediate, and (to me) signals impeding doom for the character. "I see the gun-flash. I feel the bullet. Oh fuck, I'm dead." 3rd-person present-tense gets creepy: "She walks faster. The footsteps behind her speed up also. She runs." 2nd-person is even creepier: "You look straight ahead. You start to shiver." But it's too easy to be sloppy with 1st-person: "I'm jogging along just minding my own business when a loud noise jerks my attention away and I'm tripping over rocks I can't see." Try reading a few pages of THAT!

Unless we very consciously want the immediacy of a 1st-person present tense narrative, it's best to keep the narrator's voice in past tense IMHO -- and also to avoid contractions outside of speech or thoughts. (Exception: I much prefer "they'd had" over "they had had".)