21 Aug 2007

Present Tense...

Recently I wrote a short story for an ABC competition. I decided after researching tenses, to write it in present tense because I thought it made it more exciting and immediate. Present tense is not used very often, normally past tense is used for narrative but in a short story it can be a useful technique to create a sense of suspense and energy.

Anyway, I read some information about tenses and

From Nicks Writing Blog: http://www.mywritingblog.com/writer/2007/07/tense-in-fiction.html

"And finally, if you write in the present tense, you need to be very careful when referring to events that occurred in the characters' past. In ordinary, past-tense narration, we use the pluperfect tense to introduce such "flashbacks":
Mary smiled and sipped her tea, remembering when they first met. It had been a cold November morning...
I never knew about pluperfect tense but there you go. Very interesting.

Novels are better to be written in past tense, especially for a novice, that is the advice I have read.

Anyway, just some thoughts on tense that I thought was interesting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi. Thanks for the web and some guidance in writing a short story. I'm new in this field, having problems with the tenses (not consistent in my writing).

Well, thanks again for the great info. :)

Suzanne G Strong said...

No problems anonymous.

I am very happy to help. I need help too so I think it's great to share knowledge around. I wish I had more time to blog...

:)