# Past- V. Present-Tense?



## BadRoy (Jan 3, 2015)

I've come to the realization that my consistent writing in the present tense is kind of abnormal.

What tense do you prefer to write in, and why?


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## Zeitzbach (Jan 3, 2015)

Past tense all the way. The whole thing is just a story being told.


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## Teckolf (Jan 3, 2015)

Past and third person, but I only do technical reports


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## Fopfox (Jan 3, 2015)

Past tense is the most common, but some people can write with present tense well. The latter is a huge challenge to me though and is one of the few things I cannot force myself to try.

Then there's future tense. Suffice to say, that doesn't get used as a primary narrative too often.

TL;DR:

Past - Normal
Present - Hard
Future - Dante Must Die.


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## BadRoy (Jan 4, 2015)

Would anyone agree that for certain scenes a present tense can be more visceral and engaging than past tense? Like actions scenes or descriptions? 

I really need to work on tenses. They are tricky, but I think proper manipulations of them will help a story greatly.


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## BRN (Jan 4, 2015)

If you want to read a story written in present tense very well, try reading "Snowcrash". However, for all of us plebeians, past tense is the only way.


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## MaximizedNOVA (Jan 4, 2015)

I prefer past tense, first person writing. Granted I should transfer to third person, meaning its easier to add details of the environment and plot.


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## Conker (Jan 4, 2015)

BadRoy said:


> Would anyone agree that for certain scenes a present tense can be more visceral and engaging than past tense? Like actions scenes or descriptions?
> 
> I really need to work on tenses. They are tricky, but I think proper manipulations of them will help a story greatly.


Yes and no. I think present can work for more introspective bits as you dig into a character's mind at the exact time it's happening, but for action scenes? No. Not at all. That would be a huge mess. 

I stick to past tense in almost all things.


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## NilFur (Jan 5, 2015)

My personal favorite is the present tense (and switching between tenses asks a bit of effort, but once you're started none is especially harder than the others).

My rationale is I want to transport the reader into the story, rather than it coming out like "so this happened sometime ago, you weren't there, it's done and fixed anyways" which adds distance. I'm aware of the conventions associated with past tense in fiction and of the fact written text is indeed done and fixed when you read it, but still think it subtly affects the _feel_ of it.

As for the other possible choices:

*Past tense* is good when you want to, on the contrary, reinforce the impression of the story being embedded in a time-line. For example in historic fiction (or heroic fantasy, which is often a form of historic fiction in a fictional history). By extension, it reinforces the feeling of the fictional space being "elsewhere".

It is also the accepted "normal" storytelling tense and some people will strongly react to any deviation from it, which is pure and unadulterated bullshit (I don't care about "normal" enough to let go of large parts of the language's expressive power)... but know about it when you try anything else.

*Future tense* is very exotic and can be difficult, confusing and distracting for the readers if used too much. It's a poor tense to just insist on the idea the story happens in the future: paradoxically, past tense will then do a better job (in the future = embedded in a time-line). I wouldn't advise to use it on entire stories if you don't have an excellent reason to go full experimental.

Unless special (and easily gimmicky) cases, such as used by a time-traveling narrator, its main use will be a style-alternative conditional tense in a story written in present tense (see below for details).

*Conditional tense*... wow, now we went into a weird place. Your story is so fictional you're not even sure yourself how it did (not really) happen?

Joke aside, again except for super-experimental writers with a purpose, conditional is not the way to go for a story. _However_, it can sometimes be used efficiently, in light touches, for some scenes when you want to play with explicitly uncertain future. For example one of the many ways to describe a highly planned heist is to tell it in conditional tense at its planning stage, creating some suspense and leaving you room to later describe what did or didn't go as expected.

*tl;dr:*

_past_ = emphasis on the travel to a fictional world + "normal"; 
_present_ = emphasis on the immersion in the fictional world + you'll be called pretentious and/or illiterate by a few idiots; 
_future/conditional_ = you're a storytelling wizard/scientist wanting to screw with your readers' minds + can actually be useful in small touches for explicitly uncertain future, don't forget they exist.


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## Laptisen (Jan 5, 2015)

I'm grabbing my sword and pulling it out of my hilt. I'm running at the chimera...
Damn it's like a campfire story narration. I'll stick with past tense.


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## Maugryph (Jan 5, 2015)

I like stories written in past tense. But that's just my opinion.


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## SkyboundTerror (Jan 6, 2015)

I find myself writing stuff in present tense more often than past tense, most notably in my journal entries. Mixing the two is tricky since it might make your writing inconsistent, but I believe it to be the most fun you can have when punching out stories.


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## Brass (Jan 6, 2015)

brass no know what you talking about funny furman


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## BadRoy (Jan 6, 2015)

NilFur said:


> My rationale is I want to transport the reader into the story, rather than it coming out like "so this happened sometime ago, you weren't there, it's done and fixed anyways" which adds distance. I'm aware of the conventions associated with past tense in fiction and of the fact written text is indeed done and fixed when you read it, but still think it subtly affects the _feel_ of it.


Thanks for the vote of confidence. I've been reading the Necronomicon on and off all year and I love most the parts where H.P explains some horrific event as it unfolds. It creates this immediacy, I love it. That's where I got the idea to write in present-tense. I thought the past tense writers were the weird ones 

I was never going to change my style, but it's good to know how people view the different tenses.


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## Conker (Jan 6, 2015)

BadRoy said:


> Thanks for the vote of confidence. I've been reading the Necronomicon on and off all year and I love most the parts where H.P explains some horrific event as it unfolds. It creates this immediacy, I love it. That's where I got the idea to write in present-tense. I thought the past tense writers were the weird ones
> 
> I was never going to change my style, but it's good to know how people view the different tenses.


Lovecraft almost never writes in present tense. He's usually going first-person past. Honestly, I can't think of a story he's written that was in present tense, and I've read almost all of his novellas and short stories.


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## BadRoy (Jan 6, 2015)

Conker said:


> Lovecraft almost never writes in present tense. He's usually going first-person past. Honestly, I can't think of a story he's written that was in present tense, and I've read almost all of his novellas and short stories.


Well that then. He sometimes speaks of things 'as they are happening' which is what I took inspiration from.


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