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Young Writers Society


First person present vs past.



First Person Present or Past?

FP Present.
3
33%
FP Past.
4
44%
I prefer Third Person.
1
11%
I'm a rare butterfly that writes in Second Person.
0
No votes
Something else. (Elaborate in a post.)
1
11%
 
Total votes : 9


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Sun Dec 13, 2015 12:32 am
MaryEvans says...



I've been writing in first person past tense for a long time, maybe most of it even. It is my default go to when I try for a more active story.

Recently, I read a book series all written in first person present tense and the way they drew you into the story and the action was so startling I started considering redoing my stories in that style.

Have you guys ever encountered that kind of stories? What do you think about them? I'm not asking for an advice, (though those are welcome), I simply thought it was a nice question and was curious about your opinions on the matter.

So what tense and POV do you favour and why? What do you feel it gives to your story?
  





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Sun Dec 13, 2015 1:50 am
Storygirl95 says...



This question is hard to answer as I've done all three POVs in both tenses. But since I use it the most, I'll go first person present. I like it because, as you've said, it does draw you in. Since I write by the seat of my pants, I live with my characters through the moment. I see it as writing like watching a movie.

I like them all though. :D

I know some people abhor it though. They literally despise it and won't read a book presented that way, unfortunately.
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Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:50 pm
Lightsong says...



I always go with FP Past. It's been drilled inside me by my teacher with the simple logic that if we told someone a story we've experienced before, of course it would be in past tense. Since then, I'm always comfortable with FP Past. The huge bonus of using it IMO is how we don't have to care much when we should switch tenses like we do in using FP Present.

FP Present is more like a narration of something that is happening. For me, there's not much different between FP Past and FP Present - I don't think the change of tenses can give out different impact to the story. But that might just be me since I very rarely use FP Present.
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Mon Dec 14, 2015 2:41 pm
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Vervain says...



To tell the truth, I don't particularly favor one POV over another. Point of view is a tool to me, something like a wrench that I use to fine-tune my story as much as possible; other than that, they each have their uses and values—and that is what I look for when I'm starting a new piece or editing an old one.

A lot of the time, I use third-person limited in past tense. That is, you're mostly seeing inside the main character's head, but sometimes I do step out into the narration for other details, descriptions, and whatnot. I think it's the most universal point of view, and works well for most stories if you're on the fence between it and another. It's also, in my opinion, one of the easiest points of view to write—while you do have to get into your character's head, obviously, it's not nearly as in-depth and in-the-moment as first-person, so you're allowed to step out every once in a while to give the reader things that the character might not directly know, such as someone else's emotions at the time.

However, I do have a soft spot for first person. It's a difficult POV—you can write only what that character knows, nothing more—but it has its merits in keeping the reader more in-the-moment and being open to some more mystery and irony, depending on how you use it. First person is also, notoriously, an unreliable POV. If your first-person narrator is completely infallible, you may as well be writing in third person omniscient.

First person past or present? For me, it depends on the character, their voice, and the style of the story.

In a number of my stories, short and long, I use first person past tense. This is because that's how my character's voice lends itself to narration. For example, in my (sitting off to the side in my 'to write' pile) novel Camera Obscura, the narrator and main character, Cass, tends to speak in flowery, descriptive language. No one's going to think of that off the top of their head in the moment, but that's how they transcribe their thoughts, and the story is told in a more formal way as a result.

In another few of my stories, such as The Orange Tree and a novel I'm working on, I use first person present tense. I think that it helps convey a more "in-the-moment" shock or emotional state, yes, but it's quite difficult to keep remembering, so unless the narrator's voice extremely lends itself to present tense, I tend to avoid it. In The Orange Tree and that novel, the narrators' voices are both quite informal and the present-tense narration helps to convey major shocks on the part of the characters (David telling the audience when his father died and my main character finding out that all is not well in her dream utopia, respectively).

First person present tense also has a major tendency to be clunky or go flat. Unless I know that I can keep it up and the character's voice can handle it, I won't use present tense, because I've found myself despising books written in it simply because of how repetitive they are. "I do this. I do that. I sit. I stand. I do this other thing." That's boring and, frankly, not a good read unless it's written well.

I guess this got a bit long. What do I prefer? None of the above. POV is a tool to be used by the writer, and if they don't use that tool well, the story's going to fall apart before it even crosses the starting line.
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Mon Dec 14, 2015 4:38 pm
Holysocks says...



I agree with Ark; POV is a tool. I tend to use first person more though because I'm always terrified I won't be able to give my work the same kind of... openness that first person gives naturally. To me I feel like the reader will get excluded from the story if I write in anything but first person. So I neglect third person most of the time. I generally write short stories in third, and poems in second, come to think of it.
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Mon Dec 14, 2015 8:15 pm
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Mea says...



I'm going to agree with everybody above me, but also add a word of caution. First person present, while a lot more common than it used to be, is still a reletively new thing, and it can feel very distracting to readers. You have to be able to write pretty well for me to not notice it. There's only been one book I've ever read in present tense where use of the present tense didn't jar me at least a few times.

That doesn't mean don't do it - all tenses have their uses depending on what you want to accomplish. First person present can be written very well - I didn't even notice that one book was written in present tense until I was more than halfway through. Just keep in mind that any little oddly-phrased sentence can and will be jarring because most people aren't used to reading stories told in that tense.
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