posted
...And now I can't switch back to past tense. Everything feels so passive, and I feel like I'm writing it terribly. It's really frustrating. On top of this, I find myself getting confused with which verb forms to use at times.
I've done far more work in past tense than in present, and it's driving me crazy that I'm having this issues.
Have any of you had this problem?
A few examples:
He slams his fists into the wall... He slammed his fists into the wall...
The first one seems very active, while the second just feels so passive.
I really want to write in past tense again, but I just can't seem to get past this.
I wrote one short story in present tense. The two first readers I sent it to said they hated it that way and I thought no problem I'll just change it back. Impossible. Once you write it that way its like pulling weeds out of an onion patch. You have to study each plant to make sure you're not yanking out the wrong one.
It's a bad habit once you start writing like that. Now when I write first person its automatic to do it as present tense. In the last hatrack contest I participated in about half of the complaints were about the present tense style.
Good luck kicking the habit. Maybe we start a support group?
[This message has been edited by snapper (edited October 30, 2009).]
posted
Sometimes I inadvertently start writing in present tense when I'm trying to capture every move someone is making--like in a fight or in a kissing scene. I haven't had the difficulty switching it over that you're talking about--but I was one of those novice writers who started out in first person and had to switch to third, and that was a tough transition. For months, I'd find sentences like "She brushed my hand through her hair." It was a nightmare. I just kept pushing through it though, and it only lasted a few months. I imagine switching tenses would have a similar time line.
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Here's the thing for me. When I read a lot of books in a row that were written in 1st person, I have a hard time writing in limited 3rd. If I'm reading a lot of 3rd, I have trouble writing in 1st. After I read something written in present tense, the same kind of thing happens. And if I get self-conscious about what I'm doing then I get completely confused, regardless of the fact that I would have no trouble writing it from scratch one way or the other.
So if you really want to write in past tense, I'd recommend picking up a good book in past tense, 3rd person limited and just read it. Then try to write in past tense. Don't try to convert a draft that's already in present - I'd put that aside and rewrite from scratch. Don't refer to your original draft, just write it all over again the way you want it written.
Re: do you really want to do that or do you just want to write in present tense? For me as a reader, I find present tense annoying unless there's a real reason the author needed to do it that way. If it's really good, I'll read it anyway, and only afterwards grouse about the author's stylistic choices. But I am very conditioned to a certain type of writing and reading, so take my opinion with a big bowl of salt :-)
posted
I had the same problem. I wrote one story in first person present tense as an experiment. This was some time ago so I wasn't writing a lot and I don't remember if it affected other things then. But I recently resurrected it and started reworking it and it took awhile for my brain not to slide into that tense automatically on other pieces.
And snapper you're right, once a story is written that way it's almost futile to try to change it to past tense. I wonder what makes present tense so infectous?
I actually have one new story where the last couple of paragraphs slide into first person present tense when the time jumps forward to the immediate moment and only one reader noticed or complained. The editing of that story is on the backburner for the duration of NaNo but I think it actually works for that situation and will probably stay that way.
I know present tense is very unpopular most of the time but what if in forty or fifty years it becomes the norm? Think about how the accepted writing style has changed in the last fifty to one-hundred years. Maybe we're just ahead of our time and in another few decades we'll be revered as the forerunners of modern writing.
posted
Wow, what a fascinating topic! Hello, I'm having trouble stopping present tense too! I wrote one flash fiction in present tense, just as kind of an experiment. My current piece (7000 words) so desperately wants to be in present tense, even though I'm trying hard not to let it be. But the voice that I hear in my head is so very present tense.
I agree with the past/ passive thing. I tried to rewrite above story into past, but it sounded so, I dunno, irrelevant. Like the story had happened ages ago, and who would care about it? While in present, the reader never knows what's going to happen next because it's happening NOW.
The solution? I think just suck it up and write in past again. Eventually we'll get over it. Or maybe it will encourage us to find other ways to make our writing more engaging, instead of the tense.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited October 31, 2009).]
posted
I've been working on screenplays so it's all present tense. It's extremely difficult to move back into "novel" writing. The best solution to the problem is what kitti said: read the type of book that has the proper tense you're trying to emulate. It seems to put the mind back into the proper framework.
Having said that, it's still difficult. I had to turn in the first 30 pages or so for a workshop I'm going to in January, and the first five pages were a mess until I could write my way into it.
(It didn't help, though. I received a bunch of files with others' manuscripts, and decided to read through mine. Jeebus. The first three pages or so are horrendous--I don't know what the hell I'm doing, switching tense seemingly every other paragraph, and making rookie mistakes. And that was AFTER I let it sit for a couple of days before editing it. God only knows what it looked like before I edited it.)
posted
Haha, thank you all. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that struggles with this.
The idea of reading a a past-tense, third person book, is definitely an interesting one, and I'll do just that.
And Annepin, I think you may be right. Maybe I just have to suck it up and write, despite how passive and boring it might seem.
Thanks folks.
Oh, and Rich -- Best of luck to you. I know how that process can go. I once wrote a story that shifted between first and third person perspectives every other page. Something I knew not to do, but that I did nonetheless. Interesting how that happens.
[This message has been edited by Gan (edited October 31, 2009).]
posted
I remember once, dropping into present tense in the middle of a story, realizing it only after I was finished, trying to revise out of it, and still missing a couple even when I retyped.
If it's just a "drop into," I'd say just throw away those pages and start again where you dropped in.
posted
Don't you read novels in past tense? I would think if you are an active reader than the past tense would feel natural because that is what you mostly read.
Just ignore that it feel passive and write past tense anyway. If an event takes place before an event you are writing about, use the past perfect.
quote:Sometimes I inadvertently start writing in present tense when I'm trying to capture every move someone is making--like in a fight or in a kissing scene. I haven't had the difficulty switching it over that you're talking about
**cue the maniacal laughter**
I write a scene in my Nanowrimo novel in present tense--just to see what would happen, and find, to my horror, that I am not able to switch back.
I just wrote a scene in my Nanowrimo novel in present tense--just to see what would happen. It was bad. I finally had to pull out a whole bunch of books and just start reading them to remember what past tense sounded like.
posted
On a related note, discussing an odd narrative quirk...the narrator of my current piece, for complicated backstory reasons that somehow seem good to me, refers to herself as "we" throughout. I've found this difficult to sustatin...I keep dropping into "I" all the time, and keep backtracking to correct it...yet I'm sure I've missed something.
Then again, I've debated with myself whether to use "we" beginning with the small letter, or capitalize it as "We," so I can refer to "we" as the group of people she's haning out with.
I haven't committed to anything---it's three-fourths of a rough draft right now---so I can go back in revision and rewrite it, either to capital "We" or straight back to "I." But it's a weird thing do do, huh?
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