I was wondering if someone could teach me how to write in past tense cause I would love to learn how to write it. I'm not even sure how I write anyway. A link to a website would also be helpful, and all help is welcome as well! Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :
Talk about it like it happened yesterday.
So I go to the mall, see, and I see Joe and he's like, "Hey" so I'm like, "Hey" and we grabbed a cheeseburger and y'know, like, I can't eat the fries 'cuz the atkins thing...
That's not past tense at all.
Words you generally cannot use is past tense: (there will always be ways to break this rule)
Now, is, am, are, verbs that end in s.
Verbs will generally end in -ed. Washed, bowled, kisses, ran--obvious exceptions.
Of course, dialogue between characters will not always follow the tense of the narration. In first person narration, you can use both past and present tense, but try to keep the sentences grouped by tense for easier reading.
Pantros: It will make your writing come alive if you only use the verbs ending in "ed" for the primary verb in your sentence. If you use "ing" for the minor verbs in your sentence, the language will read a lot better.
Example: Not: He removed his coat, then tossed himself onto the sofa. But: After removing his coat, he tossed himself on the sofa.
In more complicated sentences, this has even a more profound effect.
Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :
Good point. I imagine there are a thousand other pointers out there that my simplified explanation left out too.
I love using phrases with -ing. I feel that it makes for a much better flow. Then it gets messy when I realize that I have a paragraph with eight sentences and all of them use -ing (Gerund) phrases. Then I have to go back through and restructure and it never sounds as good but I can't have paragraphs of iambic pentameter making the rest of my prose look bad.
Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :
That gets into metric prose, which is out of the scope of this thread. Why not do the whole story in iambic pentameter? Just for fun.
Posted by Ahavah (Member # 2599) on :
I've always wanted to do that. Unfortunately, I never understood iambic pentameter. Well, there's always E-prime...
Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :
David Gerrold is big on e-prime. He wrote Under the Eye of God entirely in e-prime. He did it as a challenge to himself only, and says he learned a great deal from the experience. However, nobody notices, and when he tells people, nobody really cares. That being said, e-prime is a fantastic tool when you are having trouble finding wording that works.
Not to pick nits, but we've strayed quite far from the thread topic, and are probably confusing poor Leigh.
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited October 22, 2005).]
Posted by Leigh (Member # 2901) on :
Confusing? Yes. I guess I can just do what Pantros said. Thanks for help anyway guys.
Posted by keldon02 (Member # 2398) on :
It might be easier to write if one concentrated on reading past tense stories. Pick something familar, compelling, short and written in unarguably traditional style prose such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and read it like you were proofing its grammer.
[This message has been edited by keldon02 (edited October 23, 2005).]
