BellaOnline Forums Career Fiction Writing Tenses

Last week's article was on using Past and present tense effectively. Do you battle to choose which tense to use - or are you set on a particular style? Or do you mix your tenses, purposely or inadvertantly?

I'm such a traditionalist! I just try to stick with past tense. I think everybody started doing present tense after that Updike book Rabbit Run, and it does give you this sense of immediate action, but I don't think I could do it, even in a short work without feeling self-conscious! Tenses are so hard to keep straight sometimes.

I think present tense is very self-conscious for the reader. It's very hard to lose yourself in it.

I have a terrible time trying to get into a book that's written in present tense and mostly don't even try to read it.

Me too, for both writing and reading.

I've read some interesting, arty blends of tenses, though (a good chunk of one book was written as a letter to a character in present and future tense - "I am writing to you..." "when you receive this letter you will think/do..."). Different.

I mix up my tenses and do it inadvertantly. I don't even know that I am doing it and people tell me that when they read my writing but they can't quite point it out to me. Does that make sense?

They just tell me that something doesn't sound right and I write like I talk but no one corrects me when I am talking. lol.

Also, in a book that I am currently writing, about professional wrestling, I find myself talking to the audience at times in the book and I don't do this on purpose either. Is that a good thing, bad thing or does it matter?

Someone once told me that talking to the audience periodically in the book makes them feel that the author is acknowledging their presence and makes them really feel that the story was written for them. I did it a couple of times by accident in this book and then started doing it on purpose in a few key spots.

Is this a good idea to keep doing? Have I mixed up my tenses in this response? This is the form I write in so is it hard to follow or are my mixed tenses glaring if I have them?

If your book on wrestling is fiction, then my recommendation would be to not speak directly to your audience - because it reminds them that they are reading a story, that they are separate from the story rather than "involved" in it. You know that feeling that you get when you're wrapped up in a story - as a writer you don't want to break that magical spell by acknowledging the reader.

However, if your book is non-fiction, then talking to the audience is highly recommended - it involves the reader in a completely different way to fiction, and yes, acknowledges their presence and makes them a part of the book.

You haven't mixed your tenses in your post

Okay, maybe that was what the person was telling me. It was years ago so I don't remember.

Thanks, Elle. I appreciate it very much.

You're welcome