a question of taste

[eretria]

Because I'm curious:

[Poll #727311]

Feel free to elaborate in comments.

Comments

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Present tense needs to be very well written for me to enjoy it - I think because I find it more noticable. Past tense is like, he said, she said, it's background noise in a story. You don't notice they're there (tho you'd notice if they weren't). However, present tense is just unusual enough that you notice it, so it has to be very well written so that it quickly becomes just background noise. Does that make any sense?

[eretria.livejournal.com]

So, basically, what you're saying is that present tense feels too direct, too intimate? Correct me if I'm wrong. (But, if I understood you correctly, then I have to agree. I personally choose present tense when I want to get a certain urgency across, whereas I find past tense much easier for the slow description of settings and slow-building relationships between people, be they romantic or not-romantic.)

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Just to forewarn you - this is rather rambly and I suspect that I don't make a lot of sense.

***

what you're saying is that present tense feels too direct, too intimate?

I think so. It's hard to know - my feelings on this are pretty much just a gut reaction. And it doesn't help that I relate present tense to 1st person, which again takes some getting used to.

Thinking about it some more, I think my 'dislike' of present tense comes from the... nature(?) of story-telling. I think that subconsciously, story-telling, for me, is all about something that happened, which immediately implies past tense. So when I see present tense, it jars me a bit. *has an epiphany moment* Especially in 3rd person, because 3rd person is a narrator, ie a story-teller, and according to my sub-conciousness, for there to be a story-teller, the story needs to have already happened.

That being said, going back to present tense, it works especially well in 1st person, becasue, according my 'logic', in the present only the '1st person' knows what is happening.

Note: My logic is very shakey and will fall apart at the slightest provocation...

I personally choose present tense when I want to get a certain urgency across, whereas I find past tense much easier for the slow description of settings and slow-building relationships between people, be they romantic or not-romantic.

Yep, I would totally agree with this. Present tense is immediate which is well suited to urgency. You can drag the reader right into the story. With present tense, you (it seems to me) always have to be doing something, which is why, I think, it's suited to urgent, action based, scenarioes

[I must say though, the thought of reading 'urgent, I want to ravish you right now' sex in the present tense? Makes me shudder with dread.]

[munchkinofdoom.livejournal.com]

Remember my panic when you and Auburn switched from past to present tense in Three Fates?

The switch was glaring, and obviously intentional, and added an immediacy to the text. But sometimes that immediacy can be too much, too emotional, too close. Three Fates needed it. Many stories don't.

As has already been said, it can be hard to pull off properly (like changes in pov, which you both did too *g*), but if it is done properly it can add an intimacy to the story equal to first person... which is another whole topic for a poll :)

[angelhunter.livejournal.com]

loriel_eris just expressed it perfectly:
I think that subconsciously, story-telling, for me, is all about something that happened, which immediately implies past tense. So when I see present tense, it jars me a bit.

When I read something in present tense, 3rd person I have the mental image of a live-reporter running aroud with the hero and reporting everything into his big , fluffy microphone to the spellbound audience. Which, I think, isn't the mental image the writer wanted to create.

But, once in a blue moon, there is the really, really, REALLY well written story that just succeds without jarring me out of the reading-flow. But that takes quite a bit of skill.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

It's really a combination of the all-but-last and the last...

[quiller77.livejournal.com]

Delete the first two sentences of the poll question and I'd say past tense, 3rd person. Sometimes 1st person, but it's more difficult to do well. I have little use for present tense in storytelling -- instead of immediacy the author is striving for, I get pulled out of the story and notice the writing. When I want immediacy, I prefer a really tight POV (what Orson Scott Card calls "hot").

But that's me. (And that being said, what I've read of your tome was well done present tense.)

[voleuse.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I will be honest--I don't mind reading any tense/POV, as long as it's well-written. That said, everything I've written in the two years? Three years? It's all been present tense, third person. I've actually, consciously tried to switch to past tense, but I couldn't. It felt wrong.

I don't know what that says about me.

[enname.livejournal.com]

I would say that I probably prefer past tense, 3rd person but everytime I think that I then go and read one that isn't and enjoy it. Thus, if you have no skill at writing then it is best not to play around with the tenses (ie get them right first), but those who can write? Can do whatever the hell the want because it will work.

Use your tense as a way to move narrative and change perspectives, as a way to accentuate the story. Not make the story about the tenses.

[kyizi.livejournal.com]

I used to have issues reading first person, present tense fics, but some of the best stuff I've read is written that way. Basically, as long as it's not written as 'you do this' (I forget which tense that is, second?) then my only requirement is that it's well written.