With what POV and tense do you typically write?

3rd person past.

Just feels better that way. I also tend to like limited POV, rather than omni.

1st person/past. Writing in the past tense is more natural for me. I love first-person, because I've been told I have a conversational writing style. It seems to lend itself well to such a POV.

3rd-limited/past is my second most preferred, and not by a very wide margin. Out of seven completed novels, four are first-person and three are third-limited.

3rd past -- it's a comfortable old shoe. I did one exercise in 1st person past that worked well enough, but I like to be able to use alternative POVs for long pieces. As for present tense...ugh.

3rd past in my novels, usually limited to two or three POV's. But my short stories are very often 3rd present tense, or in the case of one, both present and past. But stylistic my short stories are very different from the novels.

It depends on the story. My first novel was in 1st/present. My WIP is in 3rd limited/past.

I want to say third person past, though I'm putting the finishing touches on my third novel in first person past and may have to rethink what I "usually" do.

First-present is always my best work, but I usually do third-past just because it's what readers expect.

I once wrote a story in second-future...

Third person, limited, past. If I need to figure something out about a character, I write a separate piece in first person past, then lift what I need from that and transpose it to fit the pov of the main piece.

In my current WIP, I have to have 3rd limited because there are two MCs and their individual points of view are necessary. There is one important minor character who does things neither of the MCs know about, so she gets her own pov from time to time.

I'm going for 1st person/present.
You take life as it comes, so it would be messed up to think of current events as something done in the past (though, technically, current events still happened in the past)

For the longest time, I wrote in third-person past because I thought that's how books were supposed to be written and that's what seemed natural enough to me (though I think the very first book I wrote was in first-person past). Only one of the biggest problems that I was noticing with my writing was that it was sort of third-person and sort of omniscient or something. Either way, I had a lot of issues with sticking to one character's point of view at a time.

Then I read an urban fantasy novel that was written in first-person, and I remember thinking, OMG, why didn't I think of this (the writing a story in first person part)? So now, most of my stuff tends to be written in first-person past, and I really like it.

Though I am sort of working on a YA urban fantasy novel that's in third-person limited with multiple viewpoint characters. Originally, I thought about having it in first-person, but didn't like the idea of having multiple viewpoint characters all written in first-person.

I haven't given much thought to writing in present tense. I've thought about writing rewriting one or two chapters in my WIP in present tense to see what kind of changes it'll create. Though I recently read a short story that was written in third-person present tense and that just didn't feel natural to me (part of me wanted to scream at the author, saying, "Why couldn't you have just written this in past tense?" because I didn't feel that it being in present tense benefited the story any).

Yttar

If I write any of those for too long, I get bored. Too much of the same. I'm in the process of writing my first novel and I find the unity of narrative technique to be the biggest problem, motivation-wise. I've even inserted 2nd-person backstory sections, just to keep motivated (who knows whether I'll keep them?).

Sticking to one technique for too long is hell for me.

My first instinct on any story is to write it in first person, usually present, sometimes past (must be from all those diaries I wrote as a kid). I then ignore my instinct and try to reflect what the story actually need. Sometimes it is first person present, other times it's third person past.

In my current WIP, I write in first person present, slipping into past tense for parts of the story set in the past.

Currently, I'm writing in 1st past (but it keeps slipping into 1st present...bad Amanda!)

I don't really have a preference between 1st present, 1st past, and 3rd past. I absolutely HATE 3rd present, though.

Never done 3rd person present. The other three: guilty.

There's other possibilities too, you know. Jay McInerny's Bright Lights, Big City is 2nd person present ("You aren't the kind of person who..."). Ayn Rand's Anthem is first-person plural present ("We repeat this to ourselves but it helps us not...") Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club is first person plural past ("We sat...")

As an aside, I think Anthem is the only one of Rand's novels that is really literature, but I think she nailed it there.

I like first person. Especially in mysteries and such, since you can more easily limit what the reader "sees".

However, I also enjoy third. I just wish I could find a way to pull of a second person narrative .

I usually find myself writing novels in first person past tense. I almost always find myself writing short stories in third person past tense. But I've done each differently. I guess I just start writing in whatever form the story desires to be told in... so, a case by case basis.

What do you write?

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Omniscient.

I did originally start out doing it in present tense--something I'd never done before--but I was slipping into past too much, so I just switched.

And why do you feel it suits your style/voice best? Are certain aspects of writing easier with one POV or tense over another?

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Well, I've always written in third, but with this particular story, I was struggling a lot. I was on the fence about the viewpoint and just wasn't warm and fuzzy about third. First is how many of the books in the genre are done, but I wasn't quite warming to first either. I took a workshop on viewpoint where I had to do a scene from the story in all the viewpoints (first, second, third, active voice, omni camera, omni close third, plus some variations from different character's perspectives). At the time we did the omni exercise, I tried it on a scene I just happened to reach--and the scene worked a whole lot better. In first, the scene was way too one-sided in favor of the main character when it needed more balance, and omni gave a lot of balance to it.

That made me think about what the benefits of omni would be, and I realized how many advantages it had for me in writing the story. It is more distancing, which I actually need for some of the confrontations between the characters. It also gives me an opportunity to show both sides of the argument, so to speak, between the two characters, rather than it being one-sided in favor of the main character. But I also have an extremely complex storyline where if I was in first or third, I'd have to do major info dumps because of the main character's backstory, but in omni, I only need to hint at it. Fight scenes work much better for me, too, because I tend to deal with multiple main characters. Fight scenes work well in first and third when there's a hero and a bunch of bad guys and maybe some victims on the side. But add in more main characters, and it starts to become difficult to show what's happening without either changing scenes for the viewpoint or slipping out of the viewpoiint.

One interesting benefit: I've always written short. I was a short story writer, and it still makes me run short. Omni has been forcing me to write longer.

I tend to write in 3rd person present, though half my current WIP is written in 2nd person.

I think it does suit my voice, particularly the immediacy of present tense.

Second person future.
I'm writing a manifesto.

You WILL submit to me!

3rd person limited/past for my WIP novel

I have a few 1st person past and present short stories.

I really want to try 2nd person present for a short story, but I haven't loved my attempts so far. Although it's fun to try something new.

Third person super-tight, past. It gives you the intimacy of first person, but also allows character-freedom when writing ornate descriptions. If your main character is an uncreative type, it doesn't make sense for them to create beautifully concise descriptions. Third person lets you do this.

Also, I like third person past because it reminds me of the olden days when stories used to be spoken.

I've got a novel in 1st person past and one in 3rd person limited present. Like others, I just go with whatever feels right for the project.

Wendy, I also recently tried a 2nd person short story. That was tough. It clocked in at about 1200 words. Not sure if that is how long the story needs to be, but writing 2nd person was so exhausting that I kind of had it to end there.

1st. Present.

Unless something else is better, given the nature of the story.

Third or first past. I save present tense for flashbacks and dreams and sections meant to suggest some sort of disorientation or reorientation -- for example, one character experiencing a psychic link to another character and seeing through that person. There are lots of juicy uses for present tense in a past tense story.