Tenses

mayaone

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
Messages
189
Reaction score
8
I am having a hard, terrible, awful time with the tenses in my WIP. I write poetry and some of my chapters, like poetry just sound better in present tense. Yet, I heard that agents and publishers don't like books that have different tenses, that in fact that is a sign of a beginning writer. I tried to make all my chapters expect first and last into past but I'm still not satisfied with the sound of it. I can change it to past but needed advice from more experienced writers on tenses. Thank you
 

Ken

Banned
Kind Benefactor
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
11,478
Reaction score
6,198
Location
AW. A very nice place!
Yet, I heard that agents and publishers don't like books that have different tenses, that in fact that is a sign of a beginning writer.

Hearsay is often inaccurate. So never treat it as something to necessarily go by. As to whether what you have is okay the first question to ask and one that is relatively easy to answer is whether the variety of tenses in yours results in any confusion in terms of what's going on in the story, etc. If so then things probably need changing and one way would be too unify the tense.
 

beckethm

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2013
Messages
1,443
Reaction score
466
Location
St. Paul
I can't speak to what agents and publishers like, but as a reader I would find such tense shifts jarring, unless they had a very clear purpose and were used in a consistent and predictable manner. For instance, if your memoir alternates between your life now and the more distant past, it might make sense to write the current sections in present tense and the past sections in past. Or maybe you would have a reason to break up a past-tense narrative with occasional vignettes that aren't part of the main storyline, written in present tense.

If you're going to do this, make it purposeful and consistent. "Because it sounds better" is not a sufficient reason to switch tenses, IMO.
 

WriterBN

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
Messages
1,323
Reaction score
87
Location
Delaware
Website
www.k-doyle.com
I tend to be tense-agnostic as a reader--whatever works for the story. However, if there was a shift in tense, that would be jarring unless it was justified (in flashbacks, or prologues/epilogues, for example).
 

mayaone

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
Messages
189
Reaction score
8
Thank you. My WIP is a threaded memoir where there is a diary in italics. It would seem that the diary would be in past tense but there are parts that do seem awkward in past. I don't know why. Some parts of the main story and of the diary feel like it should be happening in the present though it isn't. I'm sorry if that is unclear. It's unclear to me as well. I'll keep working on it. I appreciate your comments
 

gettingby

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
2,748
Reaction score
170
I think you need some sort of consistency. But I also think if you are including poem in the text that's its own thing and can be in whatever tense you want. And there are scenes like flashbacks where I've seen tense played with. But, overall, you want your readers to be into the voice. It's harder to do that if the voice is allover the place. Switching tenses arbitrarily will only confuse the reader regardless of how you think it sounds.
 

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
16,768
Reaction score
4,663
Location
Scotland
Nobody can help you here.

It's apparently your ear that is deciding whether or not you have an issue.

We mix tenses all the time. The tense used depends entirely upon the context of what is being written.

If it sounds/reads wrong it probably is.

If it sounds/reads right, it probably also is.

Good luck.
 
Last edited:

mayaone

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 31, 2010
Messages
189
Reaction score
8
Nobody can help you here.

It's apparently your ear that is deciding whether or not you have an issue.

We mix tenses all the time. The tense used depends entirely upon the context of what is being written.

If it sounds/reads wrong it probably is.

If it sounds/reads right, it probably also is.

Good luck.
It's funny but I've been editing for some time now and the tense problem is getting better. My ear is more attuned to the past tense. Yet some chapters feel more present and I've kept those in the present, mostly the diary part when something immediate just happened or I seem to be writing about it as it happens