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- Sep 15, 2005
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Picking through some of the other threads i notice that present tense isn't exactly everybody's favourite tense when reading a novel.
Why is this?
I hate the word was in a novel, some hate the word is!
I'm just finishing up the first draft of my second novel, written in first person present tense, and i must admit i'm getting sick of the sound of my own voice (current word count 135k, finished draft estimated to be about 160k and final edited fifth or sixth draft wil be about 125k) but that's only down to me reliving things i've already done (part memoir part fiction) or is it something else?
I rewrote the first 50k in 3rd person limited, like my first novel, and it didn't feel right so i switched it back and carried on with first person present. I slip in to the past tense occasionally and have to rewrite (he said to he says etc) but apart from that i find it really easy to write in this style, and to be able to hide the word I. I read it back to myself and there's a flow as if i'm sitting in a pub listening to somebody tell a story, which, though looking backwards on something that's already happened are always told in present tense.
what novels are there in this tense? Which ones stick in your mind as a bad read? Out of the books i've read I can only think of Pahlaniuk and Easton Ellis who have wrote like that. There must be more!
Why is this?
I hate the word was in a novel, some hate the word is!
I'm just finishing up the first draft of my second novel, written in first person present tense, and i must admit i'm getting sick of the sound of my own voice (current word count 135k, finished draft estimated to be about 160k and final edited fifth or sixth draft wil be about 125k) but that's only down to me reliving things i've already done (part memoir part fiction) or is it something else?
I rewrote the first 50k in 3rd person limited, like my first novel, and it didn't feel right so i switched it back and carried on with first person present. I slip in to the past tense occasionally and have to rewrite (he said to he says etc) but apart from that i find it really easy to write in this style, and to be able to hide the word I. I read it back to myself and there's a flow as if i'm sitting in a pub listening to somebody tell a story, which, though looking backwards on something that's already happened are always told in present tense.
what novels are there in this tense? Which ones stick in your mind as a bad read? Out of the books i've read I can only think of Pahlaniuk and Easton Ellis who have wrote like that. There must be more!