First Person, Present.

If you're going to change something, you wouldn't have to go as far as switching to third-person. You could write in first-person past tense.

As for sharing your work, there's a section here called (conveniently) Share Your Work. You have to have 50 posts in order to be allowed to put up your own work, but you can accrue those posts by commenting on the work of others.

Generally, yes. You would pick a character and stay in that POV, so you have to pick carefully.

Hi, this blog post might help you decide whether first or third person works better for your story: http://www.writersdigest.com/qp7-mi...on/6_tips_to_choosing_the_right_point_of_view

Here are some of the tips from that post. I found them helpful when deciding what to do for my WIP.

If you want to write the entire story in individual, quirky language, choose first person.
If you want your POV character to indulge in lengthy ruminations, choose first person.
If you want your reader to feel high identification with your POV character, choose first person or close third.
If you want to describe your character from the outside as well as give her thoughts, choose either close or distant third person.
If you want to intersperse the author’s opinions with the character’s, choose distant third.
If you want low identification between reader and character, perhaps because you’re going to make a fool of your character, choose distant third.

I'm wondering why you want to make such drastic changes now. What is it about the present tense is no longer working now that you've done a big chunk of writing? I know some people hate present tense, but I'm kind of fond of it. Switching tenses is quite the task. Not that you shouldn't do it if that's what you feel is right. You said why you chose it originally. So, why the need to go back and rewrite from a different tense or even POV?

stevew84 said:

Also, if I have multiple POV's and each having their own chapter, what happens when all of the characters come together? Well, that is what happens in my story and I'm confused as to what I should do. I'm thinking I can just pick a character and stick with his POV?

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Wait, maybe you need to do some deep thinking about your approach to POV. It sounds like you could have too many of them. Switching POV with each chapter could be a lot. Or it could be brilliant. When all your characters get together, I would try to remain consistent with whatever POV character you are going to use for that chapter. Honestly, it's very hard to just guess how this might be turning out for you. But you might be trying to do a lot. If I was to try what you are doing, it would probably be a mess.

Unless you have a lot of experience as a writer, you should avoid multiple-narrator first person present tense. If you lack the skill to differentiate your character voices, it can become very hard on the reader, especially when the characters are present in the same scene.

rwm4768 said:

Unless you have a lot of experience as a writer, you should avoid multiple-narrator first person present tense.

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Yep. Particularly if you have conceived of this idea as a matter of narrative "convenience", or because it seems "cool". Both of those things are generally bad ideas, from the standpoint of readers.

caw

caw

stevew84 said:

The reason I never started with past tense is because the writing felt like a check list, for lack of a better phrase. My characters did this, and then they did that, this is what we said while doing those things, etc etc.

In present tense, I can interject thoughts in real time.

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You can do that with past tense, too. You just make them part of the narrative. Here is a quick and dirty example, from the POV of a woman who had been trapped in a cave with the air going bad:

Something cold flicked her cheek. Something bright touched her eyelids. She opened them, squinting.

The light was no eldritch gleam such as the feather was wont to cast, but rather a blinding spear of daylight streaming down through the hole in the ceiling of the cave. Crystalline motes swirled in the beam, sparkling, sifting slowly downward. More swiftly, soft white clumps fell into a messy pile on the charred bones of the fire, as if small clouds were plummeting from the sky.

Not clouds. Snow. Some of it spattered as it hit, flinging tiny frozen nuggets against her face.

That's what had roused her. That, and the light, and the sound of scrabbling, digging hands high above, and the air…

Blessed, blessed air, achingly cold and fresh, pouring sweetly into her lungs.

She was saved. The girl had returned.

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From that, you have an idea what she's seeing, feeling, and thinking. We're every bit as much inside her head as we would be if this were first-person.

Also, if I have multiple POV's and each having their own chapter, what happens when all of the characters come together? Well, that is what happens in my story and I'm confused as to what I should do. I'm thinking I can just pick a character and stick with his POV?

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You choose one POV (most likely, the character who has the most at stake in that scene) and use that. Or you might, if the events are drawn-out and dramatic enough to warrant it, shift POVs from scene to scene. But this will work best in third person.

The best advice I can give you for tenses is to practice them by writing short stories. There's a slight bias there (flash fiction is harder to write in first, I've found), but it's excellent for honing skills. I've practiced all kinds of writerly tricks of the trade in them, and I've been able to polish some (like openers) that would have taken much longer to do if I only wrote novels.

If this is something that interests you, Holly Lisle gives away a free flash fiction writing course. Don't have the web address handy, but you can Google how to think sideways and you should find it.

stevew84 said:

Thanks for all of the replies.

I've only recently wanted to change tense due to reading how unpopular first person, present actually is. But at the same time, my reasoning for choosing this narrative makes sense to me, and I've been complimented on being able to get the character's feeling across.

I'm not an experienced writer, but I like having a few chapters in one character's head, then other chapters being in another's head. Since I have only three POV's the entire time, it wasn't too difficult to differentiate. Hopefully when I can post an excerpt in the proper thread, you will see what I'm talking about.

James is the MC when I start off, he's just a typical dude experiencing things as they happen.

Frank is a police officer, so his mindset is different than just a typical citizen experiencing a catastrophe.

Ed is a Vietnam vet, now homeless man who is using the current situation to his benefit, rounding up his homeless buddies and doing whatever they want. He's the main antagonist but I want a POV from him because he interacts with James and Frank individually.

I'm ditching the idea of swapping narrative and tense; I did the first few pages and the task is daunting. If people don't like the way it's written, that's on them, the story is still solid and there is enough conflict to make the read interesting.

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Personally, I would rather read a novel that sticks with one POV if we are talking first person. I'm not saying what you are doing can't work, but it sounds like it could be a bit jolting for readers. As a new writer especially, I would think if you are sticking with first person present tense, you might want to also stick with one POV character. Switching POVs the way you are seems like some sort of trick you are trying to do. It sound a little like a gimmick. It could very well be a distraction from the story. You don't always want to be so creative or unique in your approach. You are trying to write a good story. Remember that.

I know that people can always find examples of whatever being done before, but that doesn't mean it will always work. Is there a reason you're not sticking to a single POV? I think when we write in first person, we are usually signing up for a single POV.

CathleenT said:

The best advice I can give you for tenses is to practice them by writing short stories. There's a slight bias there (flash fiction is harder to write in first, I've found), but it's excellent for honing skills. I've practiced all kinds of writerly tricks of the trade in them, and I've been able to polish some (like openers) that would have taken much longer to do if I only wrote novels.

If this is something that interests you, Holly Lisle gives away a free flash fiction writing course. Don't have the web address handy, but you can Google how to think sideways and you should find it.

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I'm all for everyone and anyone writing short stories, but I don't see them as an easy fix to anything. Short stories are hard. There is an art to telling a story in this form. And you need to read a ton of short stories to even have a shot at a writing a decent one. Even as a long-time lover and reader of short stories, the first dozen I wrote were pretty bad. It was actually more than a dozen. After writing more than a hundred short stories now and having gone through an intense MFA program, maybe my short stories don't suck. But I'm still not publishing them, and believe me I'm trying. I'm just not sure suggestion short stories will do to much for a writer without them putting in the time to read them (lots of them) and write them (again, lots) in order for anything to come out decent. It's a different skill set.

That being said, I am writing a novel to help me become a better short story writer. Can't it work both ways? Honestly, short stories are my first love. And I have this one short story that I can't seem to get right. It's not a bad story, but it's not a good one either. So, I am writing it out long. I'm not actually working off the short story so I imagine the story will change significantly. Okay, this isn't really to make me a better short story writer anymore than I hope anything I write is helping me to be a short story writer.

I will agree that short stories are great to try things out like different tenses and POVs, but that sort of things becomes more usual the better you are at writing short stories. An inexperienced short-story writer can write a short story and easily be confused over why things aren't working in a piece. They could think it's the POV when actually it was a problem with the story's structure or something like that. Or the short stories might not come out right simply because the writer hasn't had enough practice with them.

This is not meant to discourage anything. I try out new things in my short stories all the time. I think it's great, and it might really pay off for the OP to expand his writing to include short stories, but it is something that you really need to work at and I can't stress enough how important reading short stories is. Maybe just reading short stories would help the OP with his issues. Reading stories in different tenses and POVs. You can read them faster than novels. I heard that the summer issue of Tin House is great. I haven't picked it up yet, but I always like Tin House stories and one of my favorite short story writers has a piece in the new issue. But if the OP wants to try short stories (and why not?) I just don't want him to feel discouraged if it takes a while to get them down.

gettingby said:

I'm all for everyone and anyone writing short stories, but I don't see them as an easy fix to anything. Short stories are hard.

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This, exactly. Short stories are hard to write well for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they are, by nature, condensed narratives. Any glitch in a short story shows up under a klieg light, where a similar glitch in a novel might be dimmed by the nature of the longer narrative. In any case, writing short stories is no easier than writing novels for some writers. John Irving has written about how he simply cannot write short stories well. And he was a close friend and colleague of Raymond Carver, who could write nothing but short stories. Ray Bradbury wrote several novels, but all of them are pretty short, and a couple are little more than connected short stories. But he was about the best writer of short stories in the U.S. for the latter half of the 20th century.

I think a writer, when constructing a short story, has to think differently than when constructing a novel. Some writers are good at this transition. Some are not.

caw

For what it's worth, I've read and enjoyed a multiple point of view story in second person present tense. So anything can work if it's done well enough. The question is if you have the skill to do it. That, unfortunately, is not something we can answer for you.

I wrote 65K words in first person present and ended up switching it to first person past for marketability. It was time consuming, but not overly taxing. I edited the manuscript at the same time I changed it. Once in a while, I'll come across a sentence that is still in the present and have to switch it, but overall, I wouldn't feel that deterred to do it. My reasoning was that almost no one said they hated first person past but over time I came across a lot of potential readers who said they would never read first person present. Plus, my story is set in 2001. In hindsight, I feel dumb for writing it in present tense, but that's just how it come out of my head.

I tried to switch one chapter to third person, and it was a disaster. I'm sure someone could pull it off, but I couldn't.