Well, at least he switched back to third person for most of the story! I agree, that would be really hard to read. Although... I wonder if maybe the whole thing had been done like that you'd eventually get used to it. I find sometimes that writing that I find to be tough slogging for the first half dozen pages eventually starts disappearing once the story picks up.meganstirler wrote:On a marginally related note, I read a novel in a southwest lit class once that was written in 2nd person present. The author told us that a writing teacher told him you couldn't write in 2nd person and he took it as a challenge. There were several points of view in the book and every time he introduced a new character he would start with something like, "you step out onto stage, where your audience waits". When he was done introducing the character he switched back to third person past.
As a reader it was excruciating and if I hadn't HAD to read it, I probably wouldn't have made it past the first chapter. But I've always remembered it - although I don't remember the book or author. As a writer, it is certainly a fascinating memory.
I love that image, polymath: my muse as the middle Fate, who determines the path and length of life. How appropriate that she should be a daughter of night, too, since she seems to be at her best in those darkened hours.polymath wrote:I see your muse as a sort of dutch aunt, a prankster with the very best intentions behind her hijinks. Even her sterness and bluntness, through thinly veiled verbal ironies, are intended to persuade best outcomes. Let's see, who might that be? One of the Moirae, whom even the gods fear? Perhaps Lachesis? Daughter of Nyx. The apportioner. The alloter of destiny. She's not much of a prankster. Sober serious. Fate can play inconveniently life-affirming and humbling pranks though. Situational ironies.
I think that's probably true for all the POV/tense combinations, lvcabbie. If we're used to reading mostly in one style, we'll probably find switching to another a little distracting until we can get into the story and forget about the writing.lvcabbie wrote:I just read a novel by a major author's standin that was done in present tense - I actually found it okay to read once I got used to it.
I felt this way about the first book or two I read in present tense. Now it seems half the books I've read recently have been present tense, and I hardly even notice anymore. Maybe it partly depends on how conscious you are that it's a story being related to you. I think it's always this way in books, because written text feels like it's a documentation of past events, but if you think about story in visual format... for instance, if you have a movie playing on the screen (the equivalent of a book in your hands) with descriptive audio for the visually impaired, they won't be using past tense as they relate the events of the movie, they'll be using present tense. Just think of the present-tense book in your hands as the written version of the descriptive audio describing the actions of the characters.washingtonwriter1968 wrote:Present Tense as a whole feels jarring for me,unless it's third person.I guess for my mind someone;a character telling me what they are doing as they are doing feels.... unrealistic. I primarily write in past tense I have noticed. Maybe because it is comfortable and tried and true, I do not know for sure.
This is an interesting observation, polymath. I wonder how much of that would be conscious? I think quite a bit of the way we take in and understand the books we read is on a subconscious level, such that figuring out why we like one book and not another can sometimes be tricky. Maybe the same pertains to tenses/POV. We can tell that we dislike the POV and find it jarring, but do we really understand why we find it that way?polymath wrote:I believe readers' reading comfort zones as pertains to tense and person are affected by how objective or subjective a report is. Too subjective unsettles some readers. Too objective unsettles other readers. Too artless objectivity or subjectivity unsettles many readers.
