Past/ present tense

by Clare Williams
25th April 2017

Hi all

I'm experimenting with past/ present tense in my MS, would it be ok to use both? i.e One character's POV told in present tense, the other told in past? Would that be too confusing? Has anyone seen good examples of that working?

Many thanks

Replies

Hi Clare. My story is about the p.o.v from an 8yr old girl. I asked the same question how would it work to write the p.o.v, at the end of each chapter, from the same person as an adult. The best advice I got was to write a section of my story and add the p.o.v from the adult (second person) to see how it reads. If it feels outside your comfort zone and you're not happy with it you can delete it and carry on writing the story how you want it to be.

Profile picture for user elsiebyr_40564
ELSIE
BYRON
330 points
Developing your craft
Film, Music, Theatre, TV and Radio
Short stories
Fiction
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
Popular science, Social science, Medical Science
Practical and Self-Help
ELSIE BYRON
25/04/2017