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Q&A Varying POV and tense

It's a bit dicey. You'd have to have a good reason for it. If Preston's POV is in the present, but Paola's POV is in the past, is the story happening in Preston's time? Is Paola relating things ...

posted 6y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:47Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41441
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:38:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41441
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:38:44Z (almost 5 years ago)
It's a bit dicey. You'd have to have a good reason for it.

- If Preston's POV is in the present, but Paola's POV is in the past, is the story happening in Preston's time? Is Paola relating things in flashback?
- Is Preston an alien or someone who experiences time in a non-linear fashion, as compared to Paola who is a more bog-standard human?
- Are you experimenting with storytelling techniques?

Shifting POV is fine; it's done all the time. Shifting tense usually indicates a break from the narrative. Dreams might be in present tense, for example, or a flashback from a present-tense story would be in past tense. But I think you would need a really compelling reason for Preston and Paola to have two different tenses in an otherwise straightforward narrative.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-20T02:32:13Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 7