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Q&A Use of past vs. present tense in works of fiction

Here's what I'm familiar with: a lot of people see present-tense as a description of something happening right now, while past-tense is a narration of events that have already concluded. So: Some...

posted 13y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T20:05:57Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/3258
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 · 2019-12-08T01:44:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/3258
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T01:44:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Here's what I'm familiar with: a lot of people see present-tense as **a description of something happening right now,** while past-tense is **a narration of events that have already concluded.** So:

- Some readers find present-tense more immediate and, well, tense. 
- Some readers take issue with past-tense narration, seeing it as an unjustified device: If somebody's telling us this story, who is it? Why is he telling us the story? If the narration is first-person, that means the narrator must have made it through the story pretty OK, no? 
- Most readers accept above issues as unimportant side-effects of convention. E.g. if a narrator dies at the end of the story, they won't shout "wait, so who just wrote the whole thing?" - they don't see the narration as being part of the established facts of the story.

I think a lot of people find past-tense more natural because present-tense storytelling is not something you encounter in day to day life. In real life, people tell you things _that have happened;_ it's rare to be subjected to a real-time report. Think of the exceptions - e.g. sports commentaries and on-the-spot new reports; they can be very exciting, but they're rarely personal or possessing narrative structure. And those kind of reports would probably be exhausting to listen to for too long of a stretch.

**Fiction presents things happening "now" in a medium used primarily to describe things already over.** That's where the issue comes from. But in most cases, I think that readers prefer the comfort of more familiar phrasing over the increased accuracy of using a more appropriate tense. The familiarity makes the inaccuracies accepted and invisible.

As Kate said, current convention favors past-tense writing, so all other considerations aside - anything else may feel somewhat jarring or unusual to many readers. And both are popular, familiar and accepted enough that you can really pick whichever feels most comfortable and appropriate for you, as long as you remain consistent within a single piece.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-07-03T08:55:59Z (over 13 years ago)
Original score: 7