New writer thing? Has this ever happened to you?

[yowser]

I have a hair-trigger sensitivity as a reader to careless POV-shifting and tense-shifting (as ElectricBlue has correctly observed), so I'm always careful as a writer not to do either of these things. I can't recall it ever happening to me. The only time it came up was halfway through writing a story, when I decided to switch the POV, and it took forever to change all the verbs and pronouns until I got it right. My sense is that it happens because people unconsciously default to what is more natural. For some people, first-person POV is more natural, like dribbling a basketball with your right hand, and people switch to it without noticing. Same thing with writing in the past tense: it's far more natural and it's the way most published stories are written, by far. People get the idea that they want to write a story in the present tense, but it's a bit like swimming upstream if you haven't done it before, and it's easy to let the current turn you around and take you back the other way without your being aware of it.

I too am prone to noticing this sort of thing, and so I was astonished on re-reading Michael Chabon's 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union' to discover that every time the protagonist Meyer Landsman is in a chapter (whole novel is 3rd person) all the action is in present tense. Everywhere else, whenever the story is about someone other than Landsman, it is past tense. Never noticed on the first reading. But it all is seamless and natural and an example that a good writer can make all sorts of things work, and work well.

It is a fabulous read, the whole notion of Alaska with a sizable Jewish population, all speaking yiddish, with droll humor infecting nearly every scene (a cop's gun is known as a 'sholem' - pun on the Hebraic word for 'peace'; a local outlet store is 'Big Macher.')

 

[SimonDoom]

I too am prone to noticing this sort of thing, and so I was astonished on re-reading Michael Chabon's 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union' to discover that every time the protagonist Meyer Landsman is in a chapter (whole novel is 3rd person) all the action is in present tense. Everywhere else, whenever the story is about someone other than Landsman, it is past tense. Never noticed on the first reading. But it all is seamless and natural and an example that a good writer can make all sorts of things work, and work well.

It is a fabulous read, the whole notion of Alaska with a sizable Jewish population, all speaking yiddish, with droll humor infecting nearly every scene (a cop's gun is known as a 'sholem' - pun on the Hebraic word for 'peace'; a local outlet store is 'Big Macher.')

The all-important distinction here is between intent and carelessness. If you intend to do something out of the ordinary, you can pull it off if there's a purpose behind it and you have some skill. That's not what we're talking about regarding POV- and tense-shifting in most Literotica stories. In the vast majority of cases where this happens at Literotica it's because the author wasn't aware of what they were doing.

 

[yowser]

The all-important distinction here is between intent and carelessness. If you intend to do something out of the ordinary, you can pull it off if there's a purpose behind it and you have some skill. That's not what we're talking about regarding POV- and tense-shifting in most Literotica stories. In the vast majority of cases where this happens at Literotica it's because the author wasn't aware of what they were doing.

Agreed. And sloppy, don't-care-for-the-rules writing is common here, and doesn't get you very far.

 

[CatPerson]

Yeah in my first story I did that a lot. But it gets better the more you write.

 

[Voboy]

It is a fabulous read, the whole notion of Alaska with a sizable Jewish population, all speaking yiddish, with droll humor infecting nearly every scene (a cop's gun is known as a 'sholem' - pun on the Hebraic word for 'peace'; a local outlet store is 'Big Macher.')

Such a good book. It's the kind of book that makes you want to post an anon comment asking for a sequel.

 

[StillStunned]

The all-important distinction here is between intent and carelessness. If you intend to do something out of the ordinary, you can pull it off if there's a purpose behind it and you have some skill. That's not what we're talking about regarding POV- and tense-shifting in most Literotica stories. In the vast majority of cases where this happens at Literotica it's because the author wasn't aware of what they were doing.

Agreed. And sloppy, don't-care-for-the-rules writing is common here, and doesn't get you very far.

I've shifted tense a few times, to narrate dream sequences. I find that the contrast between past tense for the main narrative and present tense for the dream gives the dream a surreal and detached quality. (My readers might not agree, but no-one has commented so far.)

 

[summer_reine]

Same. Especially if I'm in the zone. I'm also new to writing.

I found that if I use find and replace for key words relating to 1st or 3rd person I find most of the switch ups. Although I did find one in a recently posted story. That irritated me but I don't want to bug the mods in order to fix it.

And now I'm rereading my stories to check for tense switching and notice I've done it in this post multiple times

 

[BgDaddy33]

It is not unusual, but it can make your writing look amateurish, same as accidentally switching back and forth on tense.

A good beta should be on the look out for that. It happens, nobody is perfect, but don't leave it. Fix it and resubmit, just go through the whole thing first to make sure you are not resubmitting over and over.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I was just looking at a story in progress, and in the middle of an 11-page manuscript, entirely written in third-person past, I suddenly had one paragraph in first-person present. Does that happen to anyone else, or is it just me?

New story I started today. I decided in advance it would be first person, with a former supporting character as viewpoint. I wrote 2 pages, then left the house to run errands.

I came back, put stuff away, read forum messages, then sat down to write some more.

I inexplicably switched to third person this morning.

There's a paragraph at the bottom of page 1 in first person. There's a paragraph that could be either one. Then the next (top of page 2) is third person.

Dammit. At least I caught it early.

-Annie

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I was just looking at a story in progress, and in the middle of an 11-page manuscript, entirely written in third-person past, I suddenly had one paragraph in first-person present. Does that happen to anyone else, or is it just me?

-Annie

I’m actually working on a story where I intentionally switch from third to first and back depending on the contextual POV of the MC.

 

[MyBareTorso]

No...I do mix POVs, but it's always intentional. I do fuck up in other ways though!

 

[Presider]

I’ve published one story and it includes this exact mistake.

Not that it’s eating away at me or anything…

 

[LonRivers]

I don't have that issue. What issue I do have is writing the same paragraph over again at some point either on the same page or further into the story. I catch it only after writing it and then have to go back and find where I had written it before, that can be a pain in the ass.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I switched from first to third person halfway through the story and didn't realize it for another five thousand words. I'd say you're in good company.