Inconsistent tenses?

[ElectricBlue]

Why not?

Nothing says that everything happens in real time or that the author can't control the pacing by describing things or omitting things. Or by using asides.

1st person is a perspective, not a way of telling stories. Not being able to set the appropriate intensity is on the author not the narrative perspective.

Maybe so, but I've so rarely seen it done well, that when I do see it, my patience drops almost immediately. Even when I write it myself - it's too much work, because I'm always fighting myself to keep the tense consistent. It's a chore.

If it's present tense, it should be real time - the things you mention are all cheats, to get around that basic problem. If it's all present tense, you can't take time out to describe anything, because the next thing is in the process of happening, right now. You can only omit what's behind you, that you can't see - but even then, you'd hear it.

 

[AlexBailey]

I read that whole passage and I find it contemplative, full of reminiscences and memory. There's very little action going on, so why is it present tense? There's no reason for it. I couldn't read a whole story like that, it would be a constant battle not to convert it to past tense. It is a personal taste, yes, but past tense is so much more natural, for me.

That’s fair. Very little has happened in the first few paragraphs.

A big part of the story I wanted to tell was the inner thoughts as they change and develop throughout the story - a sort of coming of age thing.

I started writing it in past tense but I had so many parts with recollections and reflections that it became confusing how far in the past different parts were.

Past simple, past perfect, passed out.

In one section I have the narrator watching a present tense performance by a secondary character who speaking and telling a past tense story, quoting other people from her past. So there is the present tense first person narrative, describing what a secondary character is doing in present tense while she performs present tense actions while telling a past tense story which includes quotes and past tense actions. It was unmanageable for me when I tried to set the main part of the story in past tense.

I’ve been working on a third person past tense story but I find it more difficult to get the feel I’m looking for.

 

[AlexBailey]

Maybe so, but I've so rarely seen it done well, that when I do see it, my patience drops almost immediately. Even when I write it myself - it's too much work, because I'm always fighting myself to keep the tense consistent. It's a chore.

If it's present tense, it should be real time - the things you mention are all cheats, to get around that basic problem. If it's all present tense, you can't take time out to describe anything, because the next thing is in the process of happening, right now. You can only omit what's behind you, that you can't see - but even then, you'd hear it.

Don’t you have to do a similar ‘cheat’ when you describe real places or things in past tense?

If you’re writing in past tense would you describe a place as that it ‘did’ exist or that it ‘does’ exist? In past tense would you say that Washington DC ‘was’ the US capitol or that it ‘is’ the capitol?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don’t you have to do a similar ‘cheat’ when you describe real places or things in past tense?

If you’re writing in past tense would you describe a place as that it ‘did’ exist or that it ‘does’ exist? In past tense would you say that Washington DC ‘was’ the US capitol or that it ‘is’ the capitol?

If I'm writing in past tense, the existence of Washington "right now" is irrelevant.

I think you end up with more of that kind of existential dilemma if you write in present tense.

In past tense the moment might only be five minutes ago, but you've got all the time in the world to describe it, whereas in present tense, you've got no time at all. That's the failure in logic, for me. You can't tell a story if you're right in it, right now. You don't have time, not even a second, to remember what's happening. Thinking about it, it's that failure of logic and credibility that I can't get my head around - as soon as you tell an unfolding story, you've shifted in time to do that.

Having said that, I find a lot of my sex scenes fall naturally into present tense, in the moment. But I can't sustain it, not for the next scene when I'm crossing the road - in present tense, how do I get to the road? I can edit it out, because it's happening. With past tense, I can forget the uninteresting bits in between.