Hello, First, I'm not a writer but it seemed that I would find my answer here so I decided to sign up and ask you. I recently started to read novels in first person, but I don't understand why the narrator (MC) use the present+past tense at the same time it's confusing I don't know if he's undergoing the event and telling the reader like it already happened or if he's telling the story after it happened I don't know.. example : (What MC says is in Italic). It seemed I'd been glaring at her pretty intensely. ''I'm sorry. I guess my reaction was a bit overboard'' ''No... I-I'm sorry as well! ... I'm sorry!'' ...Night was drawing close. I was pretty worn out, and it wouldn't hurt to do the rest tomorrow. ''Doesn't look like we can break that last beam without an axe. You brought if after all... I'll have to borrow it tomorrow. All right?'' ''...Okay." Do you see what I mean ? '' I was pretty worn out, and it wouldn't hurt to do the rest tomorrow.'' he's telling a story so it should be '' I was pretty worn out, and it wouldn't have hurt to do the rest tomorrow. '' another example in an image Thank you.
*shrug* In dialogue, I can see why it happens since dialogue reports the normal manner of speech, and we don't speak in present tense all the time. We talk about the past on a regular basis. In the narrative... Staying true to present tense isn't easy. It's a popular form, especially for writing aimed at younger people, and those who prefer this mode of syntax often cite that they like the immediacy, the "in the moment"-ness of it, but again, we don't talk this way normally. This isn't a normal mode of syntax for recounting events, so I can easily see how/why there would be a tendency for the tense to slip in less experienced hands.
I'm trying to decipher your post and it isn't easy because you've used fragments from different places. Can you post maybe three consecutive paragraphs from a single novel so we can see what you're talking about? From what I can gather, you're reading a novel in past tense and are confused about past perfect, past progressive, and past simple in the narrative, and present-tense in the dialogue. But I'm not sure...
There are two principal meanings of tense in writing; narrative tense and grammatical tense. Grammatical tense is the tense of every individual verb in sentences, whereas narrative tense is the timing of the story events relative to the narrator's time. For most practucal purposes, the only narrative tenses are past tense (the narrator is discussing what has already happened) or present tense )the narrator is telling the story as it is occurring). Grammatical tense is far more varied, and is only loosely bound to narrative tense. Sentense can relate to what is happening at a particular moment relative to a character at a moment in the story, or something that happened even earlier, or would happen later from a character POV but still in the past from the narrator's POV. For more on this see my blog entry, What's Your Point (of View)?
I closed the novel when I open it I'll give more paragraphs but you see the screenshot ? I divided it into 2 parts the first is the MC telling the story ( seen from the future) I needed I got..., the second part is what I believe the MC stating his thoughts at the time of the story '' I could just go ..... to town. '' till here everything is understandable, he continues '' It would be dark by the time I got back, So I didn't want to go unless I had to '' then he continues with present. So here why the MC is mixing Past+Present in the same sentence if he's just telling his thoughts at the time ? (Would be + didn't). It should be ''would be + don't unless I have to'', or ''would have been + didn't''. if he wanted to tell his thoughts indirectly he would've said ''I could have just gone to read at the bookstore, but it would have taken an hour by bike to get to town.'' am I missing something or what ?
I think you are... though I'm still confused. "I can just go to town" is present tense, as is "It will be dark by the time I get back, so I don't want to go unless I have to." If you can post a longer, complete excerpt as discussed, it'll be clearer if this author is mixing up tenses or if you're mixing up tenses.
Sorry it took me a bit of time I was busy . Here a longer discussion in order of images : --> --> --> . Well that's it. Look at the last screenshot, basically what I want to know is why the writer use the past tense if he's still undergoing the event and don't know the future I mean present tense would have been better right? ( the card game started after the discussion).
Could you type in a few paragraphs, including some of the narrative? The screen shots are very hard to use and also almost all dialogue. Is typing an issue? (I'm assuming not, since you're typing your posts?) That said, people talk in past and present and future tense. The below has all three "What are you doing?" (Present) "I'm cooking dinner." (Present) "I thought you made extra yesterday." (Past) "I did, but it's horrible. I'm not going to eat it. I threw it out." (Past, then present, then future, then past.) The tense of the narrative never affects the tense of the dialogue. If I make this a present tense narrative, it looks like: John asks, "What are you doing?" Wilbur looks up from the kitchen. I'm cooking dinner." John says, "I thought you made extra yesterday." Wilbur shrugs. "I did, but it's horrible. I'm not going to eat it. I threw it out." Past tense looks like: John asked, "What are you doing?" Wilbur looked up from the kitchen. I'm cooking dinner." John said, "I thought you made extra yesterday." Wilbur shrugged. "I did, but it's horrible. I'm not going to eat it. I threw it out."
What's wrong with th screenshots ? it's a discussion I just cut apart to make it screenshootable ( yes I know that word probably doesn't exist. ) it's like this 1,2,3,4. Why the narrative use the past tense if he's undergoing the event like it's something he already underwent.?
The screenshots are almost unreadable (white text on pale blue?!) and can't be quoted. Would it really take you longer than five minutes to type them? Narrative uses the tense that the author chooses, past or present. Pretty much any narrative can use either tense. (I say "pretty much any" rather than "any" because there's always an exception for anything, but I can't actually think of any exception.)
No sir, I'll type them for you! "Are you all satisfied? Then today, I guess ... we'll play President. That's good for five people!" Another standard card game First on to get rid of all their cards wins The basic rules: play a better card than the one beforce. But because it's such a well-know game, there are lots of house rules for it as well. The name, For example. In my hometown, we called it 'Millionaire.' "I'd like to go over some details. Are the jokers wild? can you make a reversal with three Threes?" "Also, you know how the peasant sends a good card to the preisdent? None of that" While I was confirming the familiar rules, Satoko looker over at me cautiously.... I probably should have tried to look like more of an amateur. I was pretty used to this game! It's President, and it's with a new deck. Today...I might be able to win! I had the gist of the rules now... But that wasn't everything, was it? "So, what hall today's penalty be!?" "About that... why don't we all write something down on slips of paper and have the loser draw one?"
*fixed most of the spelling / grammar* "Are you all satisfied? Then today, I guess ... we'll play President. That's good for five people!" Another standard card game. First one to get rid of all their cards wins. The basic rules: play a better card than the one before. But because it's such a well-known game, there are lots of house rules for it as well. The name, for example. In my hometown, we called it 'Millionaire.' "I'd like to go over some details. Are the jokers wild? Can you make a reversal with three Threes?" "Also, you know how the peasant sends a good card to the president? None of that." While I was confirming the familiar rules, Satoko looker over at me cautiously... I probably should have tried to look like more of an amateur. I was pretty used to this game! It's President, and it's with a new deck. Today... I might be able to win! I had the gist of the rules now... But that wasn't everything, was it? "So, what shall today's penalty be!?" "About that... why don't we all write something down on slips of paper and have the loser draw one?" --- Anyway, "Today... I might be able to win!" isn't past tense. It's a thought in the present tense. Just think about it in terms of your own life. Have you ever been playing any sort of game and thought to yourself, in the moment, you have a chance to win? Well, there you go. You're having a present-tense thought about the potential future outcome. "I had the gist of the rules now... But that wasn't everything, was it?" The 'had' is throwing me off; don't know why it's 'had', but I do know that 'have' would sound awkward to me.
Well I didn't know about that literal thought. Still one who doesn't know about it would think that the story is happening in real time and narrative past would feel weird to him. thanks for clarifying. Which means the protagonist is not undergoing the event bas he already underwent it, he played the card game and finished and telling his story after X amount of time.
Your thoughts, like dialogue, will stay in whatever tense they were in at the time, regardless if the story is being told in present or past tense. Example 1: Only a writer would know, I thought. Example 2: Only a writer would know, I think to myself. We don't think or speak in perfect tense anyway, so it's excusable. Here's a couple more examples. Example 3: Only a writer will know, I thought. Example 4: Only a writer will know, I think to myself. Now the tricky part is that a lot of books won't have the "I thought" or "I think to myself". Final Example: Only a writer will know the answers to these questions. I decided I would go to the next convention.
Eh...narrative present versus narrative past is purely a grammatical convention. The events of the story might have happened ten years ago, or one millisecond ago.
Well that's what I said . Thanks for the answers guys. Edit: You could delete this thread if you want I had my answers.
I'm not really clear on why past versus present matters, though? Pretty much any past tense story can be grammatically converted to present, and vice versa.
To me it doesn't matter as long as it is well written. the reason I created this topic is because of some sentences that are used as ' literal thoughts ' as you said and that what confused me I was like "is the narrator undergoing the event and telling the story or did he already undergo it ? no no wait he literally says today I might win so he's undergoing he doesn't know what happens after !!!! . " That's because I'm not used to read thing in first person POV all things I read were in third person POV.
