Quote:
Originally Posted by Loulou
I love the present tense, at least in the short story. I could care less who is or isn't writing in this tense. I hate 'rules' and 'fitting in.' I do enough of the 'writing for an audience' with my column so I like to let rip in my fiction. I write my story how I think the story works best, not how I think people will take it. Guess I'm just gonna have to strive to make my writing so good it doesn't matter.
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Well, of course the story comes first, but writing entirely in the present tense is
hard. It takes a lot of effort, and some experience in writing in the past tense comes in handy. it gets very strange sound-wise as you get further on, and newer writers, and even some published ones will have some trouble with it. It's not really about "the rules" and "fitting in." it's about the reasons behind those rules. If you can write beautiful stories in the present tense then go for it. But I hope there's a good reason. For most writers, though, it's an unecessary extravagance. There's nothing inherently wrong with the present tense, and I'll be the first to admit I enjoy using it, but it's unlikely that one could write a publishable, or in many cases readable, story in it right off the bat.
