Thread: Tense Question

Hey all,
I'm having trouble regarding the simple past tense. Does it make sense to use it in the following to imply a continuous action: "He sat curled up on the couch." Or does the progressive tense need to be used? "He was sitting curled up on the couch."

It just seems to me like there are a handful of verbs that can be used in the simple past to kind of display continuous action. Like: "The sun gleamed off the water." - can't that mean, that's what the sun is doing, possibly all day, and not that it just poked out from behind clouds for a minute, shone, and hid again. Any thoughts? Thanks!

I'd drop "sat" altogether. "He was curled up on the couch."

I'd drop "sat" too. It makes the sentence clunky.

"The sun gleamed off the water" ~ I take this to mean that it's constantly shining. If you want to specify that it moved in and out of cloud-cover, you'd need to say that.

Thanks, much appreciated

The simple tenses are always stronger. Any verb that requires a helper is by definition a weak verb.

'He curled himself on the couch' could work, but couch is such an Andy Capp sort of word that I prefer sofa.

'He lay curled on the sofa, sipping 20-year-old single malt Scots whisky as she pressed his bare foot between her breasts and...' Well, anyway, that's the way I would do it.

Wherever possible avoid the use of -ing verbs.

I'm giving you a lesson from my course on 'How to Write Radio News'.

Wherever possible avoid the use of -ing verbs.
The simple tenses are always stronger.

PLEASE don't pay ANY attention to that anybody. I just don't understand where this stuff comes from, but it flows from the internet like a backed up water closet.

I think "lay curled" is a decent option, though it's still using two verbs.

I'll fight for "couch" all the way, though.

Wherever possible avoid the use of -ing verbs.

Why? You write for a living, Garza. Right? Why would you ever advocate not using a word? This mentality has, and forever will, boggle my mind. If you open any book -- fiction, non-fiction, or a how-to-unplug-your-toilet guide -- you will find verbs ending in "-ing". If those writers can use them, why can't we?

I tend to take it with a grain of salt when people tell me I can't use a word. This is writing. Words are all we have. You start taking them away, pretty soon we won't have any left.

Originally Posted by Sam W

Why? You write for a living, Garza. Right? Why would you ever advocate not using a word? This mentality has, and forever will, boggle my mind. If you open any book -- fiction, non-fiction, or a how-to-unplug-your-toilet guide -- you will find verbs ending in "-ing". If those writers can use them, why can't we?

I tend to take it with a grain of salt when people tell me I can't use a word. This is writing. Words are all we have. You start taking them away, pretty soon we won't have any left.

And there's an example of when an "-ing" verb is required.

You should use the right word for the job, whatever that word may be.

"He was curled on the couch" is not the same as "He sat curled on the couch".
It's not an equivalent or an improvement. It is far from "clunky" as written.

Curb your appreciation.


BTW, unike some languages where different past tenses like imperfects or preterits distinguish from a completed past action and an ongoing one--or an ongoing action in the artificial "past" of fiction--English has only one simple past tense.

"The sun gleamed" could mean at that very moment or any other moment the reader wants to assume. Point is, not to worry. And "The sun was gleaming" is exactly the same meaning.

"lay curled" means the same as "sat curled"?????????????????????

Well said, Sam. This recent fad of trying to advise writers to outlaw certain words is just nuts. If you told a painter to avoid certain colors or a musician to avoid certain notes, they'd laugh (or spit) in your face.
But every time you turn around somebody on the net is telling you to go through and cross "was" out of your work or never use adverbs or some craziness.

It's getting to be a real pet peeve.

Does it show?

I'm not an English major, but "He sat curled up on the couch." sounds just fine to me. Besides, who are we to say what is right for Hilltop's writing anyway? It should be left up to him to write what HE thinks sounds best in his writing. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think everything has to be politically or grammatically correct anyway, depending on the style of writing. I am writing a kids book based in the south, and I know for a fact we don't speak or write the way we should. So, Hilltop, in my personal opinion, if it makes sense to you..write it the way you feel fits. And I'll probably be critcized on what I just said, and I'll probably look like I don't know what I'm talking about, and if that's the case, so be it. But there..I said it... grammatically or politically correct or not.. =)

Originally Posted by lin

Well said, Sam. This recent fad of trying to advise writers to outlaw certain words is just nuts. If you told a painter to avoid certain colors or a musician to avoid certain notes, they'd laugh (or spit) in your face.
But every time you turn around somebody on the net is telling you to go through and cross "was" out of your work or never use adverbs or some craziness.

It's getting to be a real pet peeve.

Does it show?

Haha. Hell yeah. And it seems that more and more people are buying into it, which is disheartening. You never hear tell of it in any other creative outlet. Can you imagine someone turning to Da Vinci and saying, "Damn, Leo, that sh*t has too much brown in it!"?

Yet, it's rife around the Internet right now, and it's got all the kiddies' underwear in knots because they think they're not allowed to use an adverb or a passive sentence. Wanna suck the fun out of writing? Bog people down with rules.

Dig your new avatar, by the way.
(Of course, their motto is what we used to say about farts)

Shan, the point is he asked for advice. Not all the advice he gets here will necessarily be good, but he's just as capable of sorting through that advice as he is making his own decisions about writing.

That said, "He sat curled up on the couch" seems fine also.