Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Tense Person
Actually this is about both tense and person. Nathan Bransford had an interesting post about first or third person and some of the comments delved into the present or past tense. It seems some people really prefer one and hate the other. To the point that they won't even read a book if it's in the offending tense or person.
I write my cozy mysteries in first person and my thrillers in third person. Cozy mysteries are really stories about the characters--especially the main character. So, writing in first person feels more immediate. Also, I really prefer cozy mysteries where the reader only gets to know what the main character knows.
In thrillers, there's usually a need for more than one pov, so third is easier. Although I like James Patterson's way of using first and third in his Alex Cross series.
My current WIP is an Urban Fantasy. Most Urban Fantasy is written in first person, but for some reason I'm using third. We'll see how that goes.
The debate about present or past tense was interesting. Almost everyone preferred past tense. I can handle present tense with first person in some books, although it's not my favorite.
But once I picked up a book for a best-selling author. She's one of my absolute favorites and this was about the 8th book in a series. It was written in third person present tense and I just could not handle it. I put it down after about 5 pages. It was worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I want to write in both persons like James Patterson, but "new" writers aren't supposed to.