Suddenly so self-conscious of using present tense
Out of the many things I've written this year, I think that they're almost always in the present tense. Maybe the some of the longer works I have exceed 5k words.
*sigh*
I saw someone tweet about finding present tense in fiction as not as readable. :( I don't know if I've stopped being critical of the way people use language and just go with whatever feels good. Or workable.
Is it bad to use present tense? Should I now edit everything to make it all past tense?
I don't have a beta reader and I am forever really scared of having one because I know some things I think of are not quite good but still things I want to write.
See? This is why I don't really think of myself as a writer-writer. Even if I could churn practically 5k words in a week when an idea hits me, I can't write well. I can only try to tell the thoughts, pictures and voices in my head as best as I could with the limited skill that I have. :(
What makes a writer? That you write?
But what if you keep writing in the present tense? Does that make your fiction automatically bad? Not valid? Is the present tense very bad?
When should past tense be used?
Sometimes I feel like for the things I write, past tense is too... restrictive. Formal. Stifling.
And it feels like I'd be pretentious to suddenly shift into past tense in my fiction where I keep it casual and vague, focusing on mood and feeling and some actions.
UGH.
I at least posted the latest fic I worked on before I got discouraged by that.
I am going to keep this piece in mind. In Defense of the Present Tense.
If I am going to use past tense, it will probably be in a very long fic. More than 6k words of stuff. With history. But if it's just a scene, even if it's 6k words long, I might stick with present tense. Unless I am certain that the POV I am using is of someone who's telling someone that already happened in the past, something definitely in the past with no questions about it being in the past.
But I dunno. I could just be very insecure right now, that's why I am panicking and shitting myself in this log.
PS: Okay so I will have to take at this other piece about the pros and cons of using either present or past tense.
*sigh*
I saw someone tweet about finding present tense in fiction as not as readable. :( I don't know if I've stopped being critical of the way people use language and just go with whatever feels good. Or workable.
Is it bad to use present tense? Should I now edit everything to make it all past tense?
I don't have a beta reader and I am forever really scared of having one because I know some things I think of are not quite good but still things I want to write.
See? This is why I don't really think of myself as a writer-writer. Even if I could churn practically 5k words in a week when an idea hits me, I can't write well. I can only try to tell the thoughts, pictures and voices in my head as best as I could with the limited skill that I have. :(
What makes a writer? That you write?
But what if you keep writing in the present tense? Does that make your fiction automatically bad? Not valid? Is the present tense very bad?
When should past tense be used?
Sometimes I feel like for the things I write, past tense is too... restrictive. Formal. Stifling.
And it feels like I'd be pretentious to suddenly shift into past tense in my fiction where I keep it casual and vague, focusing on mood and feeling and some actions.
UGH.
I at least posted the latest fic I worked on before I got discouraged by that.
I am going to keep this piece in mind. In Defense of the Present Tense.
If I am going to use past tense, it will probably be in a very long fic. More than 6k words of stuff. With history. But if it's just a scene, even if it's 6k words long, I might stick with present tense. Unless I am certain that the POV I am using is of someone who's telling someone that already happened in the past, something definitely in the past with no questions about it being in the past.
But I dunno. I could just be very insecure right now, that's why I am panicking and shitting myself in this log.
PS: Okay so I will have to take at this other piece about the pros and cons of using either present or past tense.