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Use of Tenses in Fiction: How to Pick the Right One

March 9, 2018

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

change, creativity, grammar, literature, time, writing

The use of tenses in fiction (and writing in general) seems like a self-evident thing. You use the past tense when things happened in the past, the present tense when they happen in the present, and the future tense when they will happen in the future. It seems so simple, and yet picking the right tense at the right time is a crucial element for success in writing fiction.

You see, one major aspect that most writers don’t seem to grasp, is that a novel is not an exercise in writing “proper” English. Instead, a work of fiction is a necessary medium for an author’s thoughts to reach an audience. As a result, rules are secondary; affect is primary.

Still, even within a “playing-by-the-rules” context, the choice of the right tense isn’t always an obvious thing. In today’s article I’ll let you know how to pick the right tense at the right time. By “right”, we mean the tense that allows affect to be expressed. We are not concerned about “proper” English. We are concerned about affective power.

use of tenses in fiction
Often in photography it’s not about what you show, but about what you don’t. It’s the same in narrative, and choosing the right tense can be crucial about “nudging” the narrative in the proper direction, temporally and emotionally.
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Plot Is Overrated, so Write what Matters

March 7, 2018

Literature

creativity, experience, feelings, fiction, literature, plot, storyline

I often go to Amazon’s Best-Sellers List to find free Kindle eBooks.(Not anymore; local library beats Amazon any day). The problem is, as I explained in my article on the supply and demand of writing fiction, that there is simply too much noise out there. That is, too many mediocre works.

“Hang on!” someone might say. “How on earth can you tell a book is mediocre simply by reading its description?” Well, you can if you’re experienced enough. A long, divulging description usually tells me that the author is preoccupied with the plot. But plot is overrated, grossly so.

Furthermore, bear in mind that long descriptions usually reveal something else, too. A long description is usually a sign of an author who has concocted a plot so convoluted, that it requires a long description to make sense to the prospective reader. Too complex a plot is hard to write and harder to read. Here’s what most inexperienced authors don’t realize:

All plots have been devised already. There is nothing new under the sun. There is no original story by virtue of its plot.

So, if a writer shouldn’t place too much emphasis on the plot, where then? If plot is overrated, what are good novels based on?

plot is overrated
This is what an inexperienced writer’s plot looks like. If this image looks familiar, you’ve probably seen it on my article explicating the chaos of meaning
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Coffee, Summer Afternoons, and Greece

March 6, 2018

Experiencing

coffee, creativity, experience, life, musings, nostalgia, time

Today’s article is more like a stream-of-consciousness exercise. Expect it to be nonsensical, incoherent, or just simply obscure. If it has to have a topic, let that be coffee, summer afternoons, and Greece. I can’t begin to describe how many memories, thoughts, and feelings this deceptively innocent combination brings to me. These musings I called “timeless”, but I don’t mean that figuratively. I mean it literally: these musings, in actual fact, are outside time altogether.

They are timeless because they are connected neither casually nor temporally, but through affect, meaning, and… coffee. I said in my article on timelessness and experience:

There is an abstract reality hidden beyond the – largely illusory – veil of time, which connects you as a child to you as an adult. It also connects both those “yous” with all other “yous” that have or will ever have existed.

coffee, summer afternoons, Greece
Greek coffee; a grain of sand of the beach which is my memories
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