Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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This has been on my mind lately but I'm just curious. A) Is there a tense or POV you can't stand reading? B) Does this prevent you from finishing a book you've bought or checked out from the library?
I write in third person. I've occasionally experimented with first but those stories don't usually even get finished.
I write in past tense because it feels more natural to my stories. I've never experimented with other tenses.
A couple years ago or so I started reading a book that was written in third person present tense (I think it was third). I couldn't stand it and put the book down, never to finish. It felt choppy. The sentences were all short with no flow.
Late in December I read a book that was in first person present tense and I didn't realize it was in present until more than halfway through the book. May have even been 2/3 through.
The other day I picked up a book that was in first person present tense and it was something I picked up on with the first page. A combination of this and other factors led me to abandoning the book. I wasn't swept into the story and part of it was that I noticed the writing more than the storytelling and when I'm reading for pleasure I want the writing to be invisible.
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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Bumping this up.
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I have a difficult time reading first person present. It just ... I dunno. It just doesn't feel right or something.
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Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356
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Such an interesting question!
I have written in first person present tense, and I chose it because I felt like it was simpler--the character and reader experience everything as it's happening in real time.
However, I think as a reader I like a third person past tense best. It just feels classic. That's what I am working with now, and it seems to flow out a little more easily.
The only POV I find truly off-putting is a second person. Some writers can pull this off but it's rare.
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