Let’s imagine that our present tense story was being told as
if it were a movie and happening in real time. Movies rarely pause to reflect the
thoughts inside somebody’s head – that would be annoying. Instead it just keeps
playing scene after scene on an endless reel. Obviously that isn’t true for all
movies, nor should be true for all present tense writing. However, there are
other ways to reveal information without stalling the action.
Narration tends to be an obstacle for present tense writers.
Heck even I’ve tossed in the towel a few times believing that there was no way
around it. Over time I began to question the very importance of it to begin
with, so out of curiosity, I just completely cut it out of a scene. A tweak in the
action here, a bit more emotion there, and before I knew it, I got the same
point across by simply rewording the action and omitting the narration. It doesn’t
work every time, but sometimes just removing it actually makes the story read
and flow better. Give it a try sometime.
There are, however, other creative ways. To have a story feel
as if it’s happening at that very moment becomes weird when suddenly a narrative
voice hits the pause button and interrupts. Let’s imagine that our star, Jim,
is in the middle of a battle scene with another gladiator. His sword clanks and
sparks. Sweat sprays from his arm with each cleave. (pause) Now let’s reflect
on what Jim’s thinking. Okay… what just happened? That’s what past tense
stories do. They pause the story to dig deeper into the subconscious of the
character allowing readers to connect with them at a deeper level, or the
writer just shoves their voice into the story. As a reader we’re forced to hear
those thoughts when meanwhile there’s a real battle happening at that very
moment. This is where past tense and present tense divide.
In present tense we want to translate those thoughts through
action. Sometimes it can be very tricky to do, so how do we get inside the head
of the character without stopping the reel? How do we reflect back on a past
scene? It’s not as tricky as you might think. For one, be creative. Have fun
with the reader and give them more than just the story. In Darkness & Daemons I wanted the readers to connect with the characters
a bit more, but I didn’t want to side track the story to build them up. Nor did
I want to default to any narrative voice to translate how this person feels or
thinks inside their head. In order to do this I decided to break the story up into
sections. I added a Meet (character Name) section before each story that
allowed the character to speak directly to the reader. It allowed me to go into
more detail about each character and at the same time introduce new information
that would have been extremely difficult to do in a non-stop action sequence.
However, I didn’t stop there…
In later stories I wanted to bring up past scenes that were
kept hidden from the reader. I chose to be careful in how I interacted with the
story by cutting in past scenes, so I defaulted back to my Meet approach. I
added another section called, Flashback. The Flashback is a story all to itself
and is told in present tense just like the rest of them. It basically takes a
past story and merges it into the story line without ever actually interfering
with the current story. With this new addition I now had 3 sections; Flashback,
Meet, and the Story itself. This is why I refer to them as ‘events’. Each event
is basically a group of information that when combined complete the story. I
can’t call it a story because the story is already within the event.
These are just a few of the ways we can use present tense writing
to work for us and at the same time provide a fun and engaging experience for
the reader. Just take a moment and try to imagine a way you can present your information
in a unique and exciting way without breaking the action. Thank you for reading
this article and please feel free to respond. I’ll add more insightful tips as I
continue to explore the world of Present Tense Writing. Please note that I’m
not nor claim to be a professional when it comes to writing. My views, tips,
and opinions are mine alone and based off my own personal writing experience.
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