(no subject)

[kristen999]

Dear Muse,

Thank you for telling me a few thousand words into our one-shot that you refuse to keep writing in past tense. I appreciate it.

Version 2.0 here we go :D

Comments

[saphirablue]

Um, lol? *sorry* Of course I'm saying: Bad Muse, very bad Muse! ;)

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

It's okay. I've noticed when thigs are not 'flowing' like I want to, the muse let's me know why.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahahah I have totally had that happen in tense and POV (past when it wants to be present, 3rd person when it wants to be 1st) - it is so annoying to have to go back and change verbs in pages and pages, especially because you always miss one and then look like an idiot later XP

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

Back in Dec I wrote about 5k words of a fic all in present tense that felt wrong until I went to past. (it ended up at around 20k). Oddly enough the length of a story can dictate the flow for me, and if a story starts hitting that, I'm going to be more than 10k, past tense fits better...but for this short, intense fics. I like present.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

First tense is so incredibly sneaky. I find that it often tries to creep into my own stories even when those stories start out in past tense.

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

It depends on tone and length of the fic for me. Multi chapter stories I write in the past, but shorter fics I go present. It depends how things are flowing and when I start balking at how the fic 'feels to me' I re-examine the tense of the narrative.

[coolbreeze1.livejournal.com]

I was going to say at least you're only a few thousand words into your one-shot before you had to go back and switch tenses, but if it's a short one-shot, that could mean you're halfway through the story! I don't think I've ever had my muse scream for present tense. The one time I did write a one-shot in present tense, I kept slipping into past tense. It was almost painful to stay on the right tense.