This shift is ubiquitous in our verbal story-sharing. I bet you’ll notice the habit frequently from now on! Watch for it the next time you’re story-swapping with friends. Come to think of it, most of us make this tense-switch when we’re verbally story-telling. It’s so conversational, you might not have noticed the shift from past tense to present tense (I heard the soup… I race to the kitchen…) As soon as action heightens, this comedic memoirist shifts from past to present tense. This is a conversational little vignette. All I can say to her is, “So I was wondering about going out for burgers tonight…” So there I am, right as Sal walks in, holding this pot that’s coated with the charred remains of our dinner and the whole apartment reeks. I race to the kitchen just in time to see half the pot bubbling over onto the electric burner, the smell of burnt broccoli filling the air. That’s when I heard the soup boiling over, that sizzling sound. Seconds before she got home, I stepped out of the kitchen to clean the table. I wanted it to be ready as soon as Sal got home from her shift at the hospital. I planned to make a broccoli-cheese soup that she loved and serve it with a baguette from our favorite bakery. We’d been married for three months and I decided to make dinner to celebrate. Humorists and action writers frequently shift from past to present tense as soon as action heightens. Now, tense-shift isn’t solely triggered by emotionally challenging material. But each individual writer has their own patterns. Others shift to past tense as soon as the material gets hot (Then I ran out of my room…). Some writers shift to present tense when emotion heightens (Then I run out of my room). Tense shift almost always indicates an emotional shift in the author, either a need to draw incredibly close to the moment (a sudden shift to present tense “I am here”) or an equally obvious distancing from the material (a shift from present to past tense “I was there”).Įvery author differs on when they pull in and when they push back from a scene. Why Do We Instinctively Change Verb Tenses? ![]() First a few observations clarifying the meaning of “switching verb tense” and why it happens… Draft write in whatever tense feels comfortable at the moment, without self-censoring.īut if you’re on the verge of beginning significant revision, preparing to craft your first shareable draft, it’s good to know what’s required to “revise for consistent verb tense”. That would be rude and it would shut down the interview! So don’t do that to yourself, okay? Set the editor hat aside. If you were interviewing another person for a magazine article, you wouldn’t interrupt them to correct their grammar. During early drafts, it’s crucial to treat your writing process as an interview with yourself. The short answer is: Don’t worry about it for now. ![]() Novelists, memoirists, how-to writers, inspirational authors, celebrity biographers. It’s encouraging to know that every writer does this. So, kudos to this author for catching the issue in her own writing. We usually don’t know we’re switching verb tenses until an editor points it out (“I walk into the bar…” vs. It’s one of the most common and over-looked challenges in early draft-writing. Is that ok? Do I need to just pick one? I am having the hardest time with it. ![]() “I keep finding myself switching between past and present tense as I am writing, depending on the severity of the story.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |