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Hello Reader,
Before I say anything, I want to share that I now have my first complete novel draft in my hands!
I’ve made more time for it this year, and the number one thing that helped me was booking a developmental editor for May: this raised the stakes for me, as I want to deliver the best-quality manuscript I can.
Many people on this list are far more accomplished fiction writers than me, while others are at a similar stage or are just starting out. And some of you write ethnography, I know!
Whatever your position, it’s important to celebrate these moments; only three percent of people who start writing a novel end up with a complete first draft.
Okay, so now for today's topic – and I'd appreciate some feedback from those of you who know a thing or two about European literatures.
Narrative tense
When telling a story in English, you have two main options: present tense and past tense:
I walk to the castle and speak to the dragons
I walked to the castle and spoke to the dragons
In English, past tense is standard for fiction, and present tense stands out.
Present tense is often used in young adult fiction because it’s more immersive. It’s unusual (especially for older readers), though, so it can take readers a bit longer to read it. Present tense is also often used in genres like horror to unsettle the reader (through not being quite so familiar).
Ethnographers among you: you’re probably aware of a few separate considerations, such as the dangers of writing a cultural description in the present tense. It can Other a culture by making the observations appear timeless; that aside, present tense is still the most immersive.
One thing I’ve noticed is that writers (including myself!) often briefly slip from one tense to the other in their writing. Here are the two common scenarios:
1) Authors writing in the past tense sometimes slip into present tense for scenes that requires a lot of immediacy, such as fight scenes or sex scenes
2) Authors writing in the present tense sometimes slip into the past tense when drafting out of force of habit (because past tense is much more common)
But one really interesting question for me is: How does narrative tense work differently in other languages?
Last week I attended a literary translation workshop ran by Katy Derbyshire, who owns a small publishing house in Berlin called V&Q Books, and I asked, “What about German?”
She said that the present tense is used much more often in German literature, so it’s worth bearing that in mind when translating. She said she chooses to retain the same narrative tense when translating, but other translators into English sometimes change it (e.g., present in German to past in English), and that’s fine! It all depends on what suits the book and its audience.
Multiliterate authors on my list: how does narrative tense work in your language? Is the present tense used more often than in English? Or less? Maybe you have other common literary tenses. I’d love to write a blog post on this topic and any thoughts or links are really welcome!
Let me know, and have a good week,
PS The webinar on preparing your text for an editor will be running again in April (see below). I’ll be giving live feedback on extracts from people’s writing, and I’ll post more about that soon.
PPS I’ve just published this speculative short story on Medium!
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