Ahoy all,
While writing lately I've found that I tend to swap between past and present tense a lot. Usually when things start to get intense and action packed the story goes into present tense and when things again slow down it shifts back into past tense.
Intuitively I'd say that this shifting of tenses would be annoying for a reader, but I also have this idea that if done well it could improve on the story. For the most part I go back and edit when I notice it happening, but just to try it out I wrote a short story where the "action" scenes were all (both) in present tense and the more relaxed parts in past tense.
One of my friends who read it said it bothered her while the other claimed not to have noticed. I'm finding it hard to believe the latter friend isn't just trying to be nice, but it's not something I'm going to confront her about once I actually got her to read something I'd written.
What's your take on this, is it categorically a bad idea to shift tense between scenes/sub-scenes or can it be done?
While writing lately I've found that I tend to swap between past and present tense a lot. Usually when things start to get intense and action packed the story goes into present tense and when things again slow down it shifts back into past tense.
Intuitively I'd say that this shifting of tenses would be annoying for a reader, but I also have this idea that if done well it could improve on the story. For the most part I go back and edit when I notice it happening, but just to try it out I wrote a short story where the "action" scenes were all (both) in present tense and the more relaxed parts in past tense.
One of my friends who read it said it bothered her while the other claimed not to have noticed. I'm finding it hard to believe the latter friend isn't just trying to be nice, but it's not something I'm going to confront her about once I actually got her to read something I'd written.
What's your take on this, is it categorically a bad idea to shift tense between scenes/sub-scenes or can it be done?