Couple of unrelated questions

[OGone]

1) Say I'm writing in first person, past tense and I have a character describing his own race. Do I say the race "are" dark-skinned or "were" dark-skinned? Do I say "I was a _____" or "I am a ______"?

2) The character meets a female of the same race who he finds attractive but understands would not be attractive to a human reader, do I just ignore that fact and describe his thoughts only?

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

1) Say I'm writing in first person, past tense and I have a character describing his own race. Do I say the race "are" dark-skinned or "were" dark-skinned? Do I say "I was a _____" or "I am a ______"?

2) The character meets a female of the same race who he finds attractive but understands would not be attractive to a human reader, do I just ignore that fact and describe his thoughts only?

1) Typically, if writing in past tense you'll tend to write "was & were" but there are instances where a more present tense like "I am a..." can be effective within the same story. If it works, it works.
However, I will caution against the overuse of these "to be" verbs. There are often better, more precise ways, of writing the same things.

2) This can be handled many ways, depending on how you want the story to unfold. As a reader, I prefer it when authors sprinkle descriptive detail into situations like this, allowing me to come to my own understanding that this character grasps the differences in attraction. That's a harder path to follow as a writer, but worth it.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Since its first person past and I assume that his race is gone or he's gone from them I'd go with either "My people were -." or "My race was -."

As for the second I'd be tempted to make a point of her differences in his feelings. Maybe he found the smooth line of her bulging biceps appealing, and the unusual length of her pointed nose was exciting! You could have fun with that.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Feo Takahari]

For #2, find a general pattern to use when this character describes aspects of his race to the reader. Maybe he takes it for granted that we'll know what they look like, what they eat, what their houses are made of, etc. Maybe he's chatty, often saying things like "I know you humans [x], but we [y]." Maybe he's scholarly, often getting wrapped up in explaining small details. It's all up to you.

Edit: Just to be clear, if he takes it for granted we know about his species, he'll just mention a couple pertinent details about her appearance; if he's chatty, he'll openly state that humans wouldn't find her attractive; and so on.

 

[Devor]

2) The character meets a female of the same race who he finds attractive but understands would not be attractive to a human reader, do I just ignore that fact and describe his thoughts only?

If he understands she would not be attractive to a human reader, then that's part of his thoughts, right?

As for the first, you need to understand your POV. For instance, "1st Person POV" sometimes means "this character is relating the story years later or else writing it in a book." In that case, it's often okay for the 1st Person narrator to stop, and address the present audience in the middle of relating past events. Then it would be okay. But it could just mean "I'm using 1st Person Past." In that case, stick to that. But don't switch verb tenses without some kind of implied explanation.