A project I've been working on has three POVs. The vast majority of it is in the MC's POV, but I occasionally switch to a secondary characters who is a friend of the MC, and even less frequently I switch to the antagonists POV.
Right now, it is all in third-person, but when I am in the MC's POV, I write in present tense. Any other POV that crops up is in the past tense. The idea is that this will perhaps lend some immediacy to the MC's POV, and will in any event be a point of distinction from the other POVs.
I know the cardinal rule is that if it is done well, anything flies. I think I've done a good job with the writing itself, so here's the question: assuming you found the quality of writing to be good overall, how would you react to the mere fact of a tense shift like this? I ask because one reader remarked on the present tense. She actually said she liked it fine, but recommended I change it because it was 'different.'
I don't really want to know 'can' I do this - I already know I can. But I would like a sort of gut reaction from each of you. If you saw this, would it faze you at all? Would it cause you to stumble for a moment, and then reorient yourself to the new tense? Or would you go with it without any problem?
Right now, it is all in third-person, but when I am in the MC's POV, I write in present tense. Any other POV that crops up is in the past tense. The idea is that this will perhaps lend some immediacy to the MC's POV, and will in any event be a point of distinction from the other POVs.
I know the cardinal rule is that if it is done well, anything flies. I think I've done a good job with the writing itself, so here's the question: assuming you found the quality of writing to be good overall, how would you react to the mere fact of a tense shift like this? I ask because one reader remarked on the present tense. She actually said she liked it fine, but recommended I change it because it was 'different.'
I don't really want to know 'can' I do this - I already know I can. But I would like a sort of gut reaction from each of you. If you saw this, would it faze you at all? Would it cause you to stumble for a moment, and then reorient yourself to the new tense? Or would you go with it without any problem?