Welcome to Morning Pages — it’s time for a monthly roundup. I hope you’ve got your pencils sharpened and ready to write. Wanna join in on the fun? Read the prompt, set your timer* and get ready to let the words flow. Feel free to post the results of your work in the comments below where we chat about writing and (if the mood strikes us) get a craft discussion going.
If you want critique from other commenters, use #YESTHANKS in your comment. Otherwise, you can tell us about the flash fic and the process you went through to write it. And of course, I’m always open to hear what you think about my excerpts!
*you can write for as long as you want, but most folks choose 15-30 minutes.
What I learned this month: I never write in present tense. (I don’t know why this is.) For whatever reason, past tense has always felt more natural to me—probably because most of the SFF I read as a kid was written in third person past. Sometimes I write in present tense when I’m zero-drafting, though that’s mostly because I’m throwing the scene onto the paper as I imagine it while paying very, very little attention to tense and grammar. Often, a hodge-podge of past and present will hit the paper, only for me to spend time converting everything to past tense (and, well, legible English) when I’m writing the first draft.
I had no idea how hard writing in present tense would be until I tried it for pieces I wrote this month (“Interpretation” in particular).
I don’t know what inspired me to do it. The first sentence of “Interpretation” came out in present tense, and I looked at it for a minute, then decided to roll with it instead of making corrections. And holy cow—I had to do multiple passover edits just to make sure there weren’t any sneaky tense issues going on. (Hint: there are probably still some sneaky tense issues hanging in there.) Some of my craft experiments throughout the past few months (with POV, mostly) have made me hanker to try something other than the Third Person Multi I’d call my mainstay… but wow, nothing about writing this snippet in present tense makes me ever want to try it again. I’m pretty sure writing a novel this way would utterly break my brain.
If you routinely switch back and forth between tenses… wow friend, I commend you for it. My brain sizzles just thinking about it.
The Prompts:
“Write a snippet of dialogue in which two listeners interpret the conversation in completely different ways.”
It’s no secret that Imran finds the Oceanic language strange.
“I can feel your nerves.”
Maestro intimidates his principal cellist.
“You said that the last time I died. Or was that two deaths ago?”
Weaver ‘verse. Jael Soti can’t seem to stay alive.
“Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat”
Miran from the Oceana ‘verse has some regrets about how he raised his sons.
“A mythical creature hides in plain sight.”
“Hook, Line, Sinker:” The bartender is a selkie. Hear me out—I have evidence.
“A stubborn, controlling, or selfish character makes a concession for someone who is starting to become their friend.”
“Shaken:” Max Battista never got along with catchers… until he met Marshall Bedford.
“Monsters in folklore prey upon unsuspecting humans who wander into their wild realms; in fact, many monsters rely on said wandering humans for food or resources. So what happened to these monsters during quarantine?”
“Hunger:” If you hear someone calling your name late at night, don’t answer.
Get Involved!
Answer the prompts or dive straight in and respond to others’ comments — let’s share our knowledge, our experience, and have a discussion we can all learn from! Don’t want to miss a post? Subscribe to the blog in the sidebar to get notified about new posts.
Today’s questions:
- Do you tend to write in past or present tense?
- Why do you think you gravitate towards that choice?
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Make it Work
Epithets in Fiction
Using Description to Enhance Character
Hahaha, I write all my stories in present tense, but it did take some time to get used to. I mostly started doing it because it was suggested to me as an exercise to lessen distance between story and reader, and it stuck. I can still write in past tense, but I sometimes slip up because I’m so used to present, even if it’s only a flashback.
I think I started writing in past when I was a kid because that’s what all the classic fantasy authors I used to read used — and now it’s so difficult for me to write in present!
I’ve practiced with my morning pages, so I can write in present for the duration of a single writing session, but the second I get up to get a glass of water, my brain switches back into past and I have to start all over again.
I started writing in past tense as well because it has historically always been the storytelling tense. First time I wrote in present was something I’d originally written in past and it was very weird. But I got used to it, and then I had to get used to it again when I started writing in English because I’d never read an English story in present tense. It’s now my default, but I have come to realise that sometimes past works better.
I’ve realized that sometimes I zero-draft in present tense (almost as if I’m walking through a scene on a character’s shoulder), but automatically flip it into past tense while I’m writing. But some thing feel so much stronger in present tense! I don’t know if I’ll ever write a full book that way (my poor brain), but a short story or a novella? Maybe!
I’m cackling at this. My first switch to present tense broke my brain, full stop. I did it because I wanted a book with the strongest character voice I could get, as a writing challenge. It took me literal months to adjust. But I finished, breezed through a second book (same tense) and all was fine.
And then the first switch back broke my brain again.
I think after that, my mental circuits just gave up? Or I broke them in. I now cycle routinely between past and present tense (and first and third person, in all available combinations) with no problem at all—even one after the other on the same day. I don’t even notice anymore. So there’s something to be said about practice!
And stubbornness. Though maybe more of that, really.
Anyway, I commend you! I remember my own first attempt vividly.
It’s still breaking my brain, though not as badly as it did. I can flip back and forth between third and first pretty easily, though I’m not sure I’d have such a good time if I tried to do it with a single set of characters. As in — I don’t think I could write from FPPOV for one of the Oceana Series characters. It’d be way too weird. It’s a lot easier for me to swap tenses when writing about a particular cast than to swap POV type. Which is an interesting thought!
PoV switch is another weird thing. I’ve tried pretty much everything, but I’ve noticed that if I’ve written in a certain PoV for a long time, it’s often my default and it’s harder to switch. And I once started writing in third, had to take a break for a summer camp, and continued in first (until I noticed and made everything third again).
POV switching is hard! I often hear bits of the story narrated in my head as I’m writing, with some books in third and some books in first. While I usually stick with third for longer works, I’ve had a few MCs who really wanted to speak in FPPOV that were difficult to put in place! I kept switching back to first during their initial chapters and had to sit down and reevaluate whether I’d chosen the right point of view. (I ended up sticking with third, but it was weird).