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Subject:
From:
Kent Graham <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Open discussions on the writer's craft <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 28 Oct 2002 09:59:16 -0600
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Vicky Woodward wrote:

>  I recently finished reading a Tom Robbins novel, Half Asleep in Frog
> Pajamas, that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It's written in second person
> present tense.

Thanks, Vicky, for exposing yourself to this crowd!

Vicky touched on a subject that comes up frequently, one that engenders
lots of points of view:  person and tense.

The "classic" choice is third person, past tense.  It's the
story-teller's voice.  By convention, mystery/detective fiction these
days is almost always first person, past (except when it's not....)
 Experimental writers seem to be in love with the third or first,
present.  But I don't know that I've seen a whole book done in second,
present.

Whattya think?  How do you react when there's a shift from the expected
-- mainly to present tense.  What does that do for (or to) the story?
 Anyone tried it?  And with what results?  Pains? Madnesses?
Discuss it among yourselves.

Scribite!
kg


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