Guess I should start by making an introduction post? 🤷♂️. I’m just your average aspiring writer who thinks he may have some potential in producing compelling characters and worlds that people may want to visit. Been reading and listening to LitRPG for several years, so I decided to start writing in that genre for myself. @bookstodon@amwriting#amWriting
I’ve gone back to an old #novel I’ve been writing for years- this time I’m getting it done! 😉
But, in doing so I have decided to change the prose text from past-tense to present-tense to give the #narrative some extra tension and forward drive.
It’s working out so far, but I’m not entirely convinced it’s the right thing to do. Most narratives are written in past-tense after all, so it might make my novel less inviting.
This is such a perennial argument. My feeling is some people have very strong opinions, and for everyone else, the thing that will make your book uninviting is if it is poorly edited. Otherwise they won't really care.
@pretensesoup@bookstodon@amwriting Very good point. Any tense will work well if used correctly within a well-edited text. And part being well-edited would be selecting the tense that works best for the text. :BlobHajMlem:
“You will wake to the sound of past screams recorded when the waves rolled up and over the shores of the world, slowly dying along with your dreams. Then as you are eating breakfast in the econo-dome, you will hear the expectant ding a visitor at the door. There you will find…”
Not sure it would stick for a novel, but for a short story it could be very interesting.
I recently read a review of a 2nd person novel that said it managed to not bring up "I would never do that" in the reader's mind, but I doubt I would write in that viewpoint for a whole novel. (I don't recall which novel was reviewed.)
@mjjmori@bookstodon@amwriting I've written two stories in present tense, and I did it with very little punctuation as well so that the narrative pulls you forward with no place to take a breath. I found it very effective, and then tit took me a week to shake it to get back to my usual past tense. 🥰🥰🥰
I had a writing professor who described 2nd person as "a shy first person narrator." And I think it's most effective when deployed like that. Marya Hornbacher does some passages in her memoir Wasted in it, and it kind of works to point at the depersonalization she was experiencing.
@rayckeith@mjjmori@pretensesoup@bookstodon@amwriting The novel "Aura" (very well-known in Latin America) by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes is written in the second person, and a good chunk in the future tense.
"You are unlikely to actually be a cokehead party boy checking facts for the New Yorker & getting divorced from a beautiful model but then again if not, why not if it gets you a publishing deal"
Anyhoo
As a writer, I think 2nd person is even more distancing than 3rd person present tense (novelizing our screenplay, are we?) but as a self publisher I see no evidence readers GAF or even notice this stuff
Oh, & here's an example of "readers don't care or notice" right here... I read Wasted & I didn't even remember any bits in 2nd person
Technique can help a story move faster but I don't think readers consciously notice or remember technique (unless they're writers/aspiring writers & even then once you get lost in the story... that stuff fades into the background)
@pelielios@amwriting@bookstodon Hah, i know what you mean. Once or twice I’ve woken and thought that narrative or character I’ve figured out was just brilliant. In the cold light of morning, it is anything but.
A quick bit of writing before I head into work. Last night i didn’t think I would, as time is tighter when going into the office, but once I had my coffee, I just sat down to look at this and that, and before long I was writing anyway. Perhaps this morning habit is going to stick.
I’ve set some weekly goals for the next four weeks on the same longer form text, so good to have some immediate goals that will add up to into one thing.
Writing a #flashfiction for my local writers group. 350 words with the prompt: birthday party, locked cupboard, twins. The variety is always interesting when we read our stories aloud.
Have trouble keeping it short? First, write without concern for word count.📚
Then hack and prune that wild shrub.🌳
Select one word instead of three.📌 Delete any sentence that changes nothing.✂️ Repeat. ♻️
@BertL@bookstodon@amwriting The more I write (I’d like to get to 50 professional years, but that’ll be impossible for me now 😉), the more I can see when two sentences say the same thing, even when they are totally different. It can happen surprisingly easily, and I used to do it all the time. Not so much now. Writing a lot of micro-narratives over the last couple years helped with this a lot, I think.
I’m hear before the day has properly started writing, so that’s good. As some of you say, this is the way. I’m very stuck with my current short story. I love the start and first few scenes, a lot, but now don’t know where it’s going, so am questioning everything. But it’s due in two days, so just pushing through, see where it’ll take me. Hopefully just writing will unlock the way forward. Sometimes that works. @bookstodon@amwriting#amwriting#mjjmori
1/2 @mwayne0013 I write some RPG campaigns myself not for publishing just for friends and some people they know.
It's great to be accurate but as with every art that is a craft's ship I remember one German Sentence: Handwerk ist die Kunst sein Fuschen zu vertuschen.
It means roughly translated. Professional craft is the art of Covering up your sloppy work. It can be red as an Insult to a crafting person or as a motivational line. It's okay to cut some corners. @mjjmori@bookstodon@amwriting
2/2 @mwayne0013 what I want to say with this, it's absolutely okay to don't deliver something 100% accurate. Even great & professional Authors sometimes retcon in later storys. Some details like the color of the spell are better left to the players imagination. I say this because I also love accuracy but at some points it's just to much. I can describe my MC as sorting their cloth Alphabetical but do I really need to write that list? Can't I do something better? @mjjmori@bookstodon@amwriting
@AnnaSaultron@mjjmori@bookstodon@amwriting Such fantastic advice, many thanks! My RPG writing is actually almost shorthand, and it’s just to help this old brain along 😄. But I do have a historical/fantasy/thriller that I noodle with, and your suggestions really hit home! Just write down what I want and work on the finer points later! Like sculpture! Thank you!
@mwayne0013
I'm glad to be of assistance. I'll hope you have fun and if you want to share some parts of your work, as a teaser or just for fun, I'm sure the writing community here would love to have a peak at it, but only if you want to, because consent is cool. And as the Klingons say Qapla' batlH je' (Success and Honor)to you❤️😊 @mjjmori@bookstodon@amwriting