My story is told by one of the characters and frequently uses the past tense when describing events. But occasionally I feel like some of the events should be told in the present tense, and I switch between the two. Does this as an example work? Is it alright to do so?
Our guest grabbed a bread stick without asking, and as Jack, I now also wanted to get to know this stranger a bit better. “Thank you for taking away the burden of us having to order. What is your name?” I asked him. My guess is that it would have to do with either eyebrows or a hypnotized cat.
Answer
I think the yo-yo effect is jarring to the reader. This is even worse when it's character voice changing. Changing "now also wanted" to "wanted" and "is that" to "was that" is fairly minimal and an easier read. I don't believe it impacts your writing negatively to keep the tenses consistent.
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