Your story in present tense or past tense?
Do I write my story now in present tense or past tense? I notice that I'm having trouble with that myself. Then I'll start a story in the past, and later notice that I've switched to the present tense. For example, my story about Sly John. I picked that up again the other day, and I started to take a look at the proverbial parts. And so I had suddenly switched from past tense to present tense (this does not apply to the dialogues by the way).
According to different writing websites, it's best to write in the present tense (seems to be the trend now) to hold the tension. You then make the reader feel as if, as a writer, you don't know what's going to happen. The reader becomes more involved in the (active) story. Writing in the past tense is as if it were a completed story. The outcome is already fixed and you tell the reader. According to Kelly Meulenberg's website, the “known” writer (I don't know her, lol. Not that I know all the writers (by the way) a trick: in the climax of her book, she changes from past tense to present tense. That's how she booses the tension.
You can also choose to write the story in the present tense and the flashbacks in the past tense.
But how do you make sure you hold the whole story (or at least in the beginning) the same “time”?? I haven't figured that out yet. My scavenger hunt continues..
