It Was Tense But I Nailed It

A couple of blogs ago I was mulling over question of tense and viewpoint.I had consulted a few how-to books, which were fairly unanimous in employing a past tense, third person formula for kids’ picture books. To that I wrote, “Right now, the first draft of my story is third person, present tense, but, I must admit, it doesn’t feel quite right. Will I end up bowing to convention?”

Well, yes and no. After fiddling with the story, I ended up in a sort of reverse position to how I had started. Having begun with third person, present tense, I quite happily ended up with first person, past tense.

For the re-write, I began with the tried-and-true formula – third person, past tense - but it just wasn’t working. I would start typing and then stop. Start. Stop. Backspace. Start. Stop. Delete. It was a sure sign: something was wrong.

Writing, for me, is normally a fairly smooth and flowing experience.It may not always be so from the get-go, and may not be so all the way through, but at some point in the initial stages the words drift from my head, through to my fingertips and onto the page. It’s like magic in the sense that I am often surprised by what ends up on the page: poof – there it is, my opener.

We all have different ways of doing things. Celebrated author John Irving (The World According To Garp, A Prayer For Owen Meany),for instance, always, always begins crafting his novels with the closing sentence. And, just as intriguing, the closing sentence always, always remains the same. Not so for his opener or any of the preceding paragraphs or even chapters. For Irving, his last sentence is his definitive starting point, and once it comes to him, it is chiseled in stone.

So when I began to flounder with the tried-and-true, attempting to squeeze my story into a one-size-fits-all formula, experience told me it was time to try another tactic. I did and I'm thrilled I did. Both Dan and I agree, this is THE ONE.

~ Sherryll