Last week I wrote about using the male point of view in romance fiction.Deciding on whose point of view you’re writingin is just one aspect of the narrative mode on which an author must decide before writing his or her book. This week I’m looking at two other aspects: the person view (in which person you write) and the tense.

The person view

You have three options:

• The first person: I saw the ship.
• The second person: You saw the ship.
• The third person:She saw the ship.

The second person is used rarely, so most authors choose between the first and third person. In my writing, I favour the third person. Take the following paragraph from The Echoes of Love:

Paolo helped her with her coat, lifting her glorious long locks over the fur collar. At five foot seven inches, Venetia was tall but as he faced her and began buttoning the garment himself, she noticed again how he towered over her. His hands were strong and masculine; she had a curious sensation of warm familiarity, as though he had performed this act with her several times before. Yet mingled with that feeling came one of embarrassment; his touch seemed a rather intimate gesture instead of the impersonal indifference of a stranger, and she drew away with a little nervous laugh.

Writing in the third person allows me to give the reader a view of the whole scene, as a spectator. If I had written in the first person, the paragraph would read differently:

Paolo helped me with my coat, lifting my long hair over the fur collar. At five foot seven inches, I was tall but as he faced me and began buttoning the garment himself, I noticed again how he towered over me. His hands were strong and masculine; I had a curious sensation of warm familiarity, as though he had performed this act with me several times before. Yet mingled with that feeling came one of embarrassment; his touch seemed a rather intimate gesture instead of the impersonal indifference of a stranger, and I drew away with a little nervous laugh.

What do you think? I don’t believe it works as well in the first person. It’s inflexible: I’m stuck in Venetian so am unable to describe her hair in the same terms, for example. Also, the poeticism of the writing feels a little out of place if we’re inside Venetia’s mind, hearing her thoughts and interpretations. The first person works beautifully if you want your reader to live and breathe the heroine’s experience, but if you want your reader to see the story as a whole, within a setting and from all sides (much like watching a film or play), the third person works best.

Narrative tense

And what of the tense? Again, authors have three choices:

• Past tense: I saw the ship.
• Present tense: I see the ship.
• Future tense: I will see the ship.

The future tense is rare. It works for a paragraph or two, but then becomes hard work to read. Most common is the past tense, dating back to the tradition of oral storytelling at the fireside, when people told stories from the past. But some authors prefer the present tense to create a sense of immediacy. It’s especially popular in current young adult fiction, such as The Hunger Games and Divergent series, and has been creeping into other genres.

See the difference for my writing:

Paolo helps her with her coat, lifting her glorious long locks over the fur collar. At five foot seven inches, Venetia is tall but as he faces her and begins buttoning the garment himself, she notices again how he towers over her. His hands are strong and masculine; she has a curious sensation of warm familiarity, as though he has performed this act with her several times before. Yet mingled with that feeling comes one of embarrassment; his touch seems a rather intimate gesture instead of the impersonal indifference of a stranger, and she draws away with a little nervous laugh.

I feel a little uncomfortable as I read this. To me, each present-tense verb says ‘the story is unfolding in the minute, and the narrator doesn’t know where it is going’. Philip Pullman encapsulated the feeling perfectly in his article for the Guardian on the subject of present-tense fiction:

… if every sound you emit is a scream, a scream has no expressive value. What I dislike about the present-tense narrative is its limited range of expressiveness. I feel claustrophobic, always pressed up against the immediate

I find I prefer more classical writing, where you have the sense of a storyteller in the now narrating the events of the past. It fits with the passionate, descriptive nature of my writing.

What do you think? Do you notice these elements of a book? Do you prefer to read/write first-person narration, or third person? Do you expect a book to be in the past tense; does the present tense jar? I’d love to hear your thoughts.