Fanfiction written in present tense by accident?

[Book 45]

Do you ever come across fan fictions that write in present tense when the story clearly needed to be written in past tense. I sometimes find stories like this that I know would be good if they only wrote the darn story in past tense. Sometimes I even try to look past the huge mistake by trying to read the words that are in present tense in past tense. What are your thoughts about these kind of fan fictions?

[RockinRarity 1,605]

Do you ever come across fan fictions that write in present tense when the story clearly needed to be written in past tense. I sometimes find stories like this that I know would be good if they only wrote the darn story in past tense. Sometimes I even try to look past the huge mistake by trying to read the words that are in present tense in past tense. What are your thoughts about these kind of fan fictions?

 

Sometimes even officially published books are written in the present tense for stylistic purposes. A popular example is The Hunger Games.

 

I personally don't prefer to write in present tense most of the time, and I don't usually prefer reading them in the present tense either, but people don't necessarily write in the present tense out of ignorance, and if they do, maybe they do just because they haven't really learned how to write in school. But there's technically nothing incorrect with writing in the present tense.

Edited August 12, 2012 by RockinRarity

[Book 45]

Don't post on this topic guys it is in the wrong thread. That is my bad, the same topic is in sugar cube corner. I have already made a report about this and hope it will be fixed soon.

[RockinRarity 1,605]

Don't post on this topic guys it is in the wrong thread. That is my bad, the same topic is in sugar cube corner. I have already made a report about this and hope it will be fixed soon.

 

You could have just asked one of the mods to move it... they can do that, ya know.

 

Oh well, I'll just do it instead.

[Colon Leftbracket 971]

I've noticed the issue is that people do not seem to know how to use present, past, and future tenses while writing.

 

In my creative writing classes when asked to proofread someone's work most of the time my first comment was for them to choose a tense and stick with it. It seems to be something in writing that is hard for new writers to grasp, mainly because in speech it doesn't matter nearly as much.

 

Hell in my first works I made the same mistakes, but I've recently noticed that it seems to be one of the most common writing mistakes for new writers.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

This thread appears to be related to the My Little Pony franchise and/or the Bronydom in general. Thus, it has been sentenced to Sugarcube Corner.

 

This is an automatically generated message, by the way.

 

(I have deleted the duplicate thread, by the way. Just ask us to move it next time.)

Edited August 12, 2012 by Arylett Dawnsborough

[PlunderSteed 1,252]

When I stumble into a story that can't even decide what tense it wants to be in, I usually dismiss it outright. No sense in forcing your way through a story that you have to continually modify in your own head in order to get anything out of it. Most decent writers are well past such rookie mistakes, although it's always nice to have a good editor to help with the random mistakes that the writer might miss.

[Planty 1,053]

You could have just asked one of the mods to move it... they can do that, ya know.

 

Oh well, I'll just do it instead.

 

yeah the mods are really good ><

 

they never let anything slip at all ive been really impressed by them

[Heart's Desire 181]

When I stumble into a story that can't even decide what tense it wants to be in, I usually dismiss it outright. No sense in forcing your way through a story that you have to continually modify in your own head in order to get anything out of it. Most decent writers are well past such rookie mistakes, although it's always nice to have a good editor to help with the random mistakes that the writer might miss.

 

This, exactly. If I'm going to be frustrated rather than enjoy the story I don't see a reason to waste my time on it. There are very few stories that are intentionally written in present tense. It's a very difficult thing to do well, so even when done intentionally it can ruin a story if the writer doesn't know what they're doing.

 

What annoys me the most is when it switches back and forth. I wont deny that I've caught myself using an incorrect tense here or there but that's what proofreading is for and it shouldn't make it to the final cut.

[RockinRarity 1,605]

What annoys me the most is when it switches back and forth. I wont deny that I've caught myself using an incorrect tense here or there but that's what proofreading is for and it shouldn't make it to the final cut.

 

This annoys me as well. Greatly.

 

I haven't consistently read fanfiction in years, and grammatical and style issues like this are part of the reason why I don't seek it out anymore.