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A writing question
Dec. 11th, 2003 08:50 amI'm going to (*gulp*) write a sequel to Avocado, thererby assuring myself a choice spot in some slashy level of hell. But first, I have a question:
Why is most RPS written in third person present?
It tends to give the fic a sense of immediacy, almost as if the writer snuck into the room to watch and furiously scribbled what she saw as she saw it, or wrote down her fantasy as it popped into her head, or something. But is it a conscious choice most RPS writers make, or is it a stylistic thing, or what?
When I first wrote "Avocado," it was in that sort of present tense, something that I didn't even notice until![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jedirita pointed it out. In subsequent drafts, it shifted to past tense, because I became conscious of it and made a choice not to use present tense. (We write in first person present in QAJ, and I figured I could use the practice writing in third person past.) When Rita asked why I used present tense in that first draft, I had no answer. I think I'd just done it that way because that made it feel like most RPS felt.
Anybody have thoughts about this?
Why is most RPS written in third person present?
It tends to give the fic a sense of immediacy, almost as if the writer snuck into the room to watch and furiously scribbled what she saw as she saw it, or wrote down her fantasy as it popped into her head, or something. But is it a conscious choice most RPS writers make, or is it a stylistic thing, or what?
When I first wrote "Avocado," it was in that sort of present tense, something that I didn't even notice until
jedirita pointed it out. In subsequent drafts, it shifted to past tense, because I became conscious of it and made a choice not to use present tense. (We write in first person present in QAJ, and I figured I could use the practice writing in third person past.) When Rita asked why I used present tense in that first draft, I had no answer. I think I'd just done it that way because that made it feel like most RPS felt.Anybody have thoughts about this?
