Most fiction authors write in the past tense. They tell readers what happened. This is as if the author says, “I see the events in my mind, and I’m writing about what I saw.” Very few fictional books are written in the present tense.

One reason for this is that writing in the present tense provides serious challenges to the author: maintaining perspective, introducing prior events, and filtering the stream of consciousness.

Below, we discuss these challenges and provide an example of present-tense writing done well.

1. Maintaining Perspective: Well-written scenes have only one perspective. As readers, our focus is on one character, and the scene is described through that character’s experiences. Usually, the focus will be on the protagonist. We perceive the scene through that character. However, that scene can be described again from another character’s experience. This is possible because the scene is written in the past tense. We already know that it has happened.

When writing in the present tense, the events have an immediacy that makes this difficult. We read about what is happening at the moment, not about what already happened. This limits the author’s ability to show events from multiple perspectives because when the perspective shifts, the events already occurred. As such, when the perspective changes, the author continues to show what is now happening but through a different perspective. The author keeps the readers in the “now.” This can be a powerful tool for keeping the reader engaged in the story, but it is difficult to accomplish.

2. Introducing Prior Events: Events do happen prior to the current experience, and describing them in a present-tense story requires a shift to the past tense. However, the author may need to include those events to help the reader understand the present experience or to provide the motivation for a character’s actions and thoughts. This is difficult to accomplish. The author must make these time shifts smoothly, without losing the present-tense perspective and without making the reader wonder when the event is taking place. The author has to separate present and past tense without damaging the readers’ engagement in the present tense events.

3. Filtering the Stream of Consciousness: The human brain is always thinking, which means that the character on whom we are focused is having many thoughts. Some may be repetitions, some may be revisions of prior thoughts, and some may be off topic completely. Some will be new and relevant to the experience the character is having.

The challenge to the author is identifying the thoughts that are relevant and necessary to the story without creating gaps in the character’s consciousness. Shifting between a description of thoughts to description of physical activities and environment will help, but as with introducing prior events, this can be difficult. While we are reading the character’s thoughts and feelings in the present tense, other actions and events are occurring. Thus, when the author “leaves the character’s mind” and returns to the “real world,” he cannot go back to describe what has happened in the meantime. So the second part of this challenge is to ensure that the reader doesn’t miss critical events.

An Example of Present Tense Fiction: Robert Silverberg, winner of multiple Nebula and Hugo awards, uses the present tense very effectively in Starborne. This is the story of 50 people traveling across the universe through “nospace” to find a new planetary home. Obviously, it is science fiction.

Here’s a quip from the book that addresses the second and third challenges:

“The year-captain wonders whether everyone aboard, one by one, is about to undergo some maddening transformation for the worse. Already Noelle is losing the ability to communicate with her sister on Earth; the blunt and straightforward Sieglinde has unsettlingly chosen to challenge the reliability of the theorems that she herself helped to write; and now the easygoing and irreverent Heinz is tiresomely eager to explain the year-captain’s own responsibilities to him. What next? What next, he wonders.”

Science fiction may not be your preferred genre, but this novel is worth reading if you intend to write in the present tense and are unsure about how to do it well. Find it in a bookstore, sit in a chair, and read the first couple chapters, at least. Study how Silverberg resolves the three challenges noted above.

We have a variety of editorial services for authors that will help you prepare your manuscript, but reading and studying Starborne will give you a good start.

From the Paris of New England: Interviews with Poets and Writers by Doug Holder (click on to order)

From the Paris of New England: Interviews with Poets and Writers
Print: $18.50










http://lulu.com/ibbetsonpress to order



A series of interviews with poets and writers that took place in the "Paris of New England," (Somerville, Mass.) Doug Holder the founder of the small literary press "Ibbetson Street" conducted interviews on his Somerville Community Access TV Show "Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer," as well as for his literary column in The Somerville News, and at the Wilderness House Literary Retreat, founded by his friend Steve Glines. Poets and writers included in this volume are Mark Doty, Tom Perrotta, Pagan Kennedy, Claire Messud, Lan Samantha Chang, Afaa Michael Weaver, Lois Ames, Steve Almond, and many more... There is also some striking photography by Elsa Dorfman and other photographers in this collection. Included is an introduction by Michael Basinski, curator of the University of Buffalo Poetry Collection...

Unless you string titles after your name (e.g., Ph.D., M.A.), your reader doesn’t know how much education you have. The reader only has the words you write, and your reader will judge your intelligence, education level, and credibility based on how well you write. No, this isn’t fair.

Let me be perfectly clear about this: The manner in which you write is only loosely connected to your intelligence, education level, and knowledge of the topic. Many intelligent, educated, knowledgeable people write poorly, use ungrammatical sentences, and misspell words. I am convinced that the way a person writes has little to do with his education or intelligence. Your ideas are a far better indicator.

As Claudius Caesar is quoted saying (paraphrased), “Is not what a man says more important than how he says it?” I agree with him. In spite of this, your reader may still judge you unfairly and discredit your ideas based on the way you write. Readers arewrong to do so, but they will.

With that in mind, here are some words, phrases, and expressions (in no particular order) that may cause your reader to ask, “Didn’t this writer ever go to school?”

1. More better
“More” + “-er” is redundant. That “-er” word already means “more.” Other examples of this problem are “more smaller,” “more faster,” and “more lazier.” The word “more” should be dropped.

2. Most biggest
“Most” + “-est” is redundant, too. That “-est” word already means “most.” Other examples of this problem are “most smallest,” “most fastest,” and “most laziest.” The worst use of this incorrect expression is “most best,” which means the “best best.” Only one thing can be the most of anything. The word “most” should be dropped.

3. My sister, she . . .
This is an example of telling the readers who the subject is, then telling them who the subject is again using a pronoun. You only need one. If your reader doesn’t know who “she” is (which is why you wrote the actual subject, “my sister”), then don’t use the pronoun. Instead, only write “My sister . . . .” Other examples:
“My uncle and I, we . . .” should be written “My uncle and I . . .”
“The dog and cat, they . . .” should be written “The dog and cat . . .”

4. Me and her went . . .
“Me” and “her” are not a subject pronoun. This should be written “She and I.” The subject pronouns are “I,” “you,” “he,” “she,” “it,” “we,” “they,” and “who.” Anything else is wrong. The second problem is the order of the words. In nearly every case, you should write the other person’s pronoun first. More examples:
“Me and him are . . .” should be written “He and I are . . .”
“My mom and me took . . .” should be written “My mom and I took . . .”

5. . . . for her and I
“I” is not an object pronoun, so it cannot be the object of the preposition “for.” The object pronouns are “me,” “you,” “him,” “her,” “it,” “us,” “them,” and “whom.” Anything else is wrong. More examples:
“. . . sent to John and I” should be written “ . . . sent to John and me.”
“. . . followed after Frank and he” should be written “ . . . followed after Frank and him.”

6. Been
“Been” is the past participle of “to be.” You don’t actually need to know this. What you need to know is that if you are going to write “been,” you also must write “have,” “has,” or “had.” If you use “been” without one of those words, you will have a grammatical error. So, instead of writing “I been to the museum,” you would write “I have been to the museum.” More examples:
“Susan been here for 12 days.” This should be written “Susan has been here for 12 days.”
“The dogs been to the vet every year.” This should be written “The dogs have been to the vet every year.”

7. Seen
“Seen” follows the same rules for use as “been.” So, instead of writing “I seen that movie,” you would write “I have seen that movie” More examples:
“She seen the ghost in that room.” This should be written “She has seen the ghost in that room.”
“Bob seen her before she saw him.” This should be written “Bob had seen her before she saw him.”

8. Irregardless
This is not a word. The correct word is “regardless.”

9. Alot
This is also not a word. The correct way to write this is “a lot,” which is 2 words. [The word “allot” exists, but it means something very different.] An Internet search for “allot of” resulted in around 1.3 million entries—and every one of them is wrong. The correct way to write this is “a lot of.”

10. Apostrophe-S for plurals
Apostrophes are not used to make plurals. They have two functions: 1) replace missing letters in contractions and 2) make possessives from nouns and pronouns. This mistake is becoming more common, but that doesn’t make it right. Sentences like “These book’s are missing page’s” are never right.

11. To, too, two
Any mistake using these words will be obvious to educated readers.
“Too” means 1) an excessive amount, 2) also.
Example: Too many people use this word incorrectly. Do you make this mistake, too?
“Two”: the number
“To” is 1) part of the infinitive form of the verb, 2) a preposition indicating movement away from one thing and in the direction of another.
Example: She sent a letter to me that explained how to use this word correctly.

12. Could of
The correct form is “could have.” The common contraction “could’ve” sounds like “could of” when spoken, but writing this is wrong. “Could’ve” is the contraction for “could have.”

13. Their, there, they’re
Any mistake using these words will be obvious to most educated readers.
“Their” is a possessive pronoun meaning, roughly, “belonging to them.”
Example: Their grammar is their own business.
“There” indicates a place, and is often used in poor writing as a placeholder for the subject.
Example: There is a dog in there.
“They’re” is the contraction for “they are.”
Example: Want some strawberries? They’re ripe now.

14. More than three dots for an ellipsis when indicating missing words.
You use an ellipsis to indicate that you have removed some words from a quote. An ellipsis is only three dots. Sometimes, you might use four dots if you need one to represent the period at the end of a sentence. Anything else, though, looks amateurish and uneducated.
Here’s a correct example: “The soap . . . is missing.” In this example, the ellipsis is representing the missing words “that you bought me for my birthday.”

15. Using more than one exclamation mark.
One is enough! Really.

16. Like or goes/went instead of said
Using “like” or “goes/went” in place of “said” is juvenile slang. While you might be able to get away with this in speech, it will damage your credibility in writing. For example, if you write “He was like, ‘I’m bored,’ ” you will sound uneducated. This is the same for “Then he goes, ‘I don’t like pizza.’ ” The correct way to write this is “Then he said, ‘I don’t like pizza.’ ”

17. Your, you’re
“Your” is a possessive pronoun. “You’re” is a contraction for “you are.” Choose the one you need.

18. Any type of “chat speak”
Chat speak includes using “ur” for “you are” and “your,” “frenz” for “friends,” “gud” for “good,” and “lol” or “lolz” to indicate your amusement. Many more examples are possible. They may be amusing or “hip” when chatting online or sending text messages to your friends, but they are all inappropriate for formal writing.

19. Pretentious writing
This one doesn’t have a specific example, so I’ll try to describe it. Writers use pretentious writing to make their writing sound very formal and professional. This may include using many official sounding words, lingo, acronyms, and long, complex sentences with many commas. While these can be used effectively, if they are not part of the writer’s normal speech patterns or are overly formal for the purpose or audience, a reader may recognize that the writer is trying too hard to be impressive. This makes the writer seem insecure and will damage the writer’s credibility. Instead, write simply and clearly so that the reader can focus on your ideas—not on you.

Some final notes
Why doesn’t this list include problems with “who” and “whom” or “that” and “which”? While mistakes using these words are very common, many readers will not recognize them as errors. Also, because so many “educated” writers have difficulties with these words, making mistakes with these words might not make you seem uneducated, at least not like the 19 items above.

If any of these items apply to you, I hope that this list will help you produce professional writing. Your reader will respect you as a writer and will focus not on you but on your ideas, which is the goal of good writing.

Your resume is your first interview. Most personnel directors will look at your resume before they meet you. They will form an opinion of your competency and your personality based on your resume. Based on our work helping clients prepare resumes, we have created a list of 8 words your resume needs, words that will create a favorable impression of you.

1. Successfully
Companies want to hire winners. Use this word to describe your accomplishments in a prior responsibility.
Example: I successfully negotiated a new contract for services.

2. Leadership
Companies want to hire leaders. Use this word to describe your involvement with task and project teams.
Example: Under my leadership, the customer service unit managed all client records.

3. Team
Companies want to hire people who can cooperate with others to accomplish company goals. Use this word to describe your involvement with colleagues.
Example: Our team was responsible for answering customers’ questions about products.

4. Created
Companies want to hire innovators. Use this word to describe new ideas and processes you developed.
Example: I created a checklist to track daily service tasks.

5. Expanded/Increased (the verb, not the adjective)
Companies want to hire people that will help them grow. Use this word to describe your participation in company growth.
Example: During this time, the company expanded the product line to include 2 new models.

6. Support (the verb, not the noun)
Companies want to hire people who will assist the management team. Use this word to describe your relationship with your former supervisors.
Example: I supported the division director by compiling financial data.

7. Will
Companies want to hire people who are confident about their ability to deliver what they promise. Use this word to describe what you will do if hired.
Example: I will solve customer software and hardware problems.

Some of these words may not apply to your resume. However, if you think carefully about your prior experiences, you will find that you can use most of them. Using these words does not guarantee that you will get the job you want, but they will help you make a good impression.

Effective writing and the correct use of writing mechanics are very important. Once you have developed the draft of your resume and cover letter, you will need to edit it carefully. Editing guides will help, as will daily writing instruction.

Good luck in your job search. [link “Editing guides” to the training manual page. Link “daily writing instruction” to the writing tips page.] Read Precise Edit's new article and optimize your resume.