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In our last article about verb tense in stories, we wrote about the things you need to consider while writing a past tense narrative. In this one, we will tell you about how to construct a present tense narrative. 

One common reason that writers use the present tense in narrative fiction (anchor their narratives in the present tense) is to make the reader believe that a story is happening as they are reading it. There is a certain sense of immediacy and urgency, and an air of suspense. Your reader literally does not know what is about to happen next. 

Many contemporary young adult novels, like Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, are written in the present tense. 

Look at this example from The Hunger Games. 

Gale spreads the bread slices with the soft goat cheese, carefully placing a basil leaf on each while I strip the bushes of their berries. We settle back in a nook in the rocks. From this place, we are invisible but have a clear view of the valley, which is teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish iridescent in the sunlight. The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze. 

Look at the verbs in the paragraph: 

“Gale spreads the bread slices with the soft goat cheese…”

“The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze.”

All these verbs are in the present tense: the prose is written as if Katniss is narrating these events as she and Gale are preparing for their meal. 

Just like this example, all narratives anchored in the present tense are written in the simple present tense. 

What is Historic Present?

Historic present (also known as dramatic present or narrative present) is the usage of the present tense to describe things of the past.

It is a stylistic device that is used in literature to make the story more vivid, immediate and exciting. It is often used to draw the reader into the experience of the story itself, making it more dramatic. The idea is to remove the story from its original time period to bring it to the present. In a way, this brings the story much closer to the reader.

For example, to if I were to describe the story of how I got delayed for work in the historical present, this is how I would do it:

So, I walk out of my house at about 8:45 AM and try to book an Uber to go to work.  After 10 minutes of trying in vain, I abandon the app and just start walking along my street to hail a taxi. That doesn’t work either. Half another later, after I realize that no one is willing to go to our locality, I just give up and start walking to work. 

And, that’s why I am late today.  

Writing a Flashback in a Present Tense Narrative

In our previous article, we defined a flashback as any piece of writing, within a story, that refers to or describes anything that happened before the story’s timeline. Since literature always involves a person narrating, a flashback is generally the narrator recollecting an event of the past.

What tense do you use to write a flashback? This one’s pretty simple. If your narrative is anchored in the present tense, then your flashback is in the past tense.

Let us try to deconstruct this example from The Hunger Games.

On the way home, we swing by the Hob, the black market that operates in an abandoned warehouse that once held coal. When they came up with a more efficient system that transported the coal directly from the mines to the trains, the Hob gradually took over the space. Most businesses are closed by this time on reaping day, but the black market’s still fairly busy. We easily trade six of the fish for good bread, the other two for salt.

Did you spot when the tense changed to the simple past tense? Cool!
If you didn’t, though, let’s look again closely:

On the way home, we swing by the Hob, the black market that operates in an abandoned warehouse that once held coal.

When they came up with a more efficient system that transported the coal directly from the mines to the trains, the Hob gradually took over the space.

Most businesses are closed by this time on reaping day, but the black market’s still fairly busy. We easily trade six of the fish for good bread, the other two for salt.

When we split the paragraph into three parts, it is much easier to spot the tense change. In the first sentence, Katniss tells us that she passed the Hob when she and Gale were returning home. In the second sentence, she tells us a bit about how the Hob came about. That is history, right? She’s only telling us about it. Collins has switched to the past tense for this. She continues the paragraph in the present tense since that’s her dominant narrative style.

Some things to think about

The interesting thing about present tense narratives is that they are a fairly new literary trend. It was initially thought of as an experimental way of approaching narrative styles and is only beginning to gain prominence. However, there is a lot of debate as to when they should be used, and whether they work at all. That’s something for you, the author, to think about because a lot of your story also hinges on the tense you choose to narrate the story in.

Present tense narratives or past tense narratives? There’s a lot to be considered when you make that decision. After you select the tense and write your novel, the next step is to edit your novel. As experts in novel editing services, we’d love to help you perfect your novel. 

Here are some other resources that we’ve compiled for you: 

One of the earliest forms of literature was plays (often written to the end goal of being staged). As a form, it heavily depends on people speaking – characters being direct is one of the most effective ways to advance a story, plus it provides insight into human nature and behaviour. With the rise of novels, this aspect of storytelling was morphed into dialogue writing. To capture direct speech can often become difficult if you have to carefully weave it into a narration. There is an art to this, no doubt, but that’s a conversation for later. First, let us tackle the science – the mechanics – of writing dialogue in fiction. In this article, we have laid down the laws of language to address the question: how do we punctuate, structure and format dialogue in fiction writing? 

I. How to “quote” speech

The first rule of dialogue writing 101 is that you only put direct speech or things that you want to record verbatim within quotation marks. If you’re paraphrasing somebody’s speech (indirect speech), there is no need to enclose it in quotes.  For example:

“I read a wonderful book last night,” Penny was telling us excitedly. 

vs. 

Penny was telling us, rather excitedly, that she had read a wonderful book the previous night. 

You might have noticed that there are two types of quotation marks on your keyboard:
single quotes (‘ ‘) and double quotes (” “). We use them in different contexts for different purposes. 

You can also enclose, in quotation marks, partial quotes.  Any of the following qualifies as a partial quote:

• Incomplete speech 
• Sentence fragment 
• a name or a title 
• explanations of terms that are foreign or unnatural to the flow of the sentence

Now, although these two systems seem definite, there are many instances of authors trying to switch things up. With international collaboration as a norm, who’s to say what’s truly right? Irrespective of what system of punctuation you use, the bottom line is this: be consistent. 

Punctuation across multiple paragraphs:

If you are punctuating dialogue across multiple paragraphs, the conventions remain the same, provided there are two or more people in the conversation. For example, look at this excerpt from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women: 

‘Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,’ grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

‘It’s so dreadful to be poor!’ sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

‘I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,’ added little

Amy, with an injured sniff.

‘We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,’ said Beth contentedly from her corner.

However, if only one of your characters is speaking through multiple paragraphs of your writing, this is what you do:(The following example was originally a dramatic monologue from the 1987  film Wall Street by Oliver Stone.)

“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

“Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

“Thank you very much.”

 

All the paragraphs of quoted text have opening quotation marks. Only the last paragraph has closing quotation marks. Despite the speech being demarcated into multiple paragraphs, the lack of a closing quotation mark shows an extension of the same person’s speech. 

II. Dialogue tags

A dialogue tag is the part of the sentence that points you to the person speaking. For example, take the sentence:  ‘I read a wonderful book last night,’ Penny told us excitedly. 

“Penny told us excitedly” is the dialogue tag in the sentence. 

You can place a dialogue tag either in the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. But, there are also specific rules about where you should place commas: 

A comma immediately follows an introductory dialogue tag.

Penny was telling us, excitedly, ‘I read a wonderful book last night.’

A comma precedes a concluding dialogue tag.

‘I read a wonderful book last night’, Penny was telling us excitedly.

A comma precedes and follows an interrupting dialogue tag.

‘I read a wonderful book last night,’ Penny told us excitedly, ‘it’s called “A Hundred Days of Solitude”.’ 

III. Punctuation in dialogue

Full Stops/periods 

In American English full stops – or periods – always appear before the closing quotation mark, irrespective of whether the quotation in question is full or partial. 

In British English, on the other hand, it varies by context.

For partial quotations, full stops never go before the closing quotation mark.

Harry would not give the textbook to Hermione because “the binding was fragile”.

For full quotations, full stops go before the closing quotation mark only if they are viewed as part of the quoted text

When Hermione asked him for the mysterious textbook, Harry was desperate to stall her any way he could think of, “No. You’ll tear it. The binding is fragile.”

Can you tell how this changes the sentence?

Commas 

If your sentence continues after your dialogue, replace the full stop in the sentence with a comma.

The rest of the rules about using commas in dialogue writing are usually the same that apply for full stops.

“I don’t think I can make it to dinner tonight,” Liz was fiddling with her fingers as she confessed to me she’d already made other plans.

Again, these rules are just preferential; just be consistent. 

Question marks and exclamation points 

Irrespective of what system you’re following, question marks and exclamation points are placed within your dialogue only if they are a part of quoted speech. Look at these two examples to understand the difference:

Amanda was furious, “You can’t just cancel plans whenever you please, Liz!”

To think Harry got away with keeping the book a secret by just saying that “the binding was fragile”!

Do you see how the placement of the punctuation changes the tone of the entire sentence? In the first sentence, it makes sense to keep the exclamation point within the sentence, since it shows that Amanda is furious and indignant.

The rest (semicolons, colons, hyphens, etc.)

Okay, don’t worry. We’re not going to do this for all the 14 types of punctuation one by one. You’ve got the drift. So, we’ll let you go do your own thing.

Long story short, the rule for every other kind of punctuation is this: we place them before the closing quotations only if they are a part of the quoted text. Look at these sentences to see how you can use them:

Before the study, participants described their attention span as ‘low to medium’; after, this changed to ‘medium to high’.

Hermione was tired of Harry taking credit for someone else’s hard work. When she finally confronted him about the contraband textbook, she was blunt, “Look, I’m going to be straight with you: you need to tell someone about this book.”

IV. Formatting and structure

Grammar and punctuation are only a part of the mechanics of dialogue writing. There are also formatting and structure related concerns to think about.

Since dialogue is a device to make the narration more engaging, it is important to not forget how to blend the two elements. There is a way to structure the rest of your sentence around the dialogue. Look at this sentence: 

 Cecelia said, “The sky is blue today,” she coughed, “I wish it looked like this every day.”

This is incorrect. A sentence cannot have multiple dialogue tags. A better way to reconstruct the same sentence, would be: 

Cecelia said, “The sky is blue today.” She coughed. “I wish it looked like this every day.”

V. Bonus round: How the right punctuation impacts writing

Knowing the rules of standardized language makes your book reader-friendly only to some extent. You can use or subvert rules to make your writing impactful. You can use punctuation to enhance the tone and intent of your dialogue:

“I’m sorry… I’m late… to the meeting,” Paul apologized, as he approached his seat. He had to climb 11 flights of stairs after a series of disasters with the building’s elevator. “I didn’t know that the elevator wasn’t working -“
“We know, we got your text,” Mr. Keating replied curtly, as he gestured for the meeting to continue. 

As shown in this example, an ellipsis ( … ) is used to show that Paul is tired. A hyphen is included at the end of the dialogue to show that Mr. Keating has interrupted him.

Phew! This is a lot of information, isn’t it? While you mull over the mechanics of dialogue writing, just remember this: the dialogue of dialogue writing is not over just yet. You can quote us on that!

Before the fame, wealth, book signings and fans that accompany the success of your first novel, there is the grueling process of actually penning the whole thing down that needs to be done.  How you translate your plot outline on paper is of utmost importance. 

However, no matter how well thought and organized the story is in your head – you could often find yourself a victim of writer’s block or unable to flesh out a narrative fit for a novel. While most people would consider the process of writing as an act of creativity to be undertaken only while ‘in the zone’, you will find that they are quite mistaken.

To avoid finding yourself at a loss for words and ensuring that your book doesn’t have to go through regressive editing – the best course of action to undertake is to flesh out your plot before beginning the actual process. Despite the arguments over whether it is a liberating or confining process, nobody can deny the ease of having everything laid out clearly in front of your eyes.

I promise it won’t deter your creativity, but rather enhance and create a full proof environment for your writing to flourish.

1) Craft a premise

Being able to summarize your idea in a sentence or two is only half the battle won. Now that the crux of the plot is in your head, it’s time to be able to answer a few basic questions.

For example – A is a young boy struggling to find his purpose in life. After many attempts in vain with his faithful friend by his side, he finally discovers his passion and lives happily ever after.

To build up on this, there are various aspects you need to consider.

• Who is A? What makes him who he is? Why is he facing those issues?
• Who are the secondary characters going to be?
• When and where is this story going to be set? (Past, Present, Future/America, UK, India)
• What are the obstacles in his path?
• How is he going to overcome them and what is going to be the end goal?

Once you have been able to answer these questions, you will definitely have a more clarified idea of what your novel is going to look like.

2) Explore different settings

The setting of a story will inevitably play a big role in determining what path and obstacles each and every character has to face. For example, if the above plot idea was set in the future; the character as well as his obstacles would be vastly different than if it was during the Victorian Era.

A rookie mistake to avoid however, is picking a setting simply because it is familiar or even cool/trending at that point. Writing is all about creativity, and with the Internet being what it is today there is no information that cannot be accessed with a little bit of research. Brainstorm and push the limits of your creativity till you find a story and setting that excites you!

3) Check for loopholes

This is a step that most authors tend to ignore, or believe will get resolved in the previous setting or even in the course of writing the novel. However, if you discover a gaping plot hole or discrepancy in your writing almost halfway through your work – it is both an immense amount of wasted and added work combined with disappointment.

In order to avoid that, it would be better to scan your plot thoroughly a few times, as well as take a second or even third trusted opinion.

4) Condense your outline

Once your ideas are set in stone and all your questions answered – it’s time to flesh out the outline. How comprehensive or otherwise you want it to be, depends entirely on you, and it’s important to bear in mind that this isn’t a draft but merely your first outline.

It’s possible that you may find yourself unable to progress in a linear manner, and there’s nothing wrong in jumping scenes and working your way backwards. This step essentially would help you sift away unnecessary twists and details while making sure the plot is still plausible. Once your scenes are in order and you have the basic foundation ready, writing becomes a whole lot easier as all you have to do is let your words fill in the blanks!

5) Review

Does this even need any explanation? Remember that at the most basic level, your plot outline is mostly going to be a simple three act structure. Making sure everything from the actual story to facts and characters are accurate at this stage will save you a lot of grief in the future.

Of course, there’s always an editor waiting here at PaperTrue to provide you with the exact expert opinion you’re looking for. The first step to realizing your dream is not necessarily the hardest, and we’re here to prove just that!