Now I’ve had some time to stew on the question of ‘tense’ and its relation to narrative voice, I’ve come to an unexpected conclusion: ‘Tense’ isn’t a part of narrative voice, unless you deliberately mess with it.’ I was struck by the number of books I’ve read recently in which the tense changes. ‘The Goldfinch’,Continue reading “A Question of Tense – part 2”
Category Archives: Writing Tips
A Question of Tense
OK, now getting close to the end of Week One of the book edit. I’ve hit all the 6 a.m. mornings, so feeling quite proud of myself. However, the problem of voice and style, and in particular tense have been troubling me much. I have four narrators and they refuse to stick to one timeContinue reading “A Question of Tense”
Striking While the Iron Is Hot – A Regime
Striking while the iron is hot? What’s all that about? It’s about me getting hold of the book edit I’m engaged with and making it happen, forging ahead (and other inspirational clichés). Quite an apt metaphor, I’d say, given the name of FT Publishing. Just stand in front of the damn mirror and repeatContinue reading “Striking While the Iron Is Hot – A Regime”
Writing Clubs and Workshops – yes or no?
I recently read a very inspiring blog article on writers’ clubs ( see Mahsuda Snaith’s great post) which championed the power of work shopping prose in front of your peers. It got me thinking about my own experiences with writing groups. I have been associated with two writing groups in my life, and what aContinue reading “Writing Clubs and Workshops – yes or no?”
The Suspension of Disbelief
Given all the stuff I’ve written in previous blogs about how language and narrative works, here is an interesting question: how does the author use the text to convince us to suspend our disbelief? After all, one of the most important things about any story is that we should believe that it is true, atContinue reading “The Suspension of Disbelief”
