Wednesday, December 2, 2009

It's getting a little TENSE in here

No, I'm not really talking tense in the high-strung, freaked out way. 

I'm talking about tense, as in past, present, future, etc. 

My novel is written in the present tense, but I find myself slipping into past tense every once in a while - and I'm not sure why! And my internal editor gets all "Hey, crazy lady, you're doing it again. Now go back and change all of that past tense crap you just wrote." And my disciplined I-will-finish-this-novel-if-it's-the-last-thing-I-do writer self gets puffed up and is all, "Hey, internal editor...SUCK IT!"

Does this happen to you? When you catch it, do you fix it? Or do you trudge on and fix it during the revision process? I already know what some of you (I'm looking at you, Katie Ganshert! ;p) would do, but feel free to chime in anyway!

7 comments:

  1. Oh, I definitely fix things as I go. I'm sure there are times when I shouldn't! But for the most part, as I'm thinking of the changes, I just go ahead and make them. Then I don't have to worry about whether I'll remember to make the correction later!

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  2. If I was on a roll, I would come back later. Ideas seem to vanish from my head if I don't download them straight away.

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  3. I fix as I go, but I imagine I would have lots of those occurrences if I was writing in present tense. My default brain setting is past tense, lol.

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  4. Well, how fun to see my name! I had to blink a couple times! Since you already know what I would say, I'll just say - go with your gut! Happy Wednesday to you, Beth!

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  5. I understand. Whoa, do I understand. ;)

    For the first half, I'm very... anal. I polish and fix. And then by the second half, I'm so ready to be done I become more lax. More fixes are yet to come with revisions, anyway.

    Good luck!

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  6. If I notice it right away I correct it, otherwise I mark it and go back later. I do that too, back and forth, and I don't know why. :0

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  7. I'm trying to write a tight first draft, so I review the previous day's work and fix any glaring errors. Works for me!

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