So I'm currently in the process of rewriting some of the chapter in my book in the second person. In the first person they were written in the past tense, but for some reason past tense really doesn't seem to work in this instance. Would it be too confusing for the reader to write past events in the present tense? I've come across some examples of this before but just wondered what everyone else thinks?

Is that second person, present tense, but past events? It sounds more complicated than it probably is; it makes me think of people teaching about the war, ie.

"You've got to be there. You're in your house one minute, having supper or something and then the sirens go off and you know you have to leave everything right where it is, gravy and everything, and get into the shelter. So you run outside and ..." and so on. Is that the sort of thing? I don't know if I could put up with it for a whole novel.

I'm reading a present tense novel at the moment and time moves fine with it. Things happen as you read along, but you automatically put them in the past when you turn the page.

Colin M

Not talking about 2nd person specifically, but it's not that uncommon for fiction to be written in the present tense. I don't specially like it myself, but it does work, and as a reader you soon get used to it.

Thinking aloud about this: all fiction originally came from stories round the campfire, so I guess past tense is natural. However, you can tell a campfire story in the present tense. If it was a real event or the storyteller wanted to portray it as a real event, then the listeners would know it happened in the past even if the teller was telling it in present tense. But making it present tense still has an effect - perhaps immediacy?

Some people colloquially slip into present when telling a friend what happened to them on the way to work, don't they? "I'm just giving the bus driver my fare and this woman comes up to me and says she thinks she knows me from somewhere. And I look at her and I wonder if she was that bird I did in the bathroom at that party at Simon's two years ago..."

Deb

I think it's strangely normal to see books where the past events are in present, present action in the past - it seems to reflect memory well. And yes, second person works well in the present tense because it keeps the voyeuristic feel going.

second person works well in the present tense because it keeps the voyeuristic feel going.

Totally agree with that. Far creepier if you think of it happening now.

Deb

Well that settles it then.