Present tense is good for immediate effect while past tense is the norm and truth be told, I'm writing a novel using the former but I occassionally wanted to do the latter due to writing habits. It's a bit of a dilemma for me so, any advice?
What point of view are you writing from? Generally, I think third person view works best with past tense and first person can work well with present (though it also depends on the storyline and plot).
Do what I do, use past tense for the story and switch to present tense during action scenes. Tense switching is perfectly fine as long as you know what you are doing.
Odds are you are fucking it up. There are very very few exceptions where it is acceptable for a narrative. And no, going from standard narration to combat does not warrant a change in tense.
Completely false. Past Tense and Present Tense did not affect the "pace" of your story. You can write with past tense and have a high moment as well as a low moment in the Present Tense.
That is false. The reason tense switching got such a bad rep is due amateur writers not knowing proper tenses and using incorrect tenses. Due to that negative stigma, many authors have avoided tense switching. Same with 1st person point of view, since amateur authors often choose 1st person point of view, many professional authors have chosen to avoid it not to be hit by the stigma. But there is nothing wrong with it grammatically. As for "warranting it", that is a ridiculous notion, The one who decides what warrants it or not is the author. That is part of the author's style which they develop for themselves. There is no right or wrong in style. Half the words shakepeare wrote he made up himself and did not exist in the english language. Was adding non-existent words when equivelant existed already warranted simply cause he wanted to make sonnets? But again, it is important to understand what you are doing. You can make up words if you know the words but they don't fit your need or intention. But making up words cause you don't know the proper word is a different story. The same applies to tense switching. It isn't about the pace, it's about the suspense, present tense keeps you in deeper suspense, while past tense gives you more freedom with words. Each has their advantages and disadvantages.
Suspense is the result of your writing style and techniques, which is, again, the pacing. Past Tense and Present Tense isn't the one who lower or build the suspense, your writing skill is.
Bad authors includes more or less all of us. I know how to avoid the noob traps at least. And tense swapping IS a noob trap. It is good and needed at times. But more often than not it is a narrative breaking mess. "I used to be an advanturere like you but then I took an arrow to the knee. Now I am a city guard and miss the old times." Thats how it is used 95% of the time.
Like all things in writing, they are simply tools, and yes it depends how you use a tool. Some people can hammer in nails with a screw driver better than most can with a hammer, but lets not pretend there is no difference between using a hammer and a screw driver for hammering in nails. Tense switching is not a noob trap, just most noobs don't know the proper tense to begin with and use whatever they come up with. Obviously things like tense switching in the same sentence can be pretty difficult to pull off for people, but tense switching during a change in scenes is much easier and shouldn't be a problem for most people who understand terms End of they day, we aren't writing professional works, writers should challenge themselves as long as they aren't over their head.
Actually, changing from past tense while doing a character narrative to present tense while doing descriptive is the correct way to do it. The character is narrating something that happened before from his point of view, so past tense while "at that moment" description scenes should be in present tense as it is happening "at the present time" from *the reader's point of view*. So there really is no call for an "exception" to doing things correctly since it SHOULD be done that way.
Writing present tense takes a bit of getting used to. It gets a lot easier after a bit and can be quite fun~ There might seem to be difficulty in describing a scene, but that’s just lack of familiarity on how to write it. Doing simultanious events are a bit tricky though
This. Since I'm doing my novel in present tense, I had a dilemma on how to deliver flashbacks or 'that happened earlier but she's only recalling right now'. An example is this: Situation: earlier: she cried when no one's around currently: she's facing her servant whom she discovered was there all along The paragraph: Fan Shuangxi's eyes grow wide while her muscles tense and relax at Granny Fan's emergence. It didn't cross her mind earlier that Granny Fan was lurking around. If she had known, she would have held back her breakdown instead of displaying her weakness to a stranger. I know that it is bad writing to mix your tenses in a paragraph but I always justify to myself that there's a reason why the tenses changed in mine. And indeed, it takes a bit of getting used to and is really fun once the adventure sets in but situations like what I've given above really makes me want to just give up and turn back to past tense.
Unless you really know what you're doing, just write everything in past tense. In the English language, it's extremely unnatural to see present tense writing so you're going to work hard to make up for it. Also, the tense isn't going to going to change a story in any meaningful way - Chinese books are almost always written in the present tense, but does it make a difference? You probably never even noticed because translators don't bother keeping the tense. Given all this, it should come as no surprise that abruptly switching tenses, especially for action scenes, is an even bigger no-no. I see two major problems with doing this. The first is that switching like this makes the writing seem amateurish and confusing. The second is that present tense is harder to parse, so it forces the reader to pay more attention to what is being written rather than following the flow of the action. So instead of making the action scene more exciting and tense, using present tense would be taking readers out of the action.
This too. I think I'll just go with the flow for now, whichever my writing and the story takes me I guess.
There is nothing amateurish or confusing about switching tenses, as long as you know your proper tenses and are capable of formulating it, there is no problem in doing so. Forcing the reader to pay attention actually brings them closer into the scene. This is precisely why many readers just skim through action scenes as there is nothing that brings people in. A change of attention is used in all forms of media, notice how when action starts the music in movies/tv shows starts changing to emphasize. Normally, this music would distract people in a film, but when bundled with an action scene adds to the suspense. Present tense does the same thing. It brings the reader in, changes the pace of their reading and increases their focus.
Switching tenses in something as fluid as a combat scene is utter and complete madness. If you want to shatter the flow you can do that. But why intentionally fuck up the quality of your novel? Whats next? Exposition dumps mid endgame fight?
reading your story aloud can help you figure out if something sounds off, or if you switch in the wrong circumstances. Don't know if that will help, but you can try it.