When I first renewed my love of writing fiction several years ago, I had a nasty tendency to write in first person, present tense point of view.

I didn’t do it deliberately–that was simply the way the words came out.

It was only once I discovered first person, present tense is considered risky that I had to stop and ask myself why I was using it. Or, for that matter, why I would choose any particular point of view or tense.

One blogging literary agent says:

…[P]resent tense is not a reason I categorically reject a novel submission. But it often becomes a contributing reason, because successful present tense novel writing is much, much more difficult to execute than past tense novel writing. Most writers, no matter how good they are, are not quite up to the task.

I knew I needed a better reason than, “First person, present tense just comes naturally.” I had to ask myself:

1. What do I want to achieve with this story?
2. What point of view is going to help me best achieve that?
3. What tense is going to be most appropriate? … click here to continue reading >>

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