06-18-2012, 09:24 AM | #46 | |
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06-18-2012, 09:56 AM | #47 |
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There's a difference between taking on board opinions which differ from one's own, and talking to people politely. It is possible (and, dare I say desirable?) to be able to hold civilised conversations even with people who do hold differing viewpoints.
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06-18-2012, 12:01 PM | #48 |
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Another big mistake of new authors is getting scene tense correct. IE, has vs have. Oddly enough, even I struggle with that somewhat. I think part of that comes from the way we speak. In literature we're required to exact perfect grammar. In speaking, not so much. I've gotten away with using things like "me and you" vs "you and I" so often it hurts. Or using mishmash hack words. For example, around here it's very, very common to use "fer" instead of "for", "gonna" instead of "going to" (I even use this word a bit in my writing because it just flows better in dialogue), "should've" instead of "should have" and so on.
On the flipside you can also get so cautious about using wrong words that you go overboard and start mentally eliminating conjunctions you should be using, such as writing "he had" instead of "he'd", or "we are" instead of "we're". I'm guilty more of this than the first, but I still do both periodically. |
06-18-2012, 05:35 PM | #49 |
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Tense is something I often have problems with. For example, if you write in the past tense about something which is still the case.
If I'm writing a brief review - bad memory - of a book I've just read, should I say: "While I read this book I became totally absorbed by the sense of place which (was or is? The book still exists.) depicted with small telling details by the author." This is a bad example; but I can't think of anything better right now. |
06-19-2012, 08:20 AM | #50 |
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06-19-2012, 08:45 AM | #51 |
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Right, since there's already one past tense verb in the sentence, you'd need to continue using past tense throughout it. The tricky ones are those which only have one word in the entire sentence which is tense related, and even more so if it's an arbitrary word such as is or was.
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06-19-2012, 09:16 AM | #52 | |
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I WAS a dog but now I AM a cat orThe dog is happy and the cat was sad Correct?
Last edited by VydorScope; 06-19-2012 at 11:46 AM. Reason: typo |
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06-19-2012, 10:52 AM | #53 |
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And what of the monkey?
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06-19-2012, 11:46 AM | #54 |
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06-19-2012, 11:52 AM | #55 |
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Mixed tense is alright to have, but I was referring to a sentence that would only have one instance of present or past tense.
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06-19-2012, 09:53 PM | #56 |
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I'm confused.
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06-19-2012, 11:54 PM | #57 |
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Well, this is probably a weak example, but this is what I mean by a sentence with single tense.
The cat was dead. The cat is dead. Multiple tense would be something like this. The cat was dead because it was not alive. The frog is not a reptile, but rather is an amphibian because of its nature. Mixed tense therefore would be like this. The door is open because it was designed to open automatically and will do so again. (past, present, and future in this example) I hope that explains what I was saying. ^_^ |
06-20-2012, 06:55 AM | #58 |
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Now I'm getting tense!
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06-22-2012, 07:07 PM | #59 |
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Sometimes I think I'm a wigwam. Sometimes I think I'm a teepee. I must be two tents.
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06-23-2012, 11:13 AM | #60 |
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I'd suggest everyone read Ted Chiang's - Story of Your Life for some fun with tense and viewpoint.
http://marianaeggers.com/files/tiechang.pdf |
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