Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Many writers (and publishers) frown on the present tense.
Princeton Professor emeritus Robert Fagles's new translation is in the present tense: "I think it's a poem about heroism and empire, about the glory of imperial hopes and the pain of having imperial hopes dashed.... I wanted to convey something about the modern understanding of war, and then about a man, an exile, a common soldier left terribly alone in the field of battle," Fagles says. "Aeneas is like Clint Eastwood, like Gary Cooper, a warrior and a worrier. He changes into the heroic tragic man, duty and endure, endure and duty."
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My novel WHEELS is present tense and it is selling very well to schools around Australia - it is for early secondary readers, primarily boys, and the present tense was never an issue. I like to write in present tense, with flashbacks, which keeps the pace going but still allows breathing space. I do however find writing in present tense tricky - it is easy to slip. Reading the text outloud helps over come this problem.
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