I'm about to start writing a first person 'fic, obviously Harrycentric, but have a problem - because of the age he's at when the story begins, I have to narrate from an older Harry's point of view or make him far too eloquent for his age.

Past tense would work, but I want to try writing it in the present tense as a writing exercise and in an attempt at giving the 'fic a faster, more action-oriented pace. I'll never reach Wastelands of Time standards, but was wondering whether anyone thinks this would work, or would be too offputting to allow any readers to become immersed.

In short, Future!Harry telling the story, or Present!Harry telling it, and I pretend that he's secretly far more well-spoken than canon shows?

Or am I being a retard here over something which doesn't matter?

 

Meh, it is mostly just personal preference, but I absolutely hate first person present tense fiction. Actually, pretty much present tense in general. Just always feels off putting.

There's obviously no prescribed method. I'll be really helpful and say that whatever seems best to you is probably best.

Unless you're an idiot. So don't be an idiot.

 

What Zennith said; first person OR present tense.

 

First-person present tense can work in some settings (the opening scene and last chapter of my A Mother In Law's Love are in first-person present tense), but it probably won't do in the story you're trying to tell. It sounds like you're going to be spanning childhood to adolescence and you'll be forced to tell a story from a child's POV, which is very limiting (and annoying for some readers). Using an adult-voiced Harry in a child's body would be wrong; to do an adult-voiced Harry in this context, you need the artifice of a past-tense narrative to make it seem as if the story were being told at some point in the future. Such a narrative would be most natural in past tense.

For what you gain in writing present tense, you lose something too. I've found that time skips, either forward or backward, are tricky to pull off in present tense without the form getting in the way. You also can't inject bits of the future or foreshadowing that have a temporal nature to them. ("In the days ahead, I'd come to regret this decision...") And, importantly, you'll lose around a third of your readers because of your choice of tense.

 

Thanks for all the responses - especially Perspicacity. You pretty much summed up what I was thinking, all I needed was confirmation to drop the idea. I'll try first person past tense for now, but tense errors are likely to slip in.

Hopefully there'll be a grammar nazi in WBA, ready and willing to slap me with his cock and point out my little fuck-ups.

Edit: is posting smaller sections on-the-go in WBA a good idea, or should I wait until I have a whole chapter?

 

Depends how long your chapters are. My opinion is that for a thread starter unless you start off with a bang, try for at least a full if not two full chapters. For updates I consider anything over 3k words worth posting on its own, but really just go by your own schedule/preference.

 

Sound advice. Again, thank you.