POVs And Tenses: Which Ones Are Best?
If you’re literate, and you’ve read fiction at any point in your life, you’re probably familiar with tense and POV (Point Of View). Stories can either be written in past tense – “He walked to the fridge and looked inside” – or present tense – “He walks to the fridge and looks inside”.
Then there’s an array of POVs to choose from when authors write. Here’s a quick example of each one so we’re all on the same page, using a mix of past and present tense:
1st Person – “I walk to the fridge and look inside at those plums, my stomach grumbling.”
3rd Person Limited – “He walked to the fridge and looked at the plums. He was hungry.”
3rd Person Deep – “He walked to the fridge and looked at the plums. He was hungry. He knew his wife would give him hell if he ate the plums, but he could just leave an apology note for her later. She’d get over it.”
3rd Person Omniscient – ““He walked to the fridge and looked at the plums. He was hungry. Unbeknownst to him, his wife had entered the kitchen behind him. She watched, knowing he was going to eat those plums.”
There’s also 2nd person, but that’s relegated to Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books and edgelord tomes.
Today I’m discussing my most liked and most disliked POV/tense combos. Mind you, these are not the best ones, or the worst ones, just the ones that I happen to feel strongly about, as a reader. What do I know? I’m just some guy on the Internet.
Most-Liked Tense/POV: 1st Person Present
Shocking absolutely no one, the tense and POV my current series is written in is my favorite one. I know there are folks out there who absolutely detest present tense, but I love the immediacy of it. Not only are you right there in the narrator’s head, going on they journey with them, but you’re in the moment, experiencing what they do, as they experience it. I also enjoy that this tense/POV gives the reader a sense that no one is safe in genres where happy endings are not guaranteed and anyone can die. I don’t know if the POV character will make it because the future is literally unwritten.
Honorable Mention Tense/POV: 3rd Person Past
To further narrow it down, I prefer 3rd person Deep to the other varieties, because this tense gives the same sense of immersion that I enjoy about 1st person, except there’s a more elevated or serious quality to the writing in most cases. This is the tense I prefer to see in less conversational genres like Epic Fantasy, Historical Fiction or Literary.
Least-Liked Tense/POV: 3rd Person Present
Doesn’t matter if it’s Deep, Limited, or Omniscient, present tense is weird when the POV is 3rd person. The immediacy of present tense clashes with the inherent distance that 3rd person POV provides, and it confuses my brain. I’ve also heard this combo referred to as being like a sports announcer giving the play-by-play of the characters’ activities, and I think that’s a spot-on description. It’s the only tense/POV combo where I’m probably not buying the book if I see it used.
Dishonorable mention Tense/POV: 1st Person Past
I’m sorry. I know a ton of beloved books use this combo. I’ve read and liked many a book that uses this combo. And I would certainly buy a book that employed it. However, given the choice between this and 1st Person Present, I’m going for Present tense every time. Why? I kind of hinted at it above when I talked about 1st Person Present. The narrator speaking to me in past tense indicates that their adventure is already over, and they are somewhere, in the future and often in an unknown location, having clearly survived. In a genre where happy endings are expected, like Romance or Cozy Fantasy, that’s fine. But if it’s a Horror novel, I at least know the narrator survived the serial killer’s spree. This can sometimes be mitigated by a framing device such as a found diary or “You’re probably wondering how I got here,” but often the narrator’s current circumstances are left nebulous, and it’s a bit of a bummer.
What are YOUR favorite and least liked tense/POV combos? Let me know!
