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kateelliottA few months back I asked youns* about point of view (which you preferred, didn’t like, or if you didn’t care as long as the story worked), and you had, as always, lots of interesting comments and no lack of opinion.
Most of you said that as long as it worked, it worked, although a few opined that present tense read a bit dodgy for their tastes.
For myself, I find present tense difficult to read, and I have long felt (based on no empirical evidence) that the second person present tense might be the most difficult of all to pull off.
So, imagine my surprise when I picked up Charles Stross’s Halting State, a novel which broke out in its USA publication and sold better (I believe he said, he can correct me if I am wrong) than any of his other books (so far), to find it written in--yes--second person present tense.
It’s a murder mystery set in early 21st century in Edinburgh** and it has to do in part with online gaming worlds as well as ubiquitous levels of communication interface and information (the notion of CopSpace is pretty creepy but alas all too feasible as a speculation). For the first 30 or 40 pages I was conscious of the second person present tense style; then, as I got used to it and the rhythms it created within the narrative, it began to seem transparent and even normal, the way all novels ought to be written.
So in honor of the January 08 release of Halting State in the UK market by Orbit Books, I asked Stross what on earth possessed him to write a novel in second person present tense and how difficult it was to manage it. Here are his concise answers:
1) Why second person present tense? Did you set out to write it that way, or fall into it? I couldn't help but wonder if to some extent it tries to emulate the experience of being online real time.
Did you ever play the original Colossal Cave adventure? Or any other text adventures? These were the first computer games to have any kind of narrative content, and their natural voice is second person present tense. It seemed like the right way to tell a story about gaming ...
2) What were the chief challenges in writing second person present tense? Did you find yourself slipping out of it, or once you hit your stride did it just flow naturally?
It took a while to click, but when it did, it turns out that second-person is just a variant on first-person: you have to avoid interior colouration -- you can't tell your characters what they think or feel or you risk blowing the reader's suspension of disbelief out the window -- but after a while it starts to flow easily (so easily I kept slipping back into it and having to go back and fix things in my next novel!).
*I lived in central Pennsylvania for about 8 years
**It was quite interesting to read this novel right after reading Ian Rankin’s The Naming of the Dead, which is also set in Edinburgh. I felt right at home (not that I’ve ever visited Edinburgh).
Most of you said that as long as it worked, it worked, although a few opined that present tense read a bit dodgy for their tastes.
For myself, I find present tense difficult to read, and I have long felt (based on no empirical evidence) that the second person present tense might be the most difficult of all to pull off.
So, imagine my surprise when I picked up Charles Stross’s Halting State, a novel which broke out in its USA publication and sold better (I believe he said, he can correct me if I am wrong) than any of his other books (so far), to find it written in--yes--second person present tense.
It’s a murder mystery set in early 21st century in Edinburgh** and it has to do in part with online gaming worlds as well as ubiquitous levels of communication interface and information (the notion of CopSpace is pretty creepy but alas all too feasible as a speculation). For the first 30 or 40 pages I was conscious of the second person present tense style; then, as I got used to it and the rhythms it created within the narrative, it began to seem transparent and even normal, the way all novels ought to be written.
So in honor of the January 08 release of Halting State in the UK market by Orbit Books, I asked Stross what on earth possessed him to write a novel in second person present tense and how difficult it was to manage it. Here are his concise answers:
1) Why second person present tense? Did you set out to write it that way, or fall into it? I couldn't help but wonder if to some extent it tries to emulate the experience of being online real time.
Did you ever play the original Colossal Cave adventure? Or any other text adventures? These were the first computer games to have any kind of narrative content, and their natural voice is second person present tense. It seemed like the right way to tell a story about gaming ...
2) What were the chief challenges in writing second person present tense? Did you find yourself slipping out of it, or once you hit your stride did it just flow naturally?
It took a while to click, but when it did, it turns out that second-person is just a variant on first-person: you have to avoid interior colouration -- you can't tell your characters what they think or feel or you risk blowing the reader's suspension of disbelief out the window -- but after a while it starts to flow easily (so easily I kept slipping back into it and having to go back and fix things in my next novel!).
*I lived in central Pennsylvania for about 8 years
**It was quite interesting to read this novel right after reading Ian Rankin’s The Naming of the Dead, which is also set in Edinburgh. I felt right at home (not that I’ve ever visited Edinburgh).