A discussion cropped up in the CSFG novel writing group just recently on the topic of point of view and tense (ie, past, present, future) in prose. A question was asked about a decision to write in third person point of view and present tense, for the sake of greater immediacy in the storytelling while also handling several characters’ points of view.
The dominant convention in modern English language prose fiction is to write in third person point of view (him, her) and past tense. First person point of view (I, me) is relatively common, present tense probably slightly less so. Second person (you) tends to exist only in choose-your-own-adventures and occasional literary quirks. Future tense is virtually unseen.
All of the possible combinations of point of view and tense are (at least in principle) legitimate options. However, decisions to deviate from the dominant convention should always be based on the needs of the story at hand – for example, if the story needs an unreliable narrator, you’d choose to tell it in first person or, if you need to disguise whether the protagonist lives or dies at the end, you might opt for present tense, and so on.
There’s a trap here, though, which is that, for the writer, first person point of view and present tense can both seem like they give a story a greater sense of “immediacy” – like the events are happening right here and now, and you’re right in the thick of it. Sure they do, when you’re writing it, but that might not be the case for someone else reading the story.
Ian McHugh 