If you have read any of my stories, you’ll notice that I write in the “Present Tense”.

What does that mean?

It means any action is in the here and now, that I’m telling you a story as it happens. My style of storytelling evolved from playing Dungeons & Dragons when the DM (Dungeon Master) is narrating an adventure for the players. We can also find this intimacy in storytelling around a campfire telling ghost stories. And while this style has worked for me, times are changing.

I hope to have a novel ready for beta readers by year’s end, and on the advice of a good friend I will switch my style for this project. While you can write a novel in the Present Tense, most are in the Past Tense (the author is telling a story that has already happened) and will have a better chance of being picked up by a publisher.

The struggle is real.

On the wrong side of forty and trying to reprogram my brain to narrate a story differently has brought back some painful memories. It wasn’t until grade three that my teachers realized that I could barely spell my name. What followed was three years of being placed in “general education” where I spent grades four through six working to catch up to my peers. I have many unpleasant memories of crying at the kitchen table after supper as my parents tried their best to help me with my extra studies, and this latest exercise in switching tenses brought all this back.

I’m sure there will be just as many tears of frustration this time around as last, but with hard work, the support of my writing friends, I’ll make this shift in my brain.