Present tense book 1 & Past tense book 2?

by Melinda Tung
11th February 2017

Hi all,

I writing a squeal, Book 1 I've written it in present tense, can I write Book 2 in past tense?

Any advice and comments are very much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Kind regards,

Melinda

Replies

Is book 2 a sequel to book 1, if so probably makes sense to be in same tense.

or is it a prequel? in which case then it would probably be in past tense.

If they are different then why should you worry about them being different?

who gave the advice to write in the past tense? If the advice was given to improve the books chances of getting published

Depending on how long the story is I wouldn't think it would be too onerous to edit book 1 into past tense then decide what to do?

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Jeremy
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Jeremy Gavins
12/02/2017

Hi Sylvia,

Thanks for your comments. Book 1 isn't about events in the past, it just that I've written it in present tense. But later received advice that it's easier to write in past tense. So I was thinking maybe I'll write Book 2 in past tense.

I'm not sure is this acceptable, or should I follow through and write in present tense.

I look forward to your comments.

Many thanks.

Kind regards,

Melinda

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Melinda
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Melinda Tung
12/02/2017

I'm a bit confused by this.

If book 1 deals with events that happened in the past, and book 2 deals with events happening now, I would have expected book 1 to be written in the past tense. Then it would be reasonable to write the sequel in the present.

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Sylvia Neumann
12/02/2017