Verb tense in narrative and dialog

[Don]

"How to write" guidelines often advise aspiring authors to avoid passive verbs. They also advise against mixing verb tense within a paragraph.

My reading leads me to believe that fiction consists of dialog interspersed with narrative. Many (most?) authors use past tense for narrative and present tense for dialog (unless a character talks about his or her past or future). Can you think of any examples where this is not the case?

Given the different tenses used by narrative and dialog, isn't it inevitable for different verb tenses to appear in the same paragraph?

If narrative often uses past tense doesn't it force the (over) use of passive verbs such as "was?"

 

[The Judge]

I don't read "How-to" books so I've never come across this don't-mix-tenses-in-a-paragraph idea. I can't believe, though, that they're talking of tense changes between narrative and dialogue which are perfectly acceptable eg "I am still able to walk," she said as she hobbled downstairs. uses present tense in the dialogue and past in the narrative, and it would be equally OK with other variations such as future and present eg "I will be able to walk one day," she says as she pushes herself around in the wheelchair.

Rather, I imagine, they're worrying about sloppy tense changes within narrative, where the whole is written in eg past tense but a few present tense verbs crop up wrongly, or vice versa. There is in fact an increasing use of present tense for narrative, especially in YA novels, and that can cause problems if the tense is not handled correctly for instance regarding the passing of time.

I have seen critiques here on Chrons where members have suggested there is a problem with tense changes within narrative, because, for instance the continuing past tense occurs alongside simple past, but frankly they're wrong. As long as the tenses are used correctly, there's no problem with having both in the same sentence let alone paragraph.

The passive voice is a different issue, and has no relation to past tense. Nor is "was" of itself passive -- for the most part it's simply the past tense of "to be". I dealt with this in a post here The Toolbox -- The Important Bits

For anyone who wants to know more about the passive voice, there are posts about it in that Toolbox thread including this one https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/57185/page-2#post-2261715

Does that help?

 

[Don]

Yes it does indeed help. And I'll take a look at the links you posted. Danke.

https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/57185/page-2#post-2261715 displays "The requested thread could not be found."

 

[Toby Frost]

Very quickly: when used technically (not just to mean "weak"), "Passive" refers to people and things having stuff done to them, instead of doing stuff to others. It's not a tense but something called a "voice". The opposite of "passive voice" is "active voice". So:

"I hit Bob" and "Bob hit me" are both in the active voice, because the subject of the sentences ("I" and "Bob" respectively) are doing things to someone/thing else.

"Bob is hit by me" and "I was hit by Bob" are both in the passive voice, because the subject of the sentences ("Bob" and "I" respectively) are having things done to them.

Passive voice is sometimes used in official announcements to give a (rather artificial) sense of seriousness to what's being said. In fiction, it's often seen as less engaging and dynamic than active, but it can vary with circumstances. Also, passive can be less accurate. A sentence like "The guests were welcomed" is in the passive voice, and grammatically correct, but it doesn't say who welcomed the guests. "The host welcomed the guests" is in the active voice, and gives more information because it says who did the welcoming to the guests.

I hope that helps!

 

[HareBrain]

Also, passive can be less accurate. A sentence like "The guests were welcomed" is in the passive voice, and grammatically correct, but it doesn't say who welcomed the guests.

Hence its frequent use by officials.

 

[Don]

Hence its frequent use by officials.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Future plausible deniability is preserved when officials keep things ambiguous in the present.

 

[Biskit]

You took the words right out of my mouth. Future plausible deniability is preserved when officials keep things ambiguous in the present.

But if you want that to be properly official, it ought to be "The words were taken right out of my mouth."