: Re: Historical Present in English? As a historian, I at times get my fingers on Latin texts. Latin has a rather peculiar use of past and present tenses: Usually, texts are written in Imperfect,

As you presumably know, it is conventional in English to tell stories in the past tense. "Then Bob walked up the hill. He met Sally, who was wearing a red dress ..." etc.

You certainly CAN write in a "historical present" like Latin. "Bob walks up the hill. He meets Sally, who is wearing a red dress ..."

It sounds odd to the typical English reader. That can be good or bad.

I generally advise writers to avoid doing something weird just for the sake of being weird. Novelty like that wears off quickly and just becomes tedious.

If you think it accomplishes something in your particular story, then go ahead. I'd be cautious about writing a whole novel that way. But for scenes that you want to make more "immediate" or some such, it could be a good technique.

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: Re: Historical Present in English? As a historian, I at times get my fingers on Latin texts. Latin has a rather peculiar use of past and present tenses: Usually, texts are written in Imperfect,

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: British / American language mishmash English is not my mother tongue. I am completely fluent in English though, and I write my fiction in English. Here's the problem: I live in neither the

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