: Re: Tenses I should use in a translated-novel I have been translating a novel that is originally written in my native language into English. Considering that the book's plot is the author's experience

Most stories in English are written in the past tense. If it happened five seconds ago, it's still past.

Occasionally writers put a story in the present tense with the idea that this will give a sense of immediacy. If done well it can certainly work, but it's unusual, and any unusual writing style tends to be distracting.

So my short answer would be: Use past tense unless there is a specific reason to do otherwise.

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: Old English is OE or OEng. Middle English is ME or MidE or MidEng. Early Modern English is EModE or EModEng. Modern English is ModE or ModEng. There's significant variation because

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: Alternatives to "he said" in dialogue I'm working on my first fiction story. And one mechanical thing I struggle with is how to identify the speakers in dialog without constantly saying "Bob

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: Steven Johnson's DevonThink writing workflow: is creating & accumulating 50-500 word snippets worth the effort? Steven Berlin Johnson talks in this much cited article about his research workflow

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: It's conventional to drop the "umm"s and "you know"s and correct obvious grammar errors. Like if someone says in a speech "Senator Jones say he will ..." I think most reporters would correct

: Re: Tenses I should use in a translated-novel I have been translating a novel that is originally written in my native language into English. Considering that the book's plot is the author's experience

More posts by @Annie587

: Old English is OE or OEng. Middle English is ME or MidE or MidEng. Early Modern English is EModE or EModEng. Modern English is ModE or ModEng. There's significant variation because

: Alternatives to "he said" in dialogue I'm working on my first fiction story. And one mechanical thing I struggle with is how to identify the speakers in dialog without constantly saying "Bob

: Steven Johnson's DevonThink writing workflow: is creating & accumulating 50-500 word snippets worth the effort? Steven Berlin Johnson talks in this much cited article about his research workflow

: It's conventional to drop the "umm"s and "you know"s and correct obvious grammar errors. Like if someone says in a speech "Senator Jones say he will ..." I think most reporters would correct

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