Writer's Fallout Shelter

I'm with Talanis on this one. POV is important when you're talking ABOUT the character. When the character is THINKING it's completely from his own POV. Normal people don't think of themselves in 3rd. Normal people don't talk of themselves in 3rd. So unless there is some reason for the character to refer to themselves by name rather that ego it's accurate to write dialogue and thoughts in first person.

Past and present depends entirely on the situation. If they are thinking/speaking about the past the speak in past tense. If they're thinking/speaking about the future they use future tense and if they're thinking/speaking about the present they'd use present tense. Again, usually, there are mental or situational occassions when this rule too would get bent.

But mostly as writers we have a pretty free hand to do whatever we want. That's one of the great things about being a writer. I'd say just write the book/story/poem/whatever however it comes out. Usually it's close enough the first time. Sure you'll rewrite and tweak but if you edit from the beginning while you're writing you'll never fall into a smooth rhythm and find your voice.

Just to add emphasis to the paragraph above, "Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word." - Stephen King *winks* I know it's not the same thing but if you extend the concept it works for this too. If you have to labour over the point then your first opinion was probably the correct one.

Have fun and keep writing,
Yours truly,
Rebecca Laffar-Smith

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