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I write a lot in third person, a little in first person. I write in what I always called "immediate past tense", as in the event literally JUST happened an instant ago, so if Jim throws a ball at Tom and it hits Tom, the reader's perception is immediately after Jim threw the ball. When the reader finds that it hit Tom, it's immediately after the ball hit. So the timeframe is kind of like real life perception of the even the instant after it happened (since by the time we see or hear the ball hit Tom, it already happened, it's just that slight delay between the event and the perception of the event).

I have a specific project I'm working on, and looking back at a couple others I've put on the back burner for a while, that call ofr shifts in perspective, person and/or tense.

From the third person perspective where the reader is observing what's going on, I sometimes find it difficult to decide how to present that suddenly this part of the story is following another character CLEANLY.

For example, the last seven pages we've been with Jim, following his actions through the school. Now We're following Tom either at the same time as Jim's last seven pages or at another point in time. From a third person perspective this isn't usually DIFFICULT per se, but sometimes I'd like to find other ways to make this transition.

What brought this to my mind though, is a unique (in my writing experience at least) situation where I am switching from the third person immediate past tense, when following any other character, to a present tense first person with one specific character. Essentially, this character is unique in several ways within the story, and when perspective shifts to this character specifically (not just around them), the perception of the world becomes that of THIS character, in the immediate PRESENT tense. For these brief times, everything is NOW and everything is from THIS character's perspective.

I guess I have two questions really,

1. being still in the third person immediate past tense, anyone have suggestions for the switch of character/scene the story is following?

2. is it reasonable to think that the typical reader (assuming a moderately educated fantasy/science fiction genre audience) will be able to follow the switch of perspective to first person present tense, an then back to third person immediate past tense without much difficulty, and will this build the concept that this character is unique throughout the rest of the story?
Scott Luinstra
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