In Describing Fiction
Summaries of the narratives (plots) of works of fiction are conventionally presented using the present tense rather than the past tense. At any particular point of the story, as it unfolds, there is a now, and hence a past and a future, so whether some event mentioned in the story is past, present, or, future changes as the story progresses; the entire plot description is presented as if the story's now is a continuous present. Thus, in summarizing the plot of A Tale of Two Cities, one may write:
- "Manette is obsessed with making shoes, a trade he learned while in prison."
Read more about this topic: Historical Present
Famous quotes containing the words describing and/or fiction:
“A family with the wrong members in control—that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“Space or science fiction has become a dialect for our time.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)