Hello wonderful people.

The English language has three different persons, and three different tenses to write and speak in.

When it comes to writing, there are some styles that are more commonly used than others. This has impacted the way that writing has developed, and what we as readers expect from the books that we read.

First, let us look at the tenses and persons. Each tense and each person can be applied to each other. We have in essence nine different types or styles of writing.

The three persons are:
The first person, e.g. I am Saul.
The second person, e.g. You are Saul.
The third person, e.g. He is Saul.

The tenses are:
The future tense, e.g. It will.
The present tense, e.g. It is.
The past tense, e.g. It was.

Alone, they don’t mean much until you understand that they can be combined.

The first person can be applied to all tenses.

The first person future tense, e.g. I am going to the moon.
This style is used when we are talking or telling someone about what we plan to do. We use this type of speech when we are making plans.

The first person present tense, e.g. I am on the moon.
This style is used when we are telling someone about what we are doing now. We most often this style when talking about what is happening now, or helping people find us.

The first person past tense, e.g. I was on the moon.
This style is used when recounting events that happen to us. For that reason, we find that this style is used very often in fiction or some non-fiction especially memoirs.

The second person can also be applied to all tenses.

The second person future tense, e.g. You are going to eat your breakfast.
This style is used most commonly in giving instructions to someone, to a subordinate or a child.

The second person present tense, e.g. You are in the corner.
This style of communication is best used for describing the actions or the position of another.

The second person past tense, e.g. You went to the shops. This type of writing is most commonly used when recounting someone else’s adventure. If you want to write in the second person then this is the style of writing that is generally accepted.

The third person can also be applied to all tenses.

The third person future tense, e.g. Saul will open the door.
This style of writing is very cumbersome to use. It is most commonly used by teachers when issuing tasks to specific people or anyone in authority for that matter.

The third person present tense, e.g. Greg is jumping on the trampoline.
This is very infrequently used by most writers. It is used frequently in speech when reporting on something someone is doing most notably newscasters during a live broadcast or sports commentators.

The third person past tense, e.g. Zach jumped over the fence.
This the most preferred type of style of writing used, because it allows the person telling the story (the narrator) to tell any story that could be imagined.

The application of this is useful, especially when dealing with creatively written pieces. Most of our writing is written in the third person past tense style and as writers, we can change the tense in given circumstances.
Let me elaborate, in most books the style is the third person past tense. As a writer, we can use other tense styles in speech. Many of the examples I gave are speech-related, and writers do use them in speech with the intention of creating more realistic and believable dialogue and interactions between our characters.

Knowing that there are these types of style choices available will hopefully get you thinking about how you can experiment in your writing.

Keep writing,

Peter.