In what tense would you the plot of the book?

[klemsim]

hi teachers


A) Past simple is used for telling stories ( a series of completed actions ). But say you want to tell someone about the book you've read ( basically going over everything that happened in a book ), would you use past simple or would you use present tense or does it depend?


B) If you want to describe a character in book, its personality or appearance at the time the events in the book took place, would you use past simple or it depends?




Note - I'm asking these questions because I've read somewhere ( can't remember where ) that you have to use past simple, but if you search for specific book on wikipedia, they use present tense to tell the book's plot


thank you

Edit - Uh, I've just noticed that I've messed up the title

[Bridget]

A) Past simple is used for telling stories ( a series of completed actions ). But say you want to tell someone about the book you've read ( basically going over everything that happened in a book ), would you use past simple or would you use present tense or does it depend?

The present simple and continuous.

[Marius Hancu]

Both past simple + continous and the simple present + continous can be used for story telling.

With the present tense you bring the reader in the middle of the past action as it developed at that time. With the past you keep the distance/remoteness in time.

Read:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm#sequence
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sequence.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative

Also, why don't you open some of the online books at:
http://literaturepost.com/
and see how those great writers go about it. Best "theory."