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Creative Writing: Using Pluperfect Tense
by Laraine Anne Barker

Pluperfect tense refers to when the writer of a story told in past tense needs to reach further back into the past, perhaps before the story began--in other words, a flashback. Beginner writers usually take great pains to stay doggedly in the pluperfect until their flashback ends. This can produce some decidedly odd writing:

Jane sighed with pleasure, remembering the evening before -- a birthday she would never forget. Mum had cooked all her favourite foods. The table had almost groaned under the weight of all the dishes and presents, particularly the parcel from Dad. The family hadn't even managed to start eating when the phone had rung. It had been Dad calling from America to wish Jane a happy birthday and ask if she had received his present. In Jane's opinion, the news that he had finished the job and was coming home had been the best birthday present he could possibly have given her. The whole family had been so excited they had forgotten the time and had kept him on the phone until the dinner had gone cold and Mum had had to reheat it.

Now, abruptly realising she was daydreaming when she should be writing letters of thanks to Aunts Judith and Geraldine...

Copyright © 2001 Laraine Anne Barker

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