Nine Voices, Nine Movies

Each of us speaks and writes without thinking. This is why so much of what we say is predictable. Do you want to be more interesting? Choose an unusual perspective and verb tense. A movie begins in the mind of the listener every time you speak or write. At whom is your camera aimed?

First Person perspective: “I, me, my, we, us, our.”
The person speaking is the star of the movie.

Second Person perspective: “you, your”
The person listening is the star of the movie.

Third Person perspective: “He, she, him, her, it, they, them”
A person other than the speaker or the listener is the star of the movie.

After you’ve chosen your star, you must decide upon the action. The verbs you use must be past tense, present tense or future tense. You should choose these verbs consciously, rather than unconsciously.

Past tense verbs speak of history.
Present tense verbs speak of action as it’s happening, play-by-play.

Future tense verbs are predictive.
Every story can be told with past tense, present tense or future tense verbs.

It was the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

It is the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.

It will be the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature will stir, not even a mouse.

Now let’s look at 9 different movies produced from a single script by using 3 different actors in each of 3 separate timelines.

1. I placed my hands in warm water and shivered.
(First person, past tense. Personal historical narrative.)

2. I place my hands in warm water and shiver.
(First person, present tense. I’m doing it right now.)

3. I will place my hands in warm water and shiver.
(First person, future tense. Predictive of the speaker’s future action.)

4. You placed my hands in warm water and I shivered.
(Second Person, past tense. An historical story about the listener.)

5. You place my hands in warm water and I shiver.
(Second person, present tense. The speaker describes what the listener is doing as it is happening.)

6. You will place my hands in warm water and I will shiver.
(Second person, future tense. A story about what the listener will do in the future. This voice is predictive or prophetic.)

7. She placed my hands in warm water and I shivered.
(Third person, past tense. An historical story that describes the actions of a person that is neither the speaker nor the listener)

8. She places my hands in warm water and I shiver.
(Third person, present tense. The speaker is describing what someone else is doing as it is happening.)

9. She will place my hands in warm water and I will shiver.
(Third person, future tense. A story about the actions of others that have not yet occurred. Again, predictive or prophetic.)

The voice and perspective of a story are transformed with every change of actor and timeline. You have now seen the nine movies and heard the nine voices. You have forever changed. You are different now. You carry magic. You will speak with authority and people will listen.

This is my benediction, crafted in the second person, traveling in just five sentences through the past and the present and seeing your future.

That sixth sentence, of course, is entirely present tense: confirming my present… to you.

Roy H. Williams