I've been in the throws of a huge amount of writing during the last four days. I've got a fairly long 'short' story that takes place during one day in the life of a cadet in a sci-fi setting only a century in the future. I've done a 3rd person viewpoint throughout the story, one that is able to wonder in and out of the heads and perspectives of characters. But mostly stays by that of the cadet. Since the beginning of the story I have alluded to an event in the boys past that has left him not only physically scarred, but dangerously crippled emotionally. Throughout the fairly long story I have not revealed any of the details, except in detailing how the boys' life became changed radically as he responded to the 'event' and grew up into a world that literally has no future. So I've finally written up the that point in the story arc where I have to reveal the event to the reader. The boy isn't exactly 'dreaming' in the sequence, but the effect is the same, possibly even more complex and meaningful to the reveal. He is in a meditative trance in a very strange place, after speaking to 3 unique attendants of the nature and the meaning behind the location. So since the reveal is in a sequence such as this, should I stay within the boy's head as he relives 'the event'? The 2 paragraphs above this reveal are written in 1st person italics, signifying the boy's thoughts before he enters the meditative trance. Should I stay in that 1st person viewpoint? will it work better for the reader than if the 3rd person narrator of the story told it? Should it be in present tense? or Past? I mean the boy is in a way, re-living the events, but I don't know how effective this part would be, as writing in present tense is an immense chore for me
I would do the flashback in third person past tense as well, to take the reader fully back into the scene. Switching to first person and/or present tense will constantly remind the reader that he or she is in a dreamlike state, not really there.
