Crashing, to me, puts me right there in the story, experiencing the thunder. Crashes, makes me feel like someone is telling me something they experienced (even though it's not past tense). Like perhaps they are telling me what's happening over the phone. Does that make any sense??
This is the problem I find with present tense, it can quickly confuse the action not just for the writer but eventually the reader ( I'm not dissing it, I use present tense a lot but it's tricky ). Crashing sounds continual, crashes sounds like one boom of thunder that could be over as it's even being told - Like car crash vs car crashing - so I wouldn't be as concerned with the grammar as I would be with intent. What's the intent you want for the sentence?
Either one can be either first or third person. The only thing that is clear is that they're present tense. John walks into the house. The thunder is crashing with such force that the house is shaking. John shuts the door, then collapses into the nearest chair. I walk into the house. The thunder is crashing with such force that the house is shaking. I shut the door, then collapse into the nearest chair. John walks into the house. The thunder crashes with such force that the house shakes. John shuts the door, then collapses into the nearest chair. I walk into the house. The thunder crashes with such force that the house shakes. I shut the door, then collapse into the nearest chair.
The only difference I get (on the first person) is with crashing, I imagine a crash and then a rumble and then another crash - ongoing thunder but with crashes, I get one crash of thunder and then it's over.
Interesting reading all the opinions here. Writers are a funny bunch. To my ear, the first sentence reads like thunder, plural, and narrated by whomever is telling the story. The second sentence reads like thunder, singular and narrated by the POV character. Both are present tense, but the style of writing with the POV character experiencing events in present tense would usually be the second one, though it's not required. It depends on the effect one is going for. The second sentence is more immediate: X happened just now. The first sentence: X is going on while other things are happening. That is what gerunds (ing words) are for, I believe, though the use is more narrow in Spanish and the grammar rules for gerunds are conflated between the two languages in my head. So thunder, singular vs plural seems to be the most significant difference. Done editing, I think.
Yes, because I said the same thing but called the crashing first person and the crashes third. But it's the same feeling in my ears as I read them as you outline here.
First person example: The thunder crashes, shaking the house. I run to the kid's room. They're asleep but the dogs are upset. Third person example: The thunder is crashing around the house. She runs to the kid's room.
I don't think you need "is crashing" for third person. You can do third person, present tense with that same language: "Jane lurches awake in the middle of the night. Thunder crashes, shaking the house. She runs to the kid's room." There is no difference in the OP's sentences in terms of POV. They're both present tense sentences that can fit into first, second, or third person points of view.
I did not mean to imply one couldn't use third person there, I was giving examples for @Aaron DC's benefit. See my earlier posts.
I don't really get the first person/third person thing here under discussion. So I'll just say that in both cases thunder is the subject, thunder is a singular object, and therefore thunder is third person singular, it. And that is why the Ss are showing up "is" instead of are/am and "crashes" instead of crash. There is a definite difficulty in English when it comes to -ing. Some adjectives end in -ing, sometimes we use this to mark continuation in a verb, sometimes it used to mark a verb acting as a noun (gerund). Sometimes, depending on the first verb used, we must use a gerund following verb. In both examples given, crash/crashing are verbs. "The thunder crashes." Present simple, used to talk about habits, routines, fact, schedules. "The thunder is crashing." Present continuous/progressive, used to talk about actions in progress in the moment of speaking and short term plans we haven't finished quite yet. "The thunder is always crashing." It is convention in English to switch to the PC when using the word "always" to add emphasis. In a story, however, the convention has been to use the past simple. When spicing things up, you can change that to the present simple, sure, but the present simple isn't going to be there for the same grammatical reasons as when you'd normal use it in day to day speech. You're basically just swapping out the past for the present but keeping the simple idea in place. You could write in the present continuous, but that might get tedious to read.
I'm not sure that that's entirely right (or perhaps it's right, but not entirely clear?). First and third (and second) person define the relationship between the narrator and the subject and/or object of a sentence, based on the pronouns the narrator uses as stand-ins. If no pronouns are used, the "person" isn't defined, which is the mistake I believe @lustrousonion made in his/her first paragraph. Not trying to tread on toes, so apologies if I have - trying to consolidate my own impression as much as anything, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
There's a confusion (and I'm blaming @Aaron DC ! - see below) between the "person" who is the subject/object of the sentence (as in "The thunder hid quietly under the bed" is clearly third person, whereas "I crashed noisily around the kitchen" is first) and the "person" who is the POV person (as in "Sam Spade walked slowly into the bar." is third person POV, whereas "They call me Sam Spade. They think I'm a detective, but really I'm just a narrator." is first person POV.) Some of us got hold of the wrong end of the stick, and - in other posts - the stick was held by someone else at the wrong end.
Ah, grammatical person vs narrative mode. Gotcha. I suppose I was talking about grammatical person. On reflection, I was wrong about it being undefined if no pronouns are used - it is third person. Apologies @lustrousonion and thanks for clearing up the confusion @Shadowfax
I wonder if it's ever this confusing for the readers? Perhaps, just sometimes, we should dismiss whether or not we mean to use an adjective, verb or noun with added dangling bits and just see how the sentence sounds. When you are leveling two objects together, there is no better tool than the end of your own finger to feel for discrepancies. Sometimes, all it takes is listening to something without micro-analyzing it, to tell if it 'works' or not. (hey, I've had two hours sleep and am now doing accounts paperwork. I'm allowed to sound like a hippy-chic-fairy today)
Sleeve notes to a Donovan LP...he preferred "some chic just listening to it and saying she liked it to some dipstick analysing it for hours"...and there's a lot to be said for "if it works, it works." It's only when it doesn't work that you need to take it to the hospital and hook it up to the MRI...otherwise known as analyse the grammar out of it!
Well that's hard to say, because most books are edited by professionals who know when an adjective is an adjective and when a verb is a verb. And while I'm fine with the Oscar Wildes out there who want to leave the wills and shalls up to their editors, I can't see how knowing hurts anyone. I think of grammar as a starting point. It isn't about "working", but having a baseline of understanding with the audience. Maybe you throw grammar out the window to make the story work, sure, but throwing something out the window requires having had it in your hands in the first place.
I'm not saying throw the grammar book out the window. The sentences we looked at were being dissected more minutely than anything CSi Grissom ever got his hands on without coming up with any real 'this is how to do it properly' answer. Sometimes there is no proper answer but we know what sounds right without knowing how to explain it. The thunder crashes around me as I crouch under the table, praying for it to end soon ... The thunder's crashing around me while I crouch under the table, shaking and praying for it to end soon ... The thunder crashed around her and made her shake as she crouched under the table and said a prayer for it to end ... The hairs on the back of my neck stand up as another crash of thunder erupts outside, causing me to push myself further under the table and scream out a prayer for it to stop ...
The crashes thundered around me as the cars piled up like so many police car pile ups before. Thank you Blue Brothers, I thought, as yet another black and white behemoth sailed overhead.
