Tense--past versus present

Today's Mood: Cheerful. Today's Music: Simon and Garfunkel. Today's Writing: IFFY--climax chapter. (Yup, I'm writing out of order--amazement! awe! shock!) Today's Quote:

"The last time somebody said, 'I find I can write much better with a word processor.', I replied, 'They used to say the same thing about drugs.'"Roy Blount Jr.

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What are the advantages of using past tense over present tense? How does it change the writing? I've been working on this novel (IFFY) in present tense--mostly because that is what I am most familiar with--but I wonder if there would be an advantage in writing in past tense. Present tense makes it more immediate--you ARE the character and experience events as they unfold. But I wonder if writing in past tense would give a better sense of voice? I mean, then the character (since it is written in first person) would be TELLING the reader the story.

Sometimes I think using past tense would make it easier to winnow out the unimportant and just have the character tell the important parts--like all good storytellers do. I have a tendency to write a LOT of dialogue. Most of the story is dialogue--or at least, sometimes it seems so. And dialogue is one of the hardest things for me to write.

So what am I saying? That I want things to be easier and I'm wondering if I can do more telling if I use past tense? I don't know. What do you think?

Humorous Dialogue

Mood: Playful. Music: Dixie Chicks--Taking the Long Way. Writing: Revising chapter seven (actually, re-writing it is more accurate) Today's Quote: (inspired by RyterNRezdence's post Putting Pen to Paper (Metaphorically Speaking) )

"And yet." Those are my two favorite words, applicable to every situation,
be it happy or bleak. The sun is rising? And yet it will set. A night of
anguish? And yet, it, too, will pass. The important thing is to shun
resignation, to refuse to wallow in sterile fatalism." --Elie Wiesel

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How does a writer make a character and his/her dialogue funny when the writer is not a particularly funny person? I mean, I'm funny sometimes, but usually it's by accident. I have a good sense of humor, but I'm not witty. Yet at least one of my characters is--and I'm having difficulties (think tickling laughs out of the dry, blank page) writing dialogue that shows this part of his personality. I've tried asking my husband what he'd say in certain situations--because he is a witty person--but if I don't explain what I'm doing, he thinks I'm nuts. And if I explain (he still thinks I'm nuts), it kind of ruins that spontaneous comeback I'm going for. Still, I have to admit I'm having fun playing with that sort of tongue-in-cheek dialogue.

I'm also playing with cliches and folk sayings in this MS (manuscript). The MC's (main character's) mother is forever quoting some saying or another (All mothers do, don't they? I caught myself saying "Someone is gonna end up crying," to my daughters just yesterday!). I wonder about putting a glossary or appendix at the end of the book with the general meaning and origin of all the sayings/cliches used in the book. I don't know if that's a good idea or not--but it is pretty interesting to see where these common well-known phrases come from.

Anyway, I hope you are writing. And yet, there is always tomorrow.