I have little to no idea about tenses and persons… I think I’m writing in third person, but apparently there’s more than one third person? How do I know which style is mine? What other ones can I try to see if they suit me?
Let me start by clarifying what you’re talking about by “tenses and persons.” These are actually “narrative tense” and “point of view,” and they’re not a style that you have so much as a style that you choose because it suits the story.
Narrative tense is basically the difference between when the narrator is telling the story and when the story, scene, event, moment, or action actually happened. If the narrator is “now” and the whole story took place ten years ago, the story will be told in past tense, because the events happened in the past. If the narrator is “now” and the story is actively unfolding, the story will be told in present tense. Here are some of the different tenses you’ll see in stories:
Past Simple: is the form of past tense you will see most often in a story. This would be like, “Alice followed the White Rabbit and watched him disappear down the rabbit hole.” It is used to describe something that began and ended in the past, like a vacation you took in 2006.
Past Progressive: is used to describe a past event or activity that is on-going during the scene being described. For example, “I was driving down the street when a large bug flew into my windshield.”
Past Perfect: is used to clarify that one action or event ended before another began. For example, “The lake’s water level had fallen three feet before residents became alarmed.”
Past Perfect Progressive: is used to describe an activity or event that was on-going but has now ended. For example, “I had been driving down the street when the bug flew into my windshield and caused me to slam on my brakes.”
Present Simple: is the form of present tense you will see most often in a story. This would be like, “Alice follows the White Rabbit and watches as he disappears down the rabbit hole.” It is used to describe action that is currently unfolding.
Present Continuous: is used to describe an activity that is on-going as the scene unfolds. For example, “Alice is following the White Rabbit, watching to see where he goes.”
Present Perfect: is used to describe an action or event that has ended but is currently relevant. For example, “Alice has followed the White Rabbit all day, and now he disappears down the rabbit hole.”
Present Perfect Continuous: is used to describe an action or even that started in the past but just ended and is still relevant, or will continue into the future. For example, “Alice is exhausted from chasing the White Rabbit all day.”
Point of view tells us who the narrator is and whose perspective the events are being filtered through.
First Person POV: tells us that the narrator is either the main character or another character who is involved in the story. The events are being filtered through the narrator’s perspective. For example, “I followed the White Rabbit all day, but I gave up when he disappeared down the rabbit hole.”
Second Person POV: the second person narrator can be a character in the story or not, but the reader is put into the position of the main character, so the events unfold as though from the perspective of the reader. For example, “You have been following the White Rabbit all day, but you give up when he disappears down the rabbit hole.”
Third Person POV: the third person narrator is not a part of the story. They can be known or unknown, but they either describe events as filtered through the character’s perspective (third person limited) or from a more detached, all-knowing perspective (third person omniscient.)
You can read more about point of view here.
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