The Past in the Present and the Past

This week, Milton touches on a very tenuous aspect of building a character’s past. There is a difference between experiencing a past event from the perspective of the present, and experiencing the past in that moment, as if reliving the scene. It’s an important distinction because your relationship to the past event in the present is different than it was at the time it was happening. There are no hard and fast rules here. Often we move in and out of the past and present, as we do in life when telling a compelling story; and it’s a valuable exercise to talk out an event from both perspectives. But ultimately, how you experience the past is influenced by your relationship to it (then and now), and what you're doing in the scene.