I Hate My Narrative Choice

My only advice is to keep at it. If it helps (and you don't mind looking crazy if you write in public) read it out loud like you're talking to yourself. Hearing it outside of your head may help keep the tenses right. Also, remember this is draft zero, you're just getting it all out on paper so you can eyeball it (and get a shiny winner certificate). If the tense doesn't work for you in this draft, go ahead and make notes to change it in the edits. Remember, this draft doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be written.
Good luck!
-Kitty.

I agree with everything kitty said. I have read many pieces of advice from published authors that say they have rewritten books from different points of view and through different characters before finally finding the right one. Keep at it. I was the same way last year and I wanted to quit my book, but i slogged through. It wasn't pretty and I don't even have the courage to reread it yet, but by the end and still today I felt I learned very valuable lessons. Even if no one ever sees it.

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

Too funny! I'm doing the opposite! My first 3 books were first person, and now I'm trying 3rd person. It's a bit strange and odd (I've actually had a harder time connecting w/ my main character, though I'm getting the hang of it now), but I figure it's a good growing experience, which is why I chose to do it. Stick with it and good luck!

Haha. Maybe you could give me some tips on how to work first person? My tip for writing third person is this:

Imagine if you could narrate your own life in the third person. You would know every intimate detail about yourself and could recount it in a very precise manner. Now, apply that to all of your characters. I know it sounds really simple and is sort of like a "duh" thought for some people, but for me it really helps clarify the way I go about it, and definitely helps me connect to the character.

"Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others."
— Albert Camus

What I do w/ 1st person is imagine I'm that character writing a memoir about that particular period in my life. Then if you slip to present tense sometimes it makes sense because it could be something still happening (like if you say something like He is my best friend.

I will try your suggestion w/ 3rd person, thanks! I had a hard time writing anything of any length until I used 1st person, and then writing really flowed. But I figured it was time to try 3rd again, just to stretch myself if nothing else!

I am with you ... I am revising a story that I only partially finished before by rewriting it all in first person. Every word in every scene has changed, most the scenes have changed too, and I find I keep slipping into present tense. I also keep slipping into a "third-person" tone of voice, where the character doesn't sound like a character but a narrator.
Not trying to depress you, because what I've discovered is that it EASY to fix tense when you go back and reread your scene. Just some basic copyediting on the verbs. It isn't that hard to fix the voice, either, once I'm editing ... I just get the sound of the voice of this person I know in my head and then the wrong word choices become obvious.

So get the draft done. POV is easier to fix than you think, especially if you retype your next draft.

Julie