Coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom.

[Maybo]

1. Coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom.
2. I came home, refusing to sleep in my teenage bedroom.

How do I know whether I should turn “come” or “refuse” into a participle?

 

[jutfrank]

Your question should be why the writer starts the sentence with Coming home.

It's basically another way of saying 'When I came home'.

 

[Holmes]

1. Coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom.

Your question should be why the writer starts the sentence with Coming home.

It's basically another way of saying 'When I came home'.

For that meaning, I'd strongly prefer the sentence with "on" or "upon" before "coming home."

1a) On coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom.
1b) Upon coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom.

 

[jutfrank]

For that meaning, I'd strongly prefer the sentence with "on" or "upon" before "coming home."

What would you say the meaning is, then?

1a) On coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom.
1b) Upon coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom.

Don't you think those prepositions give a stronger sense that the second clause takes place after the first? I take it that the sentence is equivalent to saying 'During the time that I was back at home ... '

(Perhaps I've misunderstood what you mean, @Holmes.)

 

[Holmes]

Don't you think those prepositions give a stronger sense that the second clause takes place after the first?

Yes, I do. I am supposing that the intended meaning of (1) is that the process of coming home was complete at the time the refusal took place.

The actual meaning of (1), by contrast, seems to me to be this: "While coming home, I refused to sleep in my teenage bedroom."