Where did all this first-person present tense come from?

[HareBrain]

(Thanks TDZ for the inspiration)

In the first year of a writing course back in 1999, I wrote some short stories in first-person present tense. That mode seemed to fit those stories, but I couldn't imagine writing a novel in it, and I couldn't think of anyone who had.

When I did start a novel in that mode, in about 2003, the only other I'd come across written like that was David Mitchell's Number9Dream (still an example of how it should be done, in my view). I even tried to convert mine to past-tense because it felt so freakish. And when Helen Dunmore's Ingo came out in 2006, I believe it was still fairly uncommon even in YA (though I might be wrong and would welcome correction).

Suddenly it seems to be everywhere, not only in YA but recent successes in adult romance too.

I've nothing against it when done well, but ... why this sudden massive popularity? Surely it can't be that no one thought of it or tried it before a few years ago? Or was that the case -- did no-one think it was workable before a massive success (Hunger Games maybe?) opened up the possibility? Or has there always been more of it around than I realised?

Those who prefer to write in it, when did you start (or convert), and why?

 

[Mouse]

Hunger Games probably, yeah.

Because I know someone's bound to say they like it because it's 'immediate' and 'close,' I'm going to jump in and say I personally find it really distancing and a little bit patronising.

That said, I don't mind reading it when part of the novel is also in past tense. I'd also rather read 1st present than 3rd present (which really sets my teeth on edge!)

And saying all that, I don't mind writing in it. (Though I've never, and probably wouldn't even consider, writing in 3rd present).

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I know the feeling when I did NaNoWriMo in 2009 and wrote in first-person present tense I felt like a Billy No Mates.

November 2012 and the boards were full of present tense stories.

Why is my book in first person present tense? Umm... it kind of mutated that way. I had never heard of the Hunger Games but Angus for whatever reason works better in present tense than past tense. He's a very bull in the china shop style character and personally, I find he works at the wrong pace in past tense.

I have just rewritten the first three chapters in past tense (a couple of agents have said they will look at it if I change it) and I hate it.

My urban fantasy I am experimenting with writing parts of it in third-person present tense. (It is split between the 1940s and the 1980s) Again one of my characters works really well with the tense change.

 

[ctg]

HB I'd way it's a trend and as soon as you have done your piece in first person present, there's some other trend. So follow your muse and keep writing in tense that suits your story best.

 

[BetaWolf]

I'd think second-person present would be better for thriller, but I never could make it work. It would have to be hypnosis or something I think. "You walk down a dark, scary street. . . . What did the killer look like?"

Present-tense would work in first person for diaries, which I tried to write a story in, or something innovative like putting together text messages? Epistolary fiction used to be a thing IIRC. "Dear Lauren, Prison is a cold, lonely place. I have a methane stove and the wooly mammoth skin that you sent me to keep me warm. . . ."

 

[HareBrain]

Because I know someone's bound to say they like it because it's 'immediate' and 'close,' I'm going to jump in and say I personally find it really distancing and a little bit patronising.

I think immediacy and closeness are all in the skill of the author. If people are choosing FPPr in the belief that it automatically guarantees their work will have those qualities, then they're falling into a trap. Maybe the ones you find distancing are because those authors made that mistake and were lazy because of it.

I know the feeling when I did NaNoWriMo in 2009 and wrote in first-person present tense I felt like a Billy No Mates.

November 2012 and the boards were full of present tense stories.

That does suggest Hunger Games (out in 2009) as a big influence. Anyone know why Suzanne Collins chose it?

HB I'd way it's a trend and as soon as you have done your piece in first person present, there's some other trend. So follow your muse and keep writing in tense that suits your story best.

I've no intention of using it (unless I go back to that 2003 novel); I'm just curious.

I think it does suit some stories and writers, but I also suspect some writers are using it just because it's popular, and without paying much attention to its advantages and restrictions. I was puzzled a couple of times when reading Lauren Beukes's Zoo City when the present-tense narrator says "I will come to regret this", as though with hindsight. It's not impossible for a narrator to use present tense to relate a story that happened in the past, but what's the point?

 

[Brian G Turner]

I suspect the big reason why the immediacy works in the Hunger Games is because the entire story is built around multiple tensions.

 

[HareBrain]

I suspect the big reason why the immediacy works in the Hunger Games is because the entire story is built around multiple tensions.

One of which is, will the MC survive? A question that wouldn't have been raised in FPPast.

About ten years ago, I read a book which was a collection of first-person narratives, all in past tense but one. When that present-tense chapter started, my first thought was "dead man walking" and so it proved.

If FPPr was not common when Collins wrote Hunger Games, then its use might have been intended to spark a similar suspicion in the minds of its readers, i.e. that the MC would be killed. Which, if true, was very clever.

 

[Mouse]

A question that wouldn't have been raised in FPPast.

Why? I've read a book with several first-person past tense narrators and a couple of them die.

I know the supposed reasoning, btw. Just making a point.

 

[HareBrain]

Why? I've read a book with several first-person past tense narrators and a couple of them die.

I assume they stop narrating before they die, and it then switches to someone else? You couldn't have it in a story with only one narrator (unless they're speaking from beyond the grave).

 

[Mouse]

They do die in other POVs, yeah. But (and I've not read Hunger Games) why couldn't missus have written it in first past? I have no idea how many POVs she uses, but if it's just the one I'm sure she could've used more. From what I've heard there are a lot of characters and a lot going on. I wouldn't presume that first present meant the character might die. I'd be more likely to think the opposite. (Cos seriously, what would it be in present tense?! I'm dying! The End).

 

[Hex]

I've said this many times before, but I love first person present. I'm not sure why.

Most of the time I'm not aware of the tense I'm reading in unless the author does something really clunky -- I even manage to miss changes into second person -- but most stories I have read in first person present have felt more alive to me and more engaging (get me contorting to avoid the words 'immediate' and 'close') well before I've worked out which tense they're in.

I often hear stories told in present tense around here -- is that common elsewhere? ("So we're walking down to the beach and there's this whale in a featherboa, and he stops dancing when he sees us and he says...").

I had a complete love affair with first person present after I read The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Hunger Games trilogies -- I read all six books in one long orgy of fpp -- but I think that obsessive love has faded somewhat.

I dunno. Some things just write that way.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

One of my favourite books is in first, present. Others aren't. To me a good story is a good story regardless of the method of telling. And whilst the market might be rife with it, I don't think it reduces the chance of other stuff selling.

Mouse, Before I Die does first present right up to the death and it is very, very well excuted, especially the last six pages or so (with about 200 words on them ,at most.)

 

[HareBrain]

But (and I've not read Hunger Games) why couldn't missus have written it in first past? I have no idea how many POVs she uses, but if it's just the one I'm sure she could've used more.

There are only really two candidates for POV, and she couldn't use the bloke because one of the tensions is us (and the MC) not knowing how he feels about the MC and whether he's really on her side.

(Cos seriously, what would it be in present tense?! I'm dying! The End).

Er, well in the one I referred to above, yes, pretty much!

I often hear stories told in present tense around here -- is that common elsewhere? ("So we're walking down to the beach and there's this whale in a featherboa, and he stops dancing when he sees us and he says...").

Yes, I think of that as "pub first-person-present" (for no good reason), which is relating the past in present tense. But I always assume FPPr in a novel is intended to suggest events being relayed as they happen. Though, as with Zoo City, I'm not sure that's always the case.

Some things just write that way.

I agree. But wouldn't it always have been the case? The question behind the original post was why were so few published stories like that until recently?

 

[Mouse]

Er, well in the one I referred to above, yes, pretty much!

Then that sounds crap!

All I'm saying is, if I read a book in first present, I would presume the narrator lived. So if people are writing in it for that reason...

I agree with Hex's 'some things just write that way' and prefer that as an answer. I only ever write in first person present when it just 'comes out that way.'

 

[AnyaKimlin]

That does suggest Hunger Games (out in 2009) as a big influence. Anyone know why Suzanne Collins chose it?

I would guess like Hex said that it just wrote that way.

I've never chosen a POV or a tense for my stories they just start writing that way.

Maybe it has always been that way but other authors have been in the position I am now. With multiple agents saying they will look at it again if I put it into past tense. The Hunger Games has given me some strength to withstand it for now.

 

[BetaWolf]

The first story that I ever wrote for a creative writing workshop was about a soldier in the eighteenth century. He dies staring up at the sky after a bayonet ripped into his innards. I never published it, because I couldn't figure out at age 19 whether to kill him off there or let him finish watching the battle as a ghost.

I don't mind the idea of a ghostly narrator, actually, HB. I have my own notions of the hereafter, but I'm a bit worried about miffing the readers, especially if I'm writing sci fi.

 

[Hex]

I agree. But wouldn't it always have been the case? So why were so few published stories like that?

There was All Quiet on the Western Front in 1929...

I think stories present themselves (to me) like that because I'm reading a lot of it (recently read Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, and wept and wept). Perhaps when the fashion passes and I'm reading less, I'll also write less.

EDIT: Anya, I'm impressed by your principles. If I'd got that sort of feedback, I'd be rewriting like a shot!

Another edit: maybe the change happened in what agents/publishers were likely to consider as much as in what people wrote?

 

[nightdreamer]

First-person present is one of those perspectives, along with all second-person, that strike me as a bit weird, or, most optimistically, experimental. I've seen them work. I remember one story done in second-person present that was quite effective, but apparently not effective enough for me to remember what it was. And then there was a short story that switched back and forth between first-person present and past along with flashbacks, or something akin to them, and did so with startling effectiveness. Unfortunately, I don't remember what that was, either. I thought it might have been "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," but when I looked it up, I found that it wasn't.

Unless the work demands an unusual perspective, I'm usually more impressed with the author's trying to be cute or just different more so than the story. In that sense, it's a distraction for me and suspension of disbelief is likely to go out the window. It may be safer to stick with traditional first- or third-person past unless you have something that just can't come across properly that way.

 

[Hex]

Does that make people who write in past tense deliberately different and conservative (/anti-cute) now? If so many successful books are fpp, then why would an author deliberately buck the trend...?