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

With multiple agents saying they will look at it again if I put it into past tense.

Given the form's current apparent popularity, that does seem strange. Do they say why?

OK, so what I've got so far is:

1. Before Hunger Games, FPPr was seen by authors and publishers as being a risky choice, and few books were published like that.
2. Then Suzanne Collins used the form for HG, for whatever reason, and the book's popularity made the form acceptable. (Edit, Knife of Never Letting Go predates HG by a few months. I don't know which became a hit first)
3. Now authors feel able to use FPPr if they want, some because it suits the story, some (perhaps) more because it's fashionable.

What I'd really like to know now relates to the first point, and Anya's comment. Prior to 2009, were authors avoiding FPPr deliberately, because it was uncommon? Were they trying to publish in it and getting rejected? Or did it just not occur to most people as a useful choice?
 
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?

Oh I did try I rewrote the three chapters but I hate it and realised if I am going to rewrite it again I may as well finish a different story.

I do agree the change is in what will be considered rather than what is wrote.
 
Given the form's current apparent popularity, that does seem strange. Do they say why?

"Unfortunately we do not feel that we are in a position to give you the support you require. There is a great deal to like about Mayhem, but I'm afraid I didn't feel sufficiently passionate about the writing. I wasn't quite sure you'd settled on the right narrative voice."

This was the latest so I emailed them back and asked if it was specifically present tense and would they consider it if I rewrote it into past tense. They said yes but no further knowledge.

They've all been similar - simply they would reconsider if it was in past tense.

I'm still holding onto my dream agent who didn't object to the present tense, felt it was too similar to a story she already had but described it as original, told with verve and panache and wanted me to keep going because I had a lot of talent.
 
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...? ;)

Not at all. There are lot of past-tense books where the author was trying to be cute, too. It's just that if you're going to do something unconventional, it should be justified, just as I wouldn't write in red ink unless it was essential to the story. I find most present tense and virtually all second person to be tiring. Since they're unusual, they're constantly reminding me, "This is a book. This is fiction." Present tense and second person can work, but I think it takes more skill to make that happen.
 
Oh I did try I rewrote the three chapters but I hate it and realised if I am going to rewrite it again I may as well finish a different story.

I totally sympathise. I can't change tense (except once for a short story) without having to re-write the whole thing, and if you're doing that you might as well be writing something new.


re: the start of fpp's popularity -- I'd like to suggest Ishiguro's fabulous Never Let Me Go (2005)and the fame of Cloud Atlas (2004) may have had something to do with it. And doesn't Tim Winton write in fpp?

So, maybe Hunger Games and Knife of Never Letting Go (both published 2008?) picked it up from more literary fiction.
 
Is Cloud Atlas in present tense? I read it twice just before I started writing Mayhem. Hmm... :) in which case it may well have been an influence.

I seriously do not notice tense or POV unless the story is really dull and I am not fully immersed in it. I had to go back and check all my favourite novels and was surprised that Jane Eyre was first person but Tom Sawyer was third. I hadn't noticed Kathy Reichs was in first either.
 
Is Cloud Atlas in present tense?

Not really, though oddly enough, the only one of the seven stories in true present-tense is the one supposed to be an actual novel (from the seventies). Which is a strange choice for Mitchell to make, given that it risks making the "fake" novel seem less authentic.

Some of the other stories are journal entries, which have present-tense sections as any journal does.
 
Not really, though oddly enough, the only one of the seven stories in true present-tense is the one supposed to be a published novel (from the seventies). Which is a strange choice for Mitchell to make, given that it risks making the "fake" novel seem less authentic.

Now I'll have to read it again. I never even noticed any of it was in present tense.
 
Actually, looking at it more closely (where it's referenced in the following part) it's not a published novel but an unpublished MS.
 
Oops -- then I will stick with my original suggestion and argue that Suzanne Collins was influenced by Never Let Me Go and, if you like, the stories have other similarities...

Are we not counting things that are fpp but have some sort of "excuse" -- like journals or letters (e.g. David Grossman's Be My Knife -- 1998)?

(haven't read Cloud Atlas -- just bits -- and those were fpp)
 
Then that sounds crap!

Mouse, you have a magical way with words :p

I think one of my earlier posts to the critique board was present tense. People said it didn't feel right, but that could have been because it wasn't that good.

Could writers have stayed away from present because it's harder to get right?
 
Could writers have stayed away from present because it's harder to get right?

I don't think it is harder but it is different. When I changed Mayhem over from present to past it was more than just changing verbs because it effects the flow and the way the characters move.

It also affects the voice because it is looking back rather than looking forward.
 
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?

Yes, I think it's mostly stemming from The Hunger Games, but that's just a guess. And now the Fifty Shades books, which (from the other thread where this came up) I just peeked at yesterday. I had one of those puzzling moments when it said something like "I disappeared down the alley." :confused: Huh?

I have used first-person present in at least one 75-word story here -- last month's modern Cinderella comes to mind. It just came out that way, and apparently it worked. But I can not see myself writing a whole book that way. The only thing I can think of that second-person is good for is Choose Your Own Adventure, notwithstanding process papers.
 
I use it for challenges quite a lot and short work but the structure of my books tends to limit it - they are mostly multi-stranded conspiracy-esque, which I would struggle to tell in 1pp.
 
My current WIP mixes things up for each POV. One is First-Person present tense. Another is 3rd limited, etc. I'm starting on the third POV right now, and I'm thinking about going 3rd Omniscient.

Experimenting can be fun.

Perhaps it's because 1st present is fairly easy to write? Well, at least it is for me.
 
What tense was Battle Royale written in? Just out of interest (and not suggesting they're the same, just that the theme is similar)?
 
I've always believed that present tense (first person or otherwise) wasn't a good choice because it's not what we're used to and that can be distracting. Back in the day, it was mainly used for short fiction by people who wanted to be daring and set their work apart, or because they wanted to try something different*, and apart from the fact that they often chose to do this in lieu of learning to, you know, actually write**, in short fiction there was no time to get used to it.

But I read quite a bit of YA fiction, much of it by writers who have figured out how to use this first-person present-tense to good effect, so I am used to it now, and it doesn't bother me at all.

Anyway (unhelpfully) I don't know where all this first-person present-tense came from, but I believe I can safely predict that it will be with us for a good long time.
_______


*I once wrote a short story in present tense because I wanted to try something different and because I feel I can experiment when I am writing short fiction because if it's bad at least I haven't put in the same amount of time that I would writing a novel -- or I hope it was for these reasons rather than one of the others. I decided never to do it again because I wasn't thrilled with the result.

** Angela Carter was a stunning exception to this. I had been reading The Bloody Chamber not long before and I believe I was trying to channel Angela Carter when I wrote my story.


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Present tense puts me off at once. First person is fine, but to me present tense is an attempt by an inexperienced author to bring an artificial sense of immediacy. The things described in the story are not currently happening. Think of how we tell one another about some event in our lives. We don't speak in the present tense.

It doesn't help that most of what I've read in the present tense I've disliked. That includes Hunger Games, which was horribly contrived and clumsily manipulative. I never made it past the first book, but my wife did and she says the contrivances get even more blatant.

That said, I freely admit that I've not read every book ever published in the present tense. Perhaps there are good ones out there.

The OP wondered why the surge. Maybe it coincides with self-publishing.
 
I also wonder if the rise in people playing RPGs has had anything to do with it? When I was playing them on my rubber keyed spectrum and even later on the Playstation it was still a bit geeky.

I was the only one of my friends playing Suikoden - however they all wanted to borrow the IV incarnation.

It is part of why I think I am comfortable with both second person and present-tense.

However I haven't played one since Suikoden V and I am unsure if they are in present-tense?
 
Good point, Anya. My English prof would say that your narrative style is influenced by what you're exposed to. For him, South African folktales. In the past generation, as GRRM says, TV and movies have influenced how we tell stories--so he writes ensemble casts. But this generation, it's gonna be a lot of first-person RPG/shooter influences.
 

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