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

[Hex]

I'll do the broken record thing, sknox, and suggest you have a look at Never Let Me Go because you can say lots of things about Ishiguro but not that he's inexperienced.

Are scripts written in present tense? Could it be a sort of cross-pollination thing from film/ scripts?

 

[Glitch]

Are scripts written in present tense?

Well that would make sense. Since a script is written for actors to perform.

 

[Hex]

Well that would make sense. Since a script is written for actors to perform.

It would.

However, I read books as if the story is happening now -- (and often as if it's about me). I get irritated and depressed by framing stories that get in the way (though it's not so bad if the framing story really is a frame, and doesn't keep reappearing).

It often takes me a little longer to get into that mindset with a story written in past -- so perhaps that's why I like present tense so much.

I am ridiculously cheered by Teresa's point that pt is probably going to be around for a while. That means I can relax and write it without struggling to write past.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'll do the broken record thing, sknox, and suggest you have a look at Never Let Me Go because you can say lots of things about Ishiguro but not that he's inexperienced.

Are scripts written in present tense? Could it be a sort of cross-pollination thing from film/ scripts?

And some authors just seem to have a knack with it. Niffenegger - another who has been writing and teaching writing for a long time, if not with a huge published backlist- absolutely nailed first present in a double pov narrative - but failed to engage me on any level in third.

I think to say it's to do with self-publishing and equate that with inexperienced authors does a real disservice to many excellent 1st pp books out there (and many excellent self pubbed authors).

Having said that, i tried the Hunger Games and hated it, for the same reason -- I felt manipulated from page one.

 

[The Judge]

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...").

Around here as in the Chrons short stories, I'd agree, though that snippet of yours to me reads not as genuine present tense, so much as the historic present, ie when someone is relating something which has happened (ie the event is firmly in the past) but chooses to tell it in present tense. Historic present is easy to fall into it in a first person dialogue kind of way, eg a kind of pub tale ("So I says to him, I says...") but I've no idea if it's common elsewhere -- the Damon Runyon books were written that way, but the ones I've read are in first person, so basically a continuation of the dialogue idea.

 

[Gumboot]

I'll do the broken record thing, sknox, and suggest you have a look at Never Let Me Go because you can say lots of things about Ishiguro but not that he's inexperienced.

Are scripts written in present tense? Could it be a sort of cross-pollination thing from film/ scripts?

Yes, but they're also written in 3rd person.

 

[Gumboot]

I wonder if this is a case of people suddenly noticing something that has always existed. FPP certainly isn't new; some of the most celebrated works of literature used that narrative mode. Jane Eyre and the Sherlock Holmes novels immediately spring to mind, although there are plenty of others.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Both are past tense though.

 

[Gumboot]

Both are past tense though.

They have sections written in present tense. It used to be quite common to switch tenses in the middle of a book. You'll find that quite a lot of classic novels use some present tense. This is in part, because it used to be that books had a very strong and distinct narrative voice, and the narrator was always speaking in present tense, like a storyteller making asides while recounting a story to their audience.

The Catcher In The Rye, Moby Dick and Les Misérables are all good examples of classic literature where the narrator addresses the reader directly in present tense but recounts the story in past tense.

Of course, they're not the only celebrated works of literature that use FPP. There are plenty of other examples, some written entirely in FPP. The Handmaid's Tale (which I suspect of inspiring Collins given its similarity in subject and tone to The Hunger Games) and All Quiet On The Western Front immediately spring to mind. More recently, Chuck Palahniuk writes in FPP.

 

[XtremeOne1]

I use to write ONLY in first person, past tense...It was just what came natural to me. I write a series for a website and for the past three seasons, it's been told in first person, past.

But now that I'm in season four as my characters reach their Senior Year of high school, I've switched to present tense. It just seemed natural to me as the whole of the fourth season is about the future and the fear it brings. The characters are constantly wondering, "What's next?"

That's why I feel present tense works...It allows characters to have true uncertainty. To be fair, even when I wrote in first person, past, I liked to think that my characters weren't actually telling "from the future", I didn't imagine them sitting in an arm chair, telling their grandkids a tale. I tried to keep it very ambiguous. I never like when a first person, past tense narrator mentions I'd later learn." or "Years later I'd come to realize..." it takes me out of the story. I want to always be kept in the "now" of the narrative(I include flashbacks in this)...

I think it's tricky and I think if the story is good, most readers don't take into account "Oh this is told in past tense, the narrator has to survive!" or even realize "Wait, this is in present tense".

So it leaves with some question..

I can't decide if I should write some story ideas I have in past or present tense because of this whole paranoia I have about whether it takes the viewers out of the "NOW"...

How do people feel about killing off a character in past? Can you kill off a PoV character in 1st person, past tense? I'll have multiple PoVs, so it isn't like I can't kill them off through another PoV, but would that work? And would audiences feel the danger?

And is it okay to have characters narrator in past tense but still not know the future? I'm not sure if this makes sense now that I wrote it but my other story is YA and will involve, "decisions about the future" and a death...so is it okay to have them, as narrators, not know this is going to happen. Basically it's as if they're telling the story at the end of the day or maybe even two minutes after it happened.

One idea I have was to tell the story in three PoVs in two tenses..PRESENT from the children, PAST from the mother..but then it became tricky when I decided I wanted the mother's PoV to at least be involved somewhat in the present(at least in concern to the death...)...

It's funny, I never use to think about past/present...but now I'm constantly debating it. And I think I'm sort of scared of past tense now since I haven't written in it in well over a year..plus the last THREE books I've read all happened to be(completely coincidence!) in present tense. It sort of scares me to go back to it haha...I'm worried I've forgotten how!

I guess since I'm only on my first drafts I'll write them in whichever way feels natural and see how it reads and take it from there...

And one thing I dislike, whether in past or present tense, is when we're getting a PoV from an average teenager and they sound like 30 year old English Professors. That takes me out of the story more than anything. The Knife of Never Letting Go is great with getting the voice right.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Strangest thing happened to me yesterday. I started writing something that came into my mind -- a new project. I got several pages into it when I stopped, realising I was writing in 1st-person present. I've never liked FPP, yet try as much as I might, I couldn't stop this story from flowing back into it. No matter what, this new WIP I started insisted on being FPP. And for some reason, regardless of my dislike for the tense, it worked.

I think sometimes that just happens, right? The story itself decides the tense and perspective, not us.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Strangest thing happened to me yesterday. I started writing something that came into my mind -- a new project. I got several pages into it when I stopped, realising I was writing in 1st-person present. I've never liked FPP, yet try as much as I might, I couldn't stop this story from flowing back into it. No matter what, this new WIP I started insisted on being FPP. And for some reason, regardless of my dislike for the tense, it worked.

I think sometimes that just happens, right? The story itself decides the tense and perspective, not us.

Yes and my attempts to put Mayhem into past tense have confirmed that for me. Try as I might it will not work or write that way. I have decided to self publish rather than change it.

The story is Angus (it is about his metamorphosis from stinky prince to admired king). He is right in present tense in past tense it is like writing half a character.

 

[BetaWolf]

I think that ultimately there should be a narrator at work. Someone is telling the story. Gumboot makes a good point--that there is a present for the narrator but the story is in the past. I'm okay with the historic present tense--"then Captain Ahab throws his harpoon and misses the White Whale"--at least in that sort of narration.

XtremeOne1: Some interesting points. On killing off a third-person narrator, well, I guess it's okay, if done properly. It has a dramatic edge, where you are putting the reader in the shoes of someone facing his end. There's immediacy there as you get into the head of someone facing execution or death some other way. But you also lose some believability I think--so, who's telling this story then, if the MC dies. Ambrose Bierce did this with his story about the Owl Creek Bridge and the guy who is hanged there. So your MC has a noose around his neck or puts his head down for the executioner's axe. Final thoughts, things left unsaid. Also check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxvR7ZUjaJk

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Ok, was reading Before I Die tonight and had a thought about this. Her concerns - the YA concerns - are short term? Like adults worry about a lot of stuff and get bogged down but teens - at least my teen and her mates - worry about who they're meeting tomorrow and where they fit in now. They have the future out there as somewhere to get to eventually but it's not the now, where adults have a longer view? Just thoughts.

 

[allmywires]

I think personally that FPPP fits characters who are adrift, who are scared and damaged and alone. It fits perfectly for a poignant coming-of-age YA or a breakdown-esque Adult novel. (At least that's what I'm banking on).

Though to be perfectly honest I'm just so in love with the immediacy and power of FPPP I'm in danger of getting stuck in a rut and writing pretentious literary guff for the rest of my life.

 

[BetaWolf]

Without thinking about it, I wrote my 75 word challenge submission in present tense (or maybe historic present). Weird.

I like the idea of more than one tense, done well. I have a persistent frame story going on, where the first person narrator is slipping back into the present, but most of the action is third person past.

There's also the matter of whether it's a retrospective narrator or not. I still have trouble with someone narrating things as they happen, but maybe I hold onto the idea that the book was really written by some character and I am only the editor--damn you JRRT!

@springs: good idea. I think we need to pay attention to how different age groups and backgrounds tell stories and what their perspective is.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think the type of book comes into it, too. Mostly my standlones are multi pov conspiracy types and they need seperate storylines to slot together - i couldn't do it in first.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I think I've figured it out.

Ok, aside from the fact that kittens took over the publishing industry with their "meeee nnnowww" mentality, that is....

It's contagious. Literally contagious. You read something in present tense, and it makes you start writing in present tense.

Although first-person hasn't infected me quite as badly, it's still discomfiting to find that everything I write wants to be present-tense. Even when I go into something that I've written that wasn't present-tense, now it wants to be. And new stuff -- don't even go there!

 

[ZombieWife]

Rabbit, Run by John Updike is noted as being one of several well regarded, early usages of the present tense. I enjoy it immensely when it's done well. The Hunger Games, imho, was not well done. It was distracting, very distracting. It felt like the writer drafted things in 1st person past then went back and changed it. I don't know. Does that make sense? I was never able to get into the book because of it.

 

[Warren_Paul]

It's definitely contagious. I didn't start writing first person until I started reading it.