Getting fed up with present-tense writing

[Extollager]

What happened? Did the writing workshops and so on proclaim that using the present tense is the way to go?

Some of the older people here might remember when use of present tense was unusual.

Here it is again:

What Working at a Used Bookstore Taught Me About Literary Rejection

I think every aspiring writer should work in a used bookstore. For a little while, at least. If nothing else, the ego death is electric. * I am lucky. A fellowship after my MFA has left me with all…

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I see no strong reason why this account of things that already happened should be written in present tense. A guess: the article is whiney. The author thought whining would be more appealing in present tense.

World: I am about ready to stop reading present-tense articles, stories, etc. You have been warned.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I get what you mean. It can sound pretentious, just as the use of second person can. (And I speak as one who has done both in the writing challenges.)

Another thing I find annoying in this article is the phrase "a couple customers" instead of "a couple of customers." This irritates me in the same way as "alright" instead of "all right" or even "okay" instead of "OK" (the latter of which pays proper acknowledgement to the origin of the word as a humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect" [sic].)

While we're at it, long live the Oxford comma!

And you darn kids get off my lawn.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The thing is, present tense is very popular with young readers, especially readers of YA fantasy. It's what they've become accustomed to, just as we're more accustomed to stories being told in the past tense.

But literature evolves. Generations come and go. It's too soon to say whether present tense first person is a fad or an evolution here to stay. But one thing is certain: we won't be around forever, and younger generations will be the ones to make that detertmination.

 

[The Big Peat]

On the one hand, Teresa is right that it's a generational thing, and there is no natural rightness or wrongness to do it. Although tbh, it could well come from a few workshops, that's not exactly unknown, and probably is a workshop thing by now if you're writing for that generation.

And on the other, it still scrapes at my soul like nails on a chalkboard, would be a crime with a custodial sentence if I ran the world, and the fact it's the next generation's thing leaves me aghast for the future.

 

[Pyan]

Can't abide it.
To me, it reads like the audio descriptions option that you can get on some TV programmes.
"The noise of the TARDIS fades away. The Doctor pulls a lever and pushes some buttons, then walks over to the door. He turns to his companion. 'I hope that we've got the right planet this time!' he says".

 

[Swank]

I don't see what is normal or natural about past tense. It is all just convention.

The article attempts to put the reader in the book store, figuring things out. Past tense is for when you have figured it out so the reader knows they are guaranteed an explanation.

 

[sknox]

I object mainly to the notion that present tense somehow makes the narrative more immediate, more urgent, or simply more of what the author is hoping to impart without having actually to write better. This is in relation to novels, though. As for writing magazine articles in the present tense, you're going to have to write damn well to keep me from walking out the door. (score one for present progressive)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I used to hate stories written in present tense. I, too, found it pretentious (probably because a few decades ago most of the time it was) and distracting, and rarely at all well-done.

I'm not sure when it became popular with YA readers and writers, but as I read quite a bit of YA fantasy mixed in with everything else I read, I began to encounter it more and more. And two things happened: 1) I began to get used to it, so that, for me, it was less distracting than it had been before, and just as immersive as past tense. 2) The writers who were using it all the time figured out some of the inherent problems and how to get around them, and as a result got better at it. Some writers I have come across are very, very good at it.

So now I really don't mind it at all. If I like the story and the prose is good, it only takes a couple of pages before I forget to think about what tense it is written in.

Even though I tend to be a bit of an old-fogey about a lot of things, this isn't one of them.

 

[Danny McG]

I really can't stand it when the writer changes from past to present tense and then back again throughout the story, for no discernible reason.

TBH I've only really noticed this in self published books (usually full of spelling mistakes and bad grammar) so it's probably them trying to copy more successful writers but failing dismally.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Genuinely doesn’t bother me at all. Give me characters I like and a good story and I’ll read - and write - anything

 

[HareBrain]

I object mainly to the notion that present tense somehow makes the narrative more immediate, more urgent, or simply more of what the author is hoping to impart without having actually to write better.

Yes, some people think basically doing a find/replace on third-past and making it first-present will make it more immediate. It needs much more work than that. David Mitchell's Number9Dream is still the best fiction example I can think of, and First Light (a memoir of a WW2 Spitfire pilot, and an amazingly effective book) the best narrative example overall. And both those, tellingly, were written before it became fashionable.

I'm not sure when it became popular with YA readers and writers

I don't recall seeing it much before Hunger Games. Then that became a huge hit and the damage was done.

 

[Serendipity]

As a writer I prefer using present tense because it acts as the voice of consciousness of the protagonist. It allows the reader deeper access to what is going through the protagonist's mind and emotions. There is no need for the she thought, he thought, it reckoned in the prose.

The down side is this can only really be done from one person's point of view at a time. It means the protagonist will not know everything that is going on around her or him or it behind the scenes. This lack might affect how the story as a whole is portrayed and in some cases that will deflate the enjoyment value of the story as a whole.

A side effect of writing in the present tense is that it reduces the word count. So there is a lot more story for the word count, which may be an underlying contributory cause of why it is popular with the younger generation - it keeps their attention longer.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I first encountered it in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan, (2009). Since The Hunger Games (which I still haven't read) came out in 2008, I assume that the Ryan book was already being written, or even perhaps in the process of being published, when the Collins book first appeared, so not likely to have been influenced by the success of The Hunger Games. I wonder if they were both written in response to something a bit earlier, or whether it was coincidence that they both used present tense.

 

[HareBrain]

And on the other, it still scrapes at my soul like nails on a chalkboard, would be a crime with a custodial sentence if I ran the world,

Er, I know for a fact there's at least one example you claim to have liked.

As a writer I prefer using present tense because it acts as the voice of consciousness of the protagonist.

This is when it becomes effective, and how I've tried to use it myself (as a one-off, I'm mostly third-past). IMO it should be something close to stream-of-awareness (sensory input, own thoughts, etc). But some writers don't seem to bother much with that.

David Mitchell's Number9Dream is still the best fiction example I can think of

I've thought of a better. The first story in Alan Moore's The Voice of the Fire, from the POV of a short-sighted Neolithic teenager, is a tour de force of first-present writing, or any writing. It takes effort to get into (even more than Riddley Walker) but once there it's amazingly effective, and could not have been done in any other mode.

I first encountered it in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan, (2009). Since The Hunger Games (which I still haven't read) came out in 2008, I assume that the Ryan book was already being written, or even perhaps in the process of being published, when the Collins book first appeared, so not likely to have been influenced by the success of The Hunger Games. I wonder if they were both written in response to something a bit earlier, or whether it was coincidence that they both used present tense.

You might be right, but the cynic in me wouldn't put it past a publisher to get an author to do a rush-job conversion.

 

[Mouse]

I hate it. I have used it myself in a short story so maybe I'm a hypocrite but I hate reading it. Makes me irrationally angry. I don't find it pretentious, I find it patronising. I feel like the author is speaking to me like I'm an idiot. It also makes no sense.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

You might be right, but the cynic in me wouldn't put it past a publisher to get an author to do a rush-job conversion.

I might be wrong, but I think that the plots and characters would have to be a lot more alike for a publisher to find that sort of thing worthwhile.

 

[Astro Pen]

I am just over half way through writing a first person, present tense YA novel, so I guess I know who I won't be asking to beta it.
Initially it was tricky to write in, you have to stay disciplined, but pretty quickly you reframe and it flows well.
Present tense is what we live in. More specifically what we have to react in.
Particularly in first person it keeps the chronology completely linear because first person present will not tolerate any slippage. Neither, I will add, can you get away with any "Meanwhile back at the ranch," stuff. You are limited entirely to what the protagonist knows.
I find things like conversation unfold in a more cinematic way. Whether the lines are coming out more like a script I am not sure and I'm not going to worry about it, particularly in mid stream. Contrary to most here I start to question why I always defaulted to past tense?
Some of the company in the present tense bar has been quite successful:
The best novels written in the present tense

 

[Ursa major]

I really can't stand it when the writer changes from past to present tense and then back again throughout the story, for no discernible reason.

I recall one novel (I won't say what it was called) where the narrative written in the past tense was set in the far future and the narrative written in the present tense was set in the not too distant future. This was used to hide something very important about those involved until the author wanted the reader to know what that something was.


On an entirely separate point, I often write my challenge entries in the present tense -- okay the dialogue usually is present tense anyway -- because it saves having to use words that put verbs into the past tense. It strikes me that writing a narrative in the present tense, i.e. writing using fewer words, may be one reason why younger readers find it more accessible: there are fewer** words (to read and parse) between them and the story.


** - This is probably similar to what removing filter/veil words does -- these being words that insert the PoV character as an observer into the narrative by having them see/hear/experience what is happening rather than the narrative just saying that it is happening -- i.e. bringing the reader a step closer to the story.

 

[Lumens]

For any of you who were bothered by present tense storytelling, was it ever a problem that forum posts were usually written in this format?

 

[paranoid marvin]

I stop to wonder; have I ever read a story written in the present tense? No I decide, I don't think that I have. From a story telling perspective, it would probably feel like a 'found footage' movie, where neither the protagonist nor the viewer knows what will happen next. I decide that whilst I may perhaps enjoy a short story written in this format, a longer novel would probably start to irritate me.