Getting fed up with present-tense writing

[The Big Peat]

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

Two. Both authors should hope power eludes me.

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Honestly, it doesn't bother me. A fine writer will make the most of either form, even mixing them within a single novel and moving effortlessly between them. I recently reread Silverberg's Dying Inside and it is a fine example. The narrator even goes to the third person at times (When he was seven and a half years old and causing a great deal of trouble for his third-grade teacher, they sent little David to the school psychiatrist). Stories like this, where a narrator describes events from his or her past, will often use the present tense for those episodes. Nabokov's Lolita comes to mind. Iain Banks - at least in his non SF work - was also very good. A Song of Stone has the first chapter beautifully written in present tense, following events being recounted in the past tense before reverting to present for the climax of the story.

If the author is not so talented then, of course, a mess will be made of absolutely everything (not just the use of person and tense).

[Edit: And how could I forget A Tale of Two Cities! It switches from past to present for the climax, and quite right too! Who wants to read 'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known' in the past tense?]

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

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.

When done well, the effect is subliminal.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I suspect that the reference in the original post would not have been helped by rewriting it into past tense. I find that I am turned off by use of first person in nonfiction writing as it puts too much focus on the writer. I probably would not have noticed the use of present tense, if it had not been called out to me prior to reading it.

 

[Toby Frost]

Hmm. I much prefer past to present, and I'm not sure what the present tense adds. I've heard that it's more immediate, but I don't find that at all. That said, I'll read a book written in the present tense if it's good. I must say that I am tired of the viewpoint that old equals reliable good sense and new equals silly politicised nonsense. I am sure the same was said when the stirrup was invented.

My pet hate is the use of a hyphen instead of a sentence to represent quoted speech, instead of quotation marks.

 

[therapist]

Earlier this year I picked up N.K Jemesin's 'The fifth season'. And I found that a large chunk of it was written in 2nd person present. It was pretentious and annoying and weird to read, so I set the book on fire then thoroughly washed my hands. But later, after I had calmed down, I grit my teeth and gave it another shot. Maybe it's because she is a good writer, but after a few chapters reading 2nd person present felt completely natural. There was an awkward transition phase but it was very easy to acclimatize.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Abhor it. Recently I was recommended a horror on Reddit. It was in first present. Stripped the story of any tension.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

I don't mind present tense in general. This article seemed to be trying to do what insider accounts of showbiz etc. have done for literally decades now: stick it all in present tense so the reader will feel "there in the moment" witnessing something special, but don't bother doing anything else to strengthen that impression. My dad had a (proabably ghostwritten) autobiography of David Niven that was all in this style, so it really does go back a bit. It gets wearing pretty quickly.

 

[Danny McG]

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

@Ursa major
Was this a recently published book?
(Your description seems very familiar)

 

[Ursa major]

Was this a recently published book?

No.

 

[sknox]

The article itself is weirdly written and, unfortunately, painfully obviously so. He's trying for an effect. It appears to work for some readers, judging from the comments, but I found it distracting. He had a single point to make, made it within the first few paragraphs, and the rest was fluff for style, like putting on too many scarves.

I don't think third person would have helped. I don't thing past tense would have helped. If you want me to find the door in record time, show me self-consciously literary. Slam!

 

[Steve Harrison]

Present tense doesn't bother me because I avoid books written that way.

I've tried a few times, but I always find it jarring and wonder things like, how is this guy having sex and writing at the same time?

 

[msstice]

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…

lithub.com

When I read the linked article, a vague dread lurks in the back rooms of my mind: "I've read this kind of article before," I think. If I ever run into the author of such kinds of articles in real life, it shall be behind the wheel of my Range Rover.

I see this sentence: 'The customer dismisses this. “The Nobel Prize,” they say, “is for all those fascists and pedophiles.”' I feel the bookseller and the customer deserve each other.

I skim the rest of the article. I get into my Range Rover.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Read the article, and found it interesting ... not interesting in the usual way, but interesting because I've never before read anything that seemed to be intended to be both boring and depressing. Also, not sure what he means when he talks about working there leading to ego death.

I've never worked in a used-book shop, but I did work for a while in a chain book store, where I was mostly shelving books or working at the cash register. I don't think anyone ever asked me to recommend a book. Mostly, they knew what they wanted when they came in, so they'd just ask where to find it.

And it happens that I have seen my books in used-book stores. Not exactly often, but not exactly rarely, either. Since I am known to be a local author I am sure I sell more copies in this area than elsewhere, and of course that means that some are going to end up sold to used-book stores I am likely to visit. Lots of readers sell books after they read them so they will have more money to buy more books, so it's not like I take it all that personally. So I don't think he needed to hide the books whenever he found something by someone he knew. It's not like it's going to kill them to see it in a local used-book shop. It's probably happened before. For me, it can be a little sad that someone didn't like it enough to hang onto it, but, depending on which book it is and how many author's copies I have remaining, I am apt to pounce on it gleefully and buy it myself so I can hang on to it for posterity or to give to an interested friend.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I am about ready to stop reading present-tense articles, stories, etc.

The irony of complaining about present tense in writing while writing in present tense.

 

[tinkerdan]

I've no problem with present tense.
Anyone who has read my books knows that.
However, I have to add that it never occurred to me as a problem until I wrote in present tense and had people start pointing out all the problems that have been mentioned here.

The odd thing is that when I go back to my bookshelves and pull out books there are some few that are written in present tense that I didn't recall.
This just goes to show that it never impressed me as being anything but what it was--good writing. As to mine; the fact that it was noticeable to some people might demonstrate that it is not as well written as hoped.

My guess is that a number of people who complain about present tense writing might find some present tense in some of their favorite stuff.
However, I will concede that there are a specific number of people I know who are absurdly obsessed with such things that even a well written book would not be able to pass anything by them that they find annoying.

Now what annoys me is when someone keeps popping in and out of tenses in the same sentence and all through their paragraphs. It makes it extremely difficult to notice the one time when they got it right because the tense should have changed it that instance.

As to the article:
My thought was; here is a person who doesn't like their job.
But then again how many people really do love their jobs?

 

[Valtharius]

I'm going to start writing all my stories in the subjunctive mood.

 

[Extollager]

The irony of complaining about present tense in writing while writing in present tense.

Extollager replies: I wrote about something happening now (my inner state as I ponder this writing), and objected to the gimmickry of writing about things that have already happened thus. Did you infer from my criticism of misuse, an objection to the present tense itself?

 

[Swank]

By the time @Extollager wrote his opinion it was in the past.

 

[Extollager]

Abusus non tollit usum. I referred, in my past message, to an abuse of present tense; of turning a necessary feature of grammar into a gimmick. And I said I was considering no longer reading things written in present tense. It would have been more precise for me to have written that I'm considering the policy of giving fiction and articles written in present tense only a cursory look. If I do that, I might miss something that, at last, would turn out to be good, but this is unlikely to be a tragedy, since instead I will read something else that was good.

More than one commenter here has said this fad for present tense seems to reflect cinema. I think that's right on target (all the more because current fiction often loads up on dialog). It's possible that, in the future, people will regard the excessive use of present tense and dialog as giveaways -- as tell-tale indications of the time in which the work was written, kind of the way certain names become extremely popular and then fade out of favor in a few years. (The tell-tale sign that they are losing their pizzazz occurs when the names are kept but the spellings become odd.)

Incidentally a few weeks ago I read a short novel written in present tense, which I thought was at least an arguably defensible thing in that case -- Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream. There the point of view was that of someone apparently dying and not in her right mind. I didn't think the book was great, but it's something I might read again some day.