How many novel writers have narrated their stories in the present tense?

_tastycheez 2020-10-02 00:16:29 UTC #20

I write my story in both present and past tense. This might be kinda weird but it makes sense when I think about it. I am writing a fantasy novel, so the character's dialogue and feelings are in the first person. Narration and worldbuilding stuff is written in the third person. Not sure this works very well, but I like writing like this so screw it.

darkone4587 2020-10-02 08:41:30 UTC #21

My works are typically written in present tense. Mainly because that is the tense I find it the easiest to write in.

Queenie_J_Alexander 2020-10-09 18:24:56 UTC #22

In my experience choosing the tense really depends on the setting of your story. I have written stories in both past and present tense, and while I have a preference for writing in the present tense for it giving me clearer paths when I have to shift between tenses for narrating purposes, it doesn't always flow smoothly. Still, I'm glad the present tense setting has been becoming more and more popular among writers, and I know I will try to write in the present tense as often as possible. It also helps that the story I have on Tapas is marked by exact dates, so writing in the present tense at the moment is the logical decision.

But going back to the grammatical aspect. Have you guys felt like getting confused at times which tense and aspect to use when you were writing in the past tense? Maybe it's an ESL thing, I'm not sure, but while I was aware that even though I was trying to tell an event that was yet to happen, because the setting was in the past, it felt like I was messing things up because when I was learning about different tenses in my grammar classes I was never taught how to apply these to storytelling...

Liability

domisotto 2020-10-09 18:36:47 UTC #23

Yes, English Past tenses and Tenses coordination give me trouble, it’s part of the learning process. Before Present Tense became popular, when I saw fictions in Present Tense, I’ve assumed that it was used by non-native speaker to make things easier.

However, narration in Present Tense has its own grammar problems, as in you have to watch yourself for not slipping into the Past Tense, or if you are doing it, you are doing it correctly.

Overall, just keep the grammatical rules in mind, and proof read a lot. There is really not much else you can do, no matter which language you use.

Queenie_J_Alexander 2020-10-09 19:04:58 UTC #24

You're right. It's curious because nearly a decade ago one of my Lit professors, who worked as a literary translator as well, asked us during a class what we think of narration in the present tense as well as of writing in first or second person. Back then, I'm not even sure it was possible to get a publishing contract if your story was set in the present tense and first person narration was treated with scorn by many (unless it was written by one of the great writers, I guess?). Although, at that time, even fanfiction was mostly written in the past tense, still, but there appeared a few cases where the story was set in present tense and it was refreshing and interesting to see something so out of the norm.

Yes, from what I've seen, this is more frequent for writers who are switching from one tense to another. It's easy to forget what tense you're supposed to write in and only realize that you made a mistake pages and pages later. If you even realize it before posting. Having a beta reader can help wonders with this issue, though.

domisotto 2020-10-09 19:13:40 UTC #25

I always found it clunky, particular when the writers are just starting out and tend to overuse I see, I feel, I do, I say in sentence construction. It is harder to make it flow well, because we tend to switch to past tense when telling a story in English vs doing running commentary in present tense on everything that goes on around us (outside the Driver's training heh).

Pan 2020-10-09 19:43:47 UTC #26

So this is less of a tense issue and more of a tell VS show thing. Words like "see, feel, do, realize, wonder, think" etc are called filter words, which separates the reader from the action by filtering it through the POV character. You can absolutely write any combination of POV and tenses without filtering, but it's a very common rookie mistake!

I myself only started cutting filtering out of my writing about a year ago. I write exclusively in present-tense but when I was a preteen I wrote in past, and I promise I had this issue with both tenses haha

domisotto 2020-10-09 19:46:11 UTC #27

It is less glaring in the Past Tense though because it is more natural, it sort of sticks out worse in present tense, or at least that's how I feel. That was my biggest concern when I tried Present Tense

Pan 2020-10-09 19:48:07 UTC #28

Nothing a little editing and TLC won't fix! I agree it can be a more common first draft issue for present tense, but I would actually argue I see it much more commonly in first person POV regardless of tense, interestingly. I love writing because it's so versatile haha you can do almost anything with it

Queenie_J_Alexander 2020-10-09 21:14:05 UTC #29

Writing in first person in a way that's not a running mental commentary is hard in my opinion because essentially, even when the writer tries to give a voice to their protagonist, it is rare that they do not bleed into the character and essentially project what they want to portray directly. It is natural to use "I see, feel, do, etc." because that's how we communicate when relaying a story that happened to us to others. But it is also one of the reasons it is harder to find distance and give a realistic description of emotions and actions that is also pleasing to read from an aesthetic/artistic point of view when writing in first person.

Then again, I've noticed that the more simply written stories are often more popular because of the comfort of familiarity and relatability they give to readers.

I totally agree! Writing is incredible and the feeling of creating new worlds and giving life to our characters is just so exhilarating!

domisotto 2020-10-10 15:43:09 UTC #30

It’s not so much relatability or comfort as the essential reading skill. Readers of the free stuff on the internet are often just not particularly well-read.

Queenie_J_Alexander 2020-10-10 18:49:15 UTC #31

That might be part of it, true. Then again, how do we define being well-read? Can we only qualify if we are avid readers of the great classics or if we prefer complex, plot twist filled, emotionally wrecking stories? The age of the majority of online readers is statistically low, so it's not a surprise these readers who are often in different levels of their education surrounded by pretentious classics want to get away from all that's high and mighty because it was written by 'important' literary figures decades/centuries ago and just enjoy stories they can understand without doing mental gymnastics.

Does it suck for those, who work hard on creating intricate plotlines with constantly evolving characters only to be overlooked for yet another cliché? It sure does because great complexity won't put bread on the table if one wants to get recognition and money out of writing when left unseen but is it worth becoming popular if it means giving up the quality one values?

(Btw, the stimulation value of Literary/Classical vs Popular Fiction is a fascinating research topic - I've written part of my last thesis on the issue - but sadly not one with much valuable data...)

domisotto 2020-10-10 19:33:32 UTC #32

Classic is not pretentious. It’s the familiarity with printed books that went through editing process, no matter which genre they are and what year they had been written in. In some cases, it’s, regrettably, just literacy. In other cases, it’s ability to focus on sentences, and connect the dots without being explained everything. The whole idea of High Interest, Low Ability level fiction revolves around it & internet tries to emulate it. But it’s hard to stay on low literacy level, while still delivering a story that is not also simplistic plot wise.

rajillustration 2020-10-10 19:47:54 UTC #33

personally I always prefer past tense, mostly because present is very trendy right now in YA, and so I tend to get turned off by it. It's weird, because past tense doesn't stand out to me, it feels like a natural tense. But, present tense is just...jarring for me. Like using neon colors in art--it's really nice, and there's nothing wrong with it, but I need a break after a while. So, I only use present tense if I want a jarring shift in the narration, when I do use it, which I do occasionally but that's just a preference.

This could also be because I'm a native English speaker? It's been really interesting to read you guys talk about how a lot of languages just don't have tenses. Since I've only spoken English and Spanish this is like...really fascinating for me, and I wonder if that plays a factor in my preference for the tenses I want to read my books in?

This is a little off track, since we're talking about writing tenses, but when it comes to convoluted storylines (which is every story I write), it's not so much about avoiding cliches but making sure that these complicated story lines are still contained within a simple theme, when all is said and done. So you don't have random outliers, confusing the plot.

Les Mis is long and so complicated--but is about poverty and revolution when you get down to it. Shakespeare had very complicated plays, but the good ones are held together by one dominant message that permeates throughout. Most classics were, at one time, productions that were intended for the every day person. Their way of storytelling with multiple threads still holds up in mainstream storytelling today, so long as we apply it to modern English. The way we actually speak and write today vs like 200 years ago is different...but the story structure hasn't changed too much.

domisotto 2020-10-10 20:02:03 UTC #34

Some people manage to give present tense narration so much fluidity that you actually do not notice it is Present Tense. That’s the pinnacle of the Present Tense mastery.

Queenie_J_Alexander 2020-10-10 22:04:42 UTC #35

There is a good possibility of that, yes. because the multitude of English tenses and aspects is natural to you, not to mention as an L1 English speaker you have been exposed to printed English stories generally written in the past tense since you were little, it is what you are more comfortable with. As a Hungarian L1 speaker, I can't really imagine reading, let alone writing, as story in the present tense in Hungarian. At the same time, even with multiple degrees in English the intricacies of tense usage don't always make sense to me when I'm writing a story in the past tense.

Classic often seems pretentious through the eyes of school children, which is partly the fault of the education system for picking books that are jarring, long-winded and not suitable for the age group they were chosen for, and partly the fault of teachers who leave it up entirely to the children to process texts which appear outdated and are way too nuanced for such carelessness. (At least, that's what is going on in my country. Kids especially starting 5th grade get all these summer reading assignments of classics and then when they get back to school they have to take a test on it. Or read the assigned books during the school year without proper discussion because there is no time for that. Which definitely hinders the development of constructive thinking. Although, this makes me wonder if people turn back to High Interest, Low Ability level fiction even when introduced to High Literature because on the one hand, they feel inadequate dealing with complex texts, on the other, it is something they have experience in from childhood and children's stories?

You're right, I totally got off track. I just got fascinated with the idea of familiarity vs ability when it comes to simplified yet popular fiction. I have to agree about how at one time classics were considered mainstream and their language was not out of the norm.

domisotto 2020-10-10 23:30:14 UTC #36

The popularity of George Martin, Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch in fantasy says otherwise. Then, again, everyone's favorite punching bag, the 50 Shades of Gray also exists. I dunno. I had never had problems mixing classics with later genre fiction and pulp. I write pulp, I read pulp, but I also love it to be decently written. The low level of writing with repetitive sentence structure dominated by name/pronoun+verb construction is too bland for me.

Queenie_J_Alexander 2020-10-12 10:48:00 UTC #37

Reading popular fiction (at least in my book) doesn't equal reading low quality (although, I'm first to admit G. R. R: Martin's A Game of Thrones (never got around to read the other books) was too jarring for me to read. I know many readers hail him as this genius author and plot master, but I couldn't keep up with the mess of switching between character POVs. I'm also one of those people, who just stop reading a story if the writing style doesn't match my tastes), but it appears that because of the amount of marketing Romance as a genre receives, especially nowadays with the surplus of overinflated low quality novels with multiple part movie deals, it's easy to just push every story under the same umbrella. Not to mention, self-publishing and online story-sharing platforms have done a number on the industry as well, no matter how nice it is that more authors get the chance to get their work out there in theory.

Still off-topic (sorry OP!) but what really irks me isn't authors who write in simple sentence structure because that's their current skill level, but the dwindling willingness to accept constructive criticism aimed at helping them improve their writing. How one hopes to get better if they only ever accept senseless praise to their work?

domisotto 2020-10-12 11:21:42 UTC #38

You know, I just disagree with a lot of what you say, but whatever...

Queenie_J_Alexander 2020-10-12 12:52:59 UTC #39

That's okay, I guess we just see things differently and have different preferences.