POLL : How difficult / undesirable is present tense?

[Ysoi]

Hi all!

Submitted a story that received the following comment :

but the present tense makes this story unreadable. It is bad writing and it is inexcusable as this writer knows better.

Normally I would use present tense only for emphasis on action scenes, but in this case I did the whole short story in present case. Is present tense writing really so difficult to read? Any thoughts on whether "present tense ... is bad writing"?

Ysoi

 

[sr71plt]

Most of the time extensive use of present tense is distracting--and tiring for the reader to follow, I think.

 

[TE999]

Hi all!

Submitted a story that received the following comment :



Normally I would use present tense only for emphasis on action scenes, but in this case I did the whole short story in present case. Is present tense writing really so difficult to read? Any thoughts on whether "present tense ... is bad writing"?

Ysoi

Having written some stories in the Present Tense (which were reasonably well received), I can say a present tense story is only 'bad writing' if it's crammed with structural, spelling and punctuation errors, not because of the tense.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Normally I would use present tense only for emphasis on action scenes, but in this case I did the whole short story in present case. Is present tense writing really so difficult to read? Any thoughts on whether "present tense ... is bad writing"?

Ysoi

Second tense can be jarring. My inclination is to use it sparingly, only when the situation calls for it.

 

[Ysoi]

Having written some stories in the Present Tense (which were reasonably well received), I can say a present tense story is only 'bad writing' if it's crammed with structural, spelling and punctuation errors, not because of the tense.

Totally agree - I didn't think it was a problem grammatically, but what I think doesn't matter so much if the readers disagree. Also, even if it is correct, I can't really use it if people find it very tiring. :|

Ysoi

 

[TinyBeth]

The story I wrote in first person, "Psychology of a Groupie" is largely written in the present tense other than the scene where she relates meeting the other groupie. No one has complained about the use of the present tense in that story. My husband said that creative writing courses dropped that attitude of never using the present tense a long time ago.

 

[oggbashan]

Switching from past to present at the climax of the action can be effective.

Otherwise? Whatever works for you and the reader.

 

[Handley_Page]

Present tense ?
Definitely not for me; well, certainly not in the First Person.

 

[sr71plt]

Tense and person are two different things. (What's "second tense," by the way?)

 

[emap]

Far as I know I always write in present tense. Nobody has complained about that, nobody has said that I switch tense often, at least not since snoopy pointed it out to me a few times.

See the problem here is, readers get used to a certain style from an author and any deviation is jarring. Not everyone can't handle it but enough that well known authors write under other names. Stephen King for example, unless he's doing another horror he uses a different name. Everybody knows, and heck anymore he just has his actual name under the pen name, but it's because what he wrote isn't what people expect out of him.

You got the comment you did on that story because you changed how you write the story. No getting around it, either you write it the way you want and ignore everyone else, or you don't. No matter what people will complain, perhaps it's because it was so hot they got off HARD and feel guilty about it so blame you. Alternately, the title or section the story is in means they expect something you didn't provide in your story.

The only way around getting pigeonholed like this is to write different for each story. I've not managed that, but I do write what I want how I want anyway. I have fans and do get feedback on occassion so I suppose it works.

 

[TinyBeth]

It certainly isn't easy to write in the present tense, you have to keep checking to make sure you used the correct verb forms, but I don't see why it's unacceptable.

 

[sr71plt]

Far as I know I always write in present tense. Nobody has complained about that, nobody has said that I switch tense often, at least not since snoopy pointed it out to me a few times.

Not consistently. I looked at the opening paragraphs of three of your stories. You were consistenly present tense in only one of them. The other two were mixed present/past.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

I've run across present tense quite a bit in YA books. I used to find it pretty jarring, at least for the first few pages of a book. But I'm used to it, and now like it more than I like the past tense.

I've gone through a similar process with stories written in first person. I used to prefer third person, but now I much prefer first.

That all said, I find that I'm far more forgiving of mediocre writing with the past tense, just as I'm more forgiving with third person stories than I am with first person.


ETA: I see that the comment was from our friend Anonymous, who also says something about how you should "know better" than to write in present tense. From my quick check, it seems that all of your stories are first person. So I'm not sure how much weight I'd give his or her comment.

 

[PennLady]

I prefer past tense in stories, both writing and reading, but there's nothing inherently wrong with using present tense. The Hunger Games trilogy was written in first-person, present tense, and plenty of people liked that well enough. Even I did.

I suppose... hmmmm... I suppose i find there's something juvenile about it -- just in my opinion. Like someone rushed through the story and told it without thinking much about it. However, for some things -- like The Hunger Games -- I think the present tense lends a sense of urgency to it that works well.

 

[MSTarot]

I may be saying this wrong I am more than a bit tired.

To me the only thing about past tense I don't like is it give the fact 'the narrator' lived through whatever is happening.

To me first person present tense is the first person shooter of writing. You kind of don't know whats right around the corner.

It's been a very long week I could be confused in what I'm trying to say. Would not be the first time.

Ah to hell with it. We will just all write our stories in future tense.

Wouldn't that be a fun read.

M.S.Tarot

 

[3113]

I hate present tense in a story, IMHO, unless you're writing a cookbook ("...stir then spoon into pan and bake for 60 minutes...") you shouldn't use it. Granted, this is my strong personal bias, but there ya go.

 

[sr71plt]

To me the only thing about past tense I don't like is it give the fact 'the narrator' lived through whatever is happening.

Understood. I think the best present-tense book I've seen was one in which the narrator has terminal leukemia. I didn't really notice it until I was close to the end of the book, when I realized he really was going to die, and then it hit me, and I thought, "of course. It has to be in the present tense, because at the end of the book, there's going to be no past tense possibility for him."

 

[fifty5]

Switching from past to present at the climax of the action can be effective.

Otherwise? Whatever works for you and the reader.

I second that.

Some readers still don't like it - the change of tense. Telling the build-up in past tense, then switching to present for the resulting action works for me.

f5

 

[PennLady]

Understood. I think the best present-tense book I've seen was one in which the narrator has terminal leukemia. I didn't really notice it until I was close to the end of the book, when I realized he really was going to die, and then it hit me, and I thought, "of course. It has to be in the present tense, because at the end of the book, there's going to be no past tense possibility for him."

I have read the occasional first-person past tense book in which the narrator dies or is otherwise prevented from finishing the "manuscript," and so some other character writes the ending. But I think that past tense thing plays in for me as well. A certain amount of suspense is gone -- in certain books -- when you know the narrator survives.

 

[Ysoi]

( * _ * )

Ah to hell with it. We will just all write our stories in future tense.

Wouldn't that be a fun read.

M.S.Tarot

Um...
Are you spying on me?
Will post something ref that in just a moment!

Ysoi

 

[MSTarot]

Um...
Are you spying on me?
Will post something ref that in just a moment!

Ysoi

No just reading a book on writing where the author said he challenged his writing class to do a story in future tense.

Beside that would be telling where the cameras are hidden