Comments on: Present Tensions, or It’s All Happening Now

By: Clara

Clara — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:07:18 +0000

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By: Horn Book Magazine -- January/February 2012 — The Horn Book

Horn Book Magazine -- January/February 2012 — The Horn Book — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:13:52 +0000

[...] Present Tensions, or It’s All Happening Now What’s behind the recent spate of novels written in the present tense? [...]

By: First Person Present Tense « Fairrosa Cyber Library: Bulletin Board

First Person Present Tense « Fairrosa Cyber Library: Bulletin Board — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:13:01 +0000

[...] [...]

By: William Flesch

William Flesch — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 03:46:58 +0000

I think that one major issue is first vs. third person narrative. The past tense narratives you quote are all third person; the present tense ones are first person. Third person present tense is a style of free indirect discourse. I think first person present tense is actually a variation on third person present tense, and so, paradoxically, a very tight version of free indirect discourse, so tight that it often looks like direct discourse.

First person present tense narrative is tricky, since it’s really hard to stay in the perceptual present all the time, as she pretends to do. Even the passage you quote wavers: “exactly one second after I do”; “for a horrible moment.” Retrospect sneaks in, and Collins is sometimes not enough in control of that fact (though I otherwise love The Hunger Games).

By: Christy

Christy — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:21:26 +0000

Really great food for thought, thank you!

By: Sophia Bennett

Sophia Bennett — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:56:44 +0000

I felt very self-conscious, to start with, writing in the present tense, but it seemed natural when I came to write my first YA book, for all the reasons you mention. A big influence on this style of writing for me was not video, however, but war reporting and ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ on the BBC’s Radio 4. Just how many news and magazine articles begin this way now: ‘I am sitting in an oversize chair at a trendy hotel, waiting to interview …’? YA writers are not the only people to use this voice, and not the first.

By: Gabrielle Prendergast

Gabrielle Prendergast — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:52:31 +0000

I once gave a quite negative seminar on present tense, and used to much prefer writing in past tense. But then I started writing for teens, and , you’re right, it seems to fit that genre so well, especially when it’s “dark”.

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:54:48 +0000

The first first present tense novel I read was A Great and Terribly Beauty years ago. At first it was strange, but now I’m so used to it it doesn’t faze me anymore. I mean, most YA books I pick up now are in first person present, and I have noticed it’s a trend, but it seems to be a popular one because it’s only gained in popularity since the first time I read it years ago, and hasn’t really petered off since then. Plus, I admit to writing in first person present. I started writing in third person past, but readers have told me my writing is so emotional and immediate and that it only makes sense for me to write in first person present, and ends up working better for me that way. I’m just not any other kind of writer!

By: Sheila Welch

Sheila Welch — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:08:31 +0000

Thanks for this excellent essay. When I read a novel in present tense, I have a few moments of resistance but find that I adjust quickly and hardly notice the tense after the first few pages.
I remember reading a novel by Rumer Godden when I was a teenager in which the “past” portions of the story were in present tense and the “present” portions in past tense. It worked very well. I don’t usually write in present tense but found myself drawn to it while working on a middle-grade novel that contains a lot of flashbacks. I wanted the present to feel uncertain and very much as if it were happening now. But I am not sure I’ll use it again any time soon.

By: Lisa Yee

Lisa Yee — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:38:45 +0000

Wonderful essay — thank you. I know that for me figuring out what tense a story will be told in is one of the most difficult things about writing.