The Present Tense

When I was a writing rookie, one of the many mistakes I would make was mixing past and present tenses without realizing it. Everybody does it at some point in their rookie years. Now that I’m older and more conscious of the way I write, I choose to write in the past tense. However, after reading “Fifty Shades of Grey” and the first “Hunger Games” book, I’m starting to realize there are other options in that department. Those books in particular are written in the present tense. There’s something about the present tense that quickens the reading pace of a novel. There’s somehow supposed to be a difference between saying, “Oleg chopped the monster’s head off.” and “Oleg chops the monster’s head off.” I’ve often been told that present tense puts the reader in the moment as it’s happening, just like a movie would. The past tense merely tells a story while the present tense takes the extra step in showing instead of telling. It made me wonder if the present tense could ever be used in period piece genres such as fantasy and sci-fi. With the fantasy genre, the best way to utilize present tense is if one of the characters is telling the story around a campfire and using arm gestures to signify the action going on. With sci-fi, since it’s normally set in the future, it would be ideal to use a future tense, right? So far, I haven’t read anything that has successfully done it, so I won’t do it myself until I’m more secure with my surroundings. If all of these things are true about using present tense in narration of a story, then how come I’m not using it when I writing my own pieces of fiction? It’s because I’ve gotten so used to using past tense all of this time that I’m not ready for a radical change in style just yet. It seems like a little thing to change the words “was” and “is”, but here’s the deal. As a writer, you actually have to be aware of what you’re doing in order to be successful at sticking to a particular tense. If you’re so used to doing one thing all the time, then doing something else might result in too many errors on that first draft. So despite the strong case made for a present tense, especially on a blog about fast-paced books, I will continue to look back at the past for the moment. Besides, who’s to say that the past can’t be powerful as well since we have diseases like PTSD and schizophrenia? That would look particularly painful through the eyes of a first person narrator. Lots of potential power-wise.

　

***BUMPER STICKER OF THE DAY***

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.