Need to know what happens to Sherry. I'm invested now. I did just get a manuscript that starts with present-tense second-person. Only for a few paragraphs, but I needed a strong drink and a lie down.
Actually, it occurred to me that second person present tense is exactly how most traditional (D&D) role-playing games take place. DM: You see a large room, filled with gold. Roll 1D6. Gamer: Two. DM: You don't notice anything else. <evil grin>
Can't stand present tense. It always seems contrived, and unless it's done by a very talented writer the story is usually pockmarked with POV inconsistencies. Face it, good storytelling is about manipulating the reader without them knowing it. When I read present tense it feels like I'm being manipulated. An excerpt from an article covering the unfortunate revival of fiction written in the present tense. The "Pullman" being quoted is, Philip Pullman. "When Pullman calls narration in the present tense "an abdication of narrative responsibility", he is on to something: the use of the past tense implies that there is some vantage point beyond the end of the story from which a narrator can look back on events and find a pattern. A willed refusal to see a pattern can, of course, be an evasion of narrative responsibility.
I have no problem with present tense. No problem with second person. Free your minds, people! Throw off the shackles! POWER TO THE TENSES (AND THE PERSONS...)!
Found the article and this resonates with me: "I feel claustrophobic, always pressed up against the immediate."
Can't I just do both in one book? No? Frowned upon? At this point it's pretty much what I'm doing. send help.
If you have five minutes, check out the link I posted. Pullman gives some examples of where present mixed into past novels works well. I haven't read Bleak House but I agree with him on the Jane Eyre example.
That's it exactly! When it comes to Past vs. Present, the difference for me is that with present tense I'm forced into that perspective. When I read past tense, it's as if the story is playing out in a sort of surreal-- real time. There's more time to imagine things. Present tense, for all it's worth as a more intimate POV, is usually less engaging and less intimate... for some reason?
For some reason I'm referencing David Grossman's To the End of the Land a second time today. It's like the only book I've read, apparently. But he uses both past and present. The now is written in present tense while past events are written in past tense. I mean, that's pretty logical if you think about it. So he'd have a chapter in present tense, describing the journey the characters take. The chapters in past tense describe the history the characters have, and which affects present day as well, so both timelines are important to make it all come together.
"But if every sound you emit is a scream, a scream has no expressive value." Present tense feels exactly like this to me. I seem to use it as an exclamation point, almost like a knee-jerk reaction. I use exclamation very sparingly and I do present tense the same way. Whenever I write like that I change it to past tense, because I hate exclamation points, too. 'Why are we YELLING?!'
I'm giving you my best frown face. I played with present tense like I did with prologues, and found both were best left to the seriously talented.
I tried to write a prologue once. hahahahahahahaahaahah. You're right it is for the seriously talented.
For me, it's more of a drone than a scream. A constant, monotonous drone. I'm loving this discussion because I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and trying to articulate exactly why I don't like present tense. I can come up with words to describe how it reads to me (flat, colourless, lifeless, monotonous) but that's description, not explanation. The explanation I hear most often is that it's because I'm not used to it, and would be fine with it if more novels were in present, but I'm sure that isn't the case.
This really is exactly like that. Could you call it a sharp buzzing, or no? Haha. I've been googling books written in present tense because of this thread. I'm just trying to work out why I keep switching to it like it's the most natural thing in the world. I've been writing past tense for, wow, thirteen years. Maybe something to do with body-snatchers.
Ok, I'll rename my little goth girl "Sherry" and get back to you. But seriously, on the tense thing, I've got a WOP (no, that's not an ethnic slur, it's a Work On Pause, the opposite of one of those filthy, job-stealing, welfare mooching WIPs) that seems to be told in character alternating first, but one character (a gritty scammer) wants to go with traditional present. The following would not be presented in such close order, the character POVs would alternate chapter, so this is for illustrative purpose only: Mark: Sherry (happy?) I dunno, like I said, it's on pause, and that's one* of the reasons why. *Terry Pratchett stealing my idea twenty years before I thought of it is the other, but I think I'm over that issue.
You just reminded me of a fanfiction I wrote when I was eleven that I really want to find now... I think it was written entirely in first person present tense. But what happened after I noticed her?
