Hi writing friends,
Writing in the present tense can add a sense of urgency and simplicity to your story, which are two reasons it has become so common in recent years. As with most aspects of novel writing, there is no hard-and-fast rule around tense choice. The only “must” is to maintain consistency. Some genres, like YA and romance, gravitate toward present tense.
Let’s take a look at the advantages and drawbacks of choosing the present tense.
Advantages to writing in present tense
It creates a sense of immediacy. Writing in the present tense makes the story feel as though the events are happening now—in real time. This can help us connect to your characters because we witness their life events and emotional transformations as they happen.
It simplifies verb choice. Quick grammar details coming your way! This will be painless, I promise. Stories told in the present tense generally rely on two main verb tenses: the simple present tense (Sam drives to work) and the present progressive tense (Sam is driving to work). Occasionally, the simple past tense will be used for flashbacks or past events, but for the most part, present tense eliminates the need to use complex verb forms like past progressive, future perfect, or past perfect. (Let’s not even go there, right?) The result is a streamlined narrative.
It is especially effective when paired with a close POV. First person POV is an example of a close POV because we’re in the protagonist’s mind. Combining first person and present tense can serve to create a more immersive experience for the reader.
It’s a good option for short time frame stories with action. A story that unfolds over a few days or months is a good candidate for present tense because it doesn’t require too many transitions or jumps in time.
It intensifies the effect of an unreliable narrator. Unreliable narrators are untrustworthy storytellers. They may intentionally or unintentionally withhold information, casting doubt on the events of the story. In the present tense, we may be allowed to witness the character’s thoughts and stream of consciousness. Then when they are revealed to be unreliable, the effect is all the more jarring.
Drawbacks to writing in present tense
It can restrict your ability to move through time. If your narrative does not unfold chronologically (the novel Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which unfolds in reverse chronological order, comes to mind), present tense can create difficulty in shifting the reader between time periods in a way that makes sense. You don’t want the reader to be wondering about the “now” of the story.
It amplifies each moment, even if that moment isn’t worthy of amplification. In the present tense everything is happening here and now, so it tends to treat all moments equally. A headache gets as much attention as an earthquake. The past tense is more effective in allowing you to expand, compress, or bypass story events by summarizing them. Summary can sound forced in present tense.
It draws more attention to the narrator. This is especially true in third person, which is one reason that present tense is more often paired with first person. When a third person narrator uses present tense, the reader may feel a larger gap between themselves and the character. The third person narrator can come across like a golf announcer. “She puts her ball on the tee and lines up her shot. She swings the club.”
Have you written your story in present tense? Are there any advantages or drawbacks that I missed? Questions and comments are open to all.
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Upcoming Classes
Pitch Perfect: Write a Query Letter That Gets Noticed
February 28, 7-8:30p.m. Eastern (Zoom)
If you’ve written your novel or memoir and now you're ready to wow a literary agent, you know you need to write a killer query letter. But how do you do that?
Writing a great query letter can be challenging and frustrating because it has one purpose, and one purpose only: to get an agent to request your manuscript. This requires you to think about your book in a different way. My workshop will demystify the process of writing a query letter.
In my 90-minute workshop, I'll share...
the five essential elements every query letter should have
the secret to the all-important pitch paragraph
how to distill your 300-page manuscript into 400 words
dos and don'ts for finding comp titles
how to reduce overwhelm and build confidence as you send your work into the world
Best of all, you'll have the opportunity to send me a draft of your query letter for direct one-on-one feedback.
The Art of Backstory
Saturday, March 23, 10:30am - 1:30pm Eastern (Zoom)
Backstory has gotten a bad reputation for good reason: by definition backstory takes your story backward in time, potentially stalling momentum and tension. But your characters have a past and that past affects who they are and what they want.
This workshop will offer tools designed to help you incorporate backstory subtly and effectively, including in-class writing prompts, and will help you learn more about your protagonist’s relationships with other characters and how they inform backstory. By the end, writers will be able to use their characters’ past to provide context to their present, understand their protagonist's internal and external motivation, and increase suspense by using past events to create expectations of future developments.