is present tense really that annoying.

At first, I found present tense incredibly annoying, but then realized it was only because I was making an unfamiliar switch. I was used to reading works in the past tense. Maybe people read past tense works often, become comfortable with it, use the same tense when they first start writing and are emulating the author of the work they’ve read. But even when they find their own style, they’ve become so used to relating their stories in that tense, that anything else feels strange and awkward, so they put works in the past tense out there, and then other people read that and then it just goes on and on. So maybe that’s why it’s annoying. I’m certain that the present tense is used often enough, but I’m also certain that it’s the past tense that’s well favoured. People have become used to it, so that’s probably why it can be irritating to come across a different tense once in a while.

What do you think are the effects of the particular tenses on a reader?

With past tense, you feel there’s someone in charge. Someone who has observed this or experienced that and you can choose whether or not you want to find out about what has already happened and is now closed. Finished.

It’s similar to what is done with present tense, I mean of course, all stories have an end, even if some may be indefinite for the sake of building tension for the sequel, or just to be clever and ambiguous, however because things are in constant motion, I think that even when you’re done with the story, it feels like an unfinished experience. As in, there’s no sense of completeness, even when the story was given a definite ending. It feels as if things need to be kept in motion and even once the book’s closed, something’s still going on. And I usually don’t really like feeling like that. It’s sounds strange, but I’m at least one reader who’s experienced that effect. XP

As for the positive effects of the present tense, I’ve found it can be done well and is an excellent tool in the hands of someone who really knows how to draw you in with the story itself. Add to that, by placing the reader in the present, right there in the thick of things makes it all the more absorbing; if it’s a writer that really knows what they’re doing.

Unfortunately there’s some who don’t and what can be found irritating about their work (aaannd we’re back to the negatives of present tense. Hmmm.) is that they concentrate far too much on each and every motion; those ugly in-between … I don’t know – things that we usually leave out. You know, like the really minor details that we tend to skip over, and with good reason. I believe that it can be tempting to get way too much into the small things (which I find difficult to avoid myself, so I’m a bit of a hypocrite) when writing in the present tense because you don’t want to miss a thing, but it can be remedied. There are some beautiful pieces done in that tense. So it comes as a surprise to me as well that there’d be much negativity against the use of the present tense in general and not just the ones done horribly.

How do you decide what tense to write in?

I believe that comes with the story, as in, that inspiration or particular scene that came into your head. It doesn’t seem right to have to choose which tense is better. It has to be what’s best for that specific story and that usually comes to you pretty easily. A little experimentation, if you’re starting to doubt yourself, can fix that problem. You’ll usually find that you’re able to write with both present and past tense well, but it’s very likely that you’ll find that there’s one tense with which you would write better. For a particular story, that is. Writers are capable of shifting between the two, but it depends on what they happen to be writing at that moment and how they see it in their minds.

Most of my ideas for example, although not all, come in scenes. And I usually see it as something (no matter in which period the story is set) that has happened a long time ago and is a story that I must relate (past tense) and it’s not so much an experience that I want to share (present tense). Of course, you are always sharing when you write, but hopefully you get what I’m saying. You can always tell which feeling is stronger; the need to tell a tale or to share the experience directly. I know that sharing an experience can be done in past tense as well, it’s just a bit different because … I’m making this sound worse. Lovely. Moving on ..

Now, usually I’m a third-person, past tense sort of person, but this made me wonder exactly why I was writing in the tense I was writing in. And then I was unsure of which tense to continue in.

Experiment a bit more. Actually, a lot more. Halfway through a massive piece off work I suddenly felt the need to switch the PoV and the tense, so I did. I saved the work, put it away and started a rewrite. I thought I’d been going in the wrong direction the whole time, but after messing around with every view, and different tenses, I ended up with what I started; third person, past tense.

It turns out, that what that particular chapter required, the one I was on before feeling the need to switch, was a deeper immersion on my part, more detail, more everything. I was leaving way too many gaps, not leaking enough colour into the situation and I unintentionally made up for it by getting closer to the characters and their every motion and describing the most minute and mundane things of events as they happened, when what they really needed was a better description because I just wasn’t doing them any justice with the way I was going about it.

I don’t know if this was a minor problem and you’re close to sorting it out, but if you haven’t, hopefully testing the two tenses out a lot more with the story can help you either realize which one you feel more comfortable with for relating that particular story, or help find where the problem is, since it might not be a matter of tense, but maybe you were actually making up for something else that’s missing when you suddenly switched like that.

end rambling

EDIT: Good Lord. I really know how to abuse italics, don’t I?

I started writing a recent story in present tense just because it fit better with the tone of the story. Made it more gritty and vivid.

I switch a lot between first-person present/past tense and third-person past. I don’t know if I’d ever do present tense in third, because it just doesn’t seem to mesh together as well. shrug

I’ve always liked playing with tenses. One of my favorites to write in is second-person present, with doses of first-person mixed in. It makes the second person a bit less commanding and/or demanding when you have a semi-visible narrator who is talking to you as a reader. Since the narrator acts as a character of their own, it’s a bit easier to forgive instances of being told you’d do something you definitely would not since you can chalk it up to the narrator being horribly mistaken about you.

But I digress.

Present tense, when done well, is unnoticeable. I’ve written a couple of stories that use present tense, with some of the readers not realizing the story was written in present tense until I pointed it out. First-person present is a lot of fun to write and read, if you have a character with a strong enough voice to carry and color the narration.

Unfortunately, I’ve found it’s a bit difficult to use present tense to sustain longer works, especially if you have the additional limitation of first-person. You need to pay much closer attention to the pacing, otherwise the minutiae gets in the way or the constant immediacy of every event gets exhausting.

While some sections may work better in present tense, you have to look at the overall story. Some stories work best with tenses shifting between scenes. Some stories work best in present. And yet other stories work best with past. If it works, it works; it’s just a matter of finding which works.

Re: present: I can’t say anything Kyllorac and sansa haven’t already said, so I’ll simply second what they posted. Fine in small doses, difficult to sustain in a longer work.

I’ll be honest, I think that’s the same for any “unusual” tense, though. (by which I mean anything other than first/third-person past) We just plain are used to first- and third-person past tense. I’m not sure if it’s because that’s traditional or because we’re somehow wired that way as humans, but in every case I can think of, “weird” tenses (second-person, present tense, etc.) seem to work best when it’s in short works.

I read a really great second-person short fanfic once, I wish I could remember where or what it was. All I remember was that it was great. It was about a mother losing her child, as I recall, and may have been written in the form of a letter.