Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Caught in present tense

This is topic Caught in present tense in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Sara Genge (Member # 3468) on :

For some reason I seem to be trapped in present tense, even when it's not the most appropiate for the story I'm writing. It feels easier and when I'm writing in past tense I end up loading the text with the imperfect tense which I hate. In present it's not an issue because I can always slip into past when telling a past event.
Ideas?
God grammer books? Ever been trapped like this?

I've also noticed that my stories ALWAYS have someone die in the end. I swear, I can't finish the story if someone isn't dead. And all of my good stories happen in hot climates with lots of red dust.
I guess all of this means I'm in a rut. How do I get out?

[This message has been edited by Sara Genge (edited August 03, 2006).]

Posted by Thieftess (Member # 1683) on :

Ah...present tense -- embraced by the literary genre and pretty much despised by all the others. If you're not Alice Hoffman or Adriana Trigiani, I don't recommend it.

Think of the story you're trying to tell like a diary or blog entry, instead of a phone conversation to your girlfriend. The story has already happened, and you are relaying the details. Remember sitting around the campfire with the flashlight under your chin. All those legends happened in the past...though they still might be around to haunt you today.

As for killing people off -- good on you, girl. Nothing wrong with a little healthy bloodshed.

~Alethea

Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :

First establish firmly that you need to get out of the rut. The rut just might work for you.

As far as present tense - let the first draft be in present tense and change it in the second draft. This will actually help you stay in an analytical mindset while you are working the second draft and it will help you avoid slipping into a "my story is perfect" editing lull. You'll be able to better see some of the changes you need to make to improve the story.

There is nothing wrong with killing someone in every story, as long as every story leads to a killing. If you are just "Killing Kenny" everytime, then it's a problem.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I remember once drifting into present tense when I wrote about two pages in one story---then caught myself and drifted back. But when I revised it, as I found out about a year later when I reread the manuscript, I found I'd missed several spots of present tense.

I don't think I've ever written a story in present tense deliberately...not even as an experiment. (TV scripts, sure, but not a straighforward short story or novel.)

Posted by thexmedic (Member # 2844) on :

What's wrong with present tense? Why all the hate?

Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :

Viz Wikipedia, English's equiv to past imperfect is "I was eating." Is this what you mean?

I get caught in overusing that too, and fix it when I notice it.

I can only recall one (unpublished) attempt I made at present tense. It was because there was a time-travel related moment in which using past tense just became too complicated.

Regarding ruts -- what about giving yourself an assignment? Write a story, no more than 500 words, past tense, 3rd person limited, using all five senses, with a giraffe in it. Something like that!

[This message has been edited by wbriggs (edited August 02, 2006).]

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

I don't have a problem with present tense.

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Present tense gives any narration the feeling that it's being made up on the fly.

This can be good for some stories (mostly jokes), but it is bad for most other forms of narration. I don't have a problem with present tense when it's used appropriately, but you need to understand what it does to the "reliability" of a story. It makes the POV sound airheaded and clueless, possibly dishonest or at least lacking in sobriety. Since many "literary" stories have "anti-heroes" as the POV or main character, present tense actually doesn't clash with every story. But if you're using an "everyman" or "hero" protagonist, then you want to avoid present tense like the plague.

I don't have much use for "anti-hero" stories. Ordinary humans are anti-heroic enough for me, I don't need to meet them in my reading. I like jokes, but they should be short. So overall, I'm not big on stories that should be in present tense.

Posted by Garp (Member # 2919) on :

This might sound strange, but I think we have to be less analytical about the logic of present-tense stories and ask ourselves what we feel when as we read a story in present-tense.

The first story I ever read in present tense was a novel by Jon Hassler called THE DEAN'S LIST. I was about 200 pages into it before I realized it was in present tense. What kept me reading was the way the narration made me feel -- the emotional responses it created. Dwight Swain, in his book TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER, said that feeling is the essence of storytelling. In fact, he went so far to say that a rewrite should be nothing more than the cutting of the unnecessary facts out of a story so that it's pure feeling. I don't know if he's right or not -- this won't work if you're writing hard SF, but even then the scientific speculation is there to make the reader feel amazement -- but about Dostovesky, Hemingway said, "Does that guy know how to make you feel."

So my advice is this: If a story feels right in present tense, keep it in present tense.

And the hero of THE DEAN'S LIST is a true hero -- not an anti-hero.

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Unfortunately, I notice tense. If it's a story that probably should have been written in past tense, I can usually just replace the tenses on the fly and plow through it, but it does make a story a lot less enjoyable for me if I have to do that. And if the story really is using the present tense fully, it usually hurts my identification with the narrator (whether direct or implied).

I've read short present tense stories and enjoyed them. But I've never not noticed that they were in present tense. If you can't even tell what tense something's in, that just means that the actual wording isn't making an impression on you at all. It might be a fine story, but it probably isn't the most exiting writing.