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- Jul 3, 2008
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I've been curious about the use of present tense in writing. It doesn't get used too much, which generally makes sense. Most stories are about things that have already happened (or we'll say they alreay happened, even if it's not real). They are complete events strung together, rather than things unfinished.
But what I was thinking about was, for instance, how in conversation, we tell things that happened in the past with present tense. Not always, only sometimes, but people, myself included, do. It's probably why when writing in 1st person, people (myself included, though I get better at it after I settle into it) tend to switch back and forth in tenses. But anyway, if in the sense that hearing someone tell us a story in present tense can be understood as a past event, then shouldn't it be the same sort of thing in writing?
From where I was playing with present tense, my writing seemed more fast paced and immidiate, and I liked the effect because it created a nice sense of urgency, and it can create a sense of continueing action. I wouldn't say that people should use present tense all the time, but it doesn't seem to flow too bad. It is different and would probably need a slightly different approach, but I can see where it would be useful. It seemes to me it could be used more, because I don't see it used much.
My inner musings also led me to remember a book discussion I had about A Thousand Splended Suns. One person brought up how they noticed in the latter portion of the book that in some of the dialogue, instead of "said" it said "says," and went into his analysis about what it meant for the book, and how he thought it implied a few of the statmenents were ongoing things for the character that had continueing significance. For all I know, it was just a mistake, but it did make me think a little. Even if it wasn't purposeful, as long as the readers believe it was done for a purpose, it would therefore mean something. So then, I went off thinking about what kind of things you could imply with use of present tense, provided it made sense to use it. I can't honestly remember exactly, but I think one thing my friend was saying with regards to A Thoudand Splendid Suns was that it seems to progressively use more present tense (I could be clearly wrong here, as I honestly don't know nor own the book, but whether or not it's correct had me thinking). Possibly, if it continually moved toward using more present tense, it could create a sense of moving closer toward the present. For the record, I don't think it was used too much in the book at all, so at this point I've reached over analysis, but it's part of what I do. I don't have the book to check it anyway, but this line of thought entertains me.
As a naturally curious individual, I was wondering what others had to think about it. How well does 1st person present tense work compared to 3rd person present tense, if, by your opinion, at all? Have you used it? To what effect? Sorry if somewhere this was discussed to death before, but it interests me.
But what I was thinking about was, for instance, how in conversation, we tell things that happened in the past with present tense. Not always, only sometimes, but people, myself included, do. It's probably why when writing in 1st person, people (myself included, though I get better at it after I settle into it) tend to switch back and forth in tenses. But anyway, if in the sense that hearing someone tell us a story in present tense can be understood as a past event, then shouldn't it be the same sort of thing in writing?
From where I was playing with present tense, my writing seemed more fast paced and immidiate, and I liked the effect because it created a nice sense of urgency, and it can create a sense of continueing action. I wouldn't say that people should use present tense all the time, but it doesn't seem to flow too bad. It is different and would probably need a slightly different approach, but I can see where it would be useful. It seemes to me it could be used more, because I don't see it used much.
My inner musings also led me to remember a book discussion I had about A Thousand Splended Suns. One person brought up how they noticed in the latter portion of the book that in some of the dialogue, instead of "said" it said "says," and went into his analysis about what it meant for the book, and how he thought it implied a few of the statmenents were ongoing things for the character that had continueing significance. For all I know, it was just a mistake, but it did make me think a little. Even if it wasn't purposeful, as long as the readers believe it was done for a purpose, it would therefore mean something. So then, I went off thinking about what kind of things you could imply with use of present tense, provided it made sense to use it. I can't honestly remember exactly, but I think one thing my friend was saying with regards to A Thoudand Splendid Suns was that it seems to progressively use more present tense (I could be clearly wrong here, as I honestly don't know nor own the book, but whether or not it's correct had me thinking). Possibly, if it continually moved toward using more present tense, it could create a sense of moving closer toward the present. For the record, I don't think it was used too much in the book at all, so at this point I've reached over analysis, but it's part of what I do. I don't have the book to check it anyway, but this line of thought entertains me.
As a naturally curious individual, I was wondering what others had to think about it. How well does 1st person present tense work compared to 3rd person present tense, if, by your opinion, at all? Have you used it? To what effect? Sorry if somewhere this was discussed to death before, but it interests me.
Shameless plug intended).
