Hello everyone - newbie here.
I thought it was quite funny that there seem to be so many people who go "ICK!" at present tense. A few years ago I was writing in past and found that it was very stop-and-start, jerky, oh good Lord it took aaaaaaaages to write a 'normal size' novel then for some reason I figured, to rewrite it and try to make it fresher, I would start again from the beginning and edit it all into present tense and from then on it worked, it flowed, I wrote a lot faster (even when not merely editing, but writing from scratch).
When I read novels I don't tend to notice in which tense they are written, I mean, I'm aware of it but it doesn't really register. I've heard one author in particular say she absolutely hates it (steady on love!) as it's pretentious on the part of the writer to make out "Ooh I don't know what happens next, I'm going to be as surprised as you, dear reader!"
So what. It works for me. Maybe if I was asked to write in past, I could write the entire think in present and edit it all into past, but hey - it works for me. Saves me having to work out all those flashback problems - did she? Had she? She had once done this? Had she in the past done or did?
Aw, you know what I mean.
).
