Why Present Tense Is Bad

Of course, the answer to such a claim is seldom simple, and the answer to this one is no exception: present tense isn?t bad when it?s used appropriately. Present tense is appropriate for stage direction, blocking scenes and actors; it?s appropriate in screenplays and scripts, informing actors of what they?re expected to do in a given scene; it?s appropriate, of course, in novels and short fiction when it?s used in dialogue (we speak in present tense) and in characters? unspoken thoughts (we think in present tense). But it is absolutely not appropriate in narrative. Whether the narrative is offered in first-person or third-person, limited or omniscient, Past Tense Is the Natural Voice of Narrative. Those are the bare-bones facts of this particular matter. What follows is the rationale.

Okay, as I mentioned in my previous post, a writer friend (Thanks RO?B) asked me to write a post on Why Present Tense Narrative Sucks. He said he agrees with me, but he also wrote, ?[Doing so] might cause some controversy, because ever since The Hunger Games everyone is writing in that tense.?

I responded to my writer friend with what became part of this blog post:

Present-tense narrative is wonderful in screenplays (the director is blocking the actors), but in the screenplay the present-tense narrative never makes it to the audience except as it?s translated into action on the screen. Have you ever thought about that? When the screenwriter writes

John and Ringo stroll across the street, carefully avoiding a large horse apple

he?s speaking directly in the script to the actors who are playing John and Ringo, instructing them on what to do and how to do it. He isn?t talking (or writing) directly to the eventual viewer of the film. In a short story or novel (or perhaps a memoir if it were about my family), that bit of narrative would read

John and Ringo strolled across the street, carefully avoiding a large horse apple.

Present tense does not make the story more intimate or more immediate (whatever that means) as its proponents claim; instead, it pushes the reader away, as if he were sitting in the audience listening to the director whisper stage directions. Here are a couple more short examples:

I move along the sidewalk, watching as the man across the street ducks into a store.

I moved along the sidewalk, watching as the man across the street ducked into a store

Jane crosses the street, approaches the hotdog vendor, and orders a hotdog with everything on it.

Jane crossed the street, approached the hotdog vendor, and ordered a hotdog with everything on it.

Finally, here?s a longer and more detailed example, first in present tense and then in past tense:

As Celeste places two bowls of beans on the small kitchen table and sits down, Lilly sets a basket of cornbread and the marigold butter dish between them and takes her usual place beside her friend. ?We never have beans and cornbread that I don?t think of Elsie,? Celeste says. ?It doesn?t matter which one of us makes it, the cornbread never tastes as good as it did when your grandmother made it, and we watched her a thousand times. What do you think our problem is?? She sits back for a moment, waiting for Lilly to answer her question.

As Celeste placed two bowls of beans on the small kitchen table and sat down, Lilly set a basket of cornbread and the marigold butter dish between them and took her usual place beside her friend. ?We never have beans and cornbread that I don?t think of Elsie,? Celeste said. ?It doesn?t matter which one of us makes it, the cornbread never tastes as good as it did when your grandmother made it, and we watched her a thousand times. What do you think our problem is?? She sat back for a moment, waiting for Lilly to answer her question.

Do you see how the first example forces you to sit back in the audience and watch the scene unfold? If you don?t, read both examples aloud. In the first example, you aren?t a participant. You?re an outsider, an unwelcome witness, listening to the director tell the actors what to do. You don?t even get to actually ?see? the actors do it. This flies directly in the face of ?Show, don?t tell,? yet many writers adhere to it. Why? Because although it?s an almost ancient technique of playwrights, someone somewhere purloined it, applied it to fictional narrative, and labeled it ?cutting edge? and a ?new? technique. Of course, anything that?s labeled ?cutting edge? or ?nouveau? anything immediately becomes all the rage. Proponents make sweeping but vague, hard to define claims, saying present-tense narrative is more ?intimate? and ?immediate.? But ask them to explain what they mean by those terms (I double-dog dare you) and they won?t be able to do it. At best, probably they?ll mutter the same, tired, age-old clich? of those who shouldn?t be allowed to teach anything except how to avoid responsibility: ?Umm, I can?t really explain it, but I know it when I see it.? Those who are almost ready for the political arena will go farther: ?Oh, admittedly it defies description! That?s what?s so intimate and immediate about it. And did I say it?s cutting edge?? But I digress. In the second example, it?s as if you?re standing just outside the kitchen, watching and listening as the two little old ladies go about preparing for a meal. There?s a director (or writer) involved, but do you notice him? No. It?s just you and the characters, all in the scene. They?re setting the table and are about to eat, and you?re a character too: The Eavesdropper. There now, isn?t that better?

If you need more proof that past tense is the natural voice of narrative, consider, when anyone tells anyone else what happened (past tense) to them, they tell it in past tense. I know, I know, sometimes some folks will say something like ?So I walk up to this guy and I say ?Blah blah blah,? and then he says to me ?Blah blah blah blah? and then we go our separate ways.?? Except chances are, they?ll end it with ?and then we went our separate ways? because they always slide back into past tense before it?s all over with, often several times. Why? Because (again) Past Tense Is the Natural Voice of Narrative.

And even if people do occasionally relate what happened to them in present tense, they always set it up in?wait for it?Past Tense. Think back. Has anyone ever rushed into your house and said, ?You?ll never believe what happens to me as I?m on my way to the grocery.? No. They?ll say, ?You?ll never believe what happened to me as I was on my way to the grocery.?

As for RO?B?s other point?that ?ever since The Hunger Games everyone?s been writing? in present tense, all I can say is ?Yawn.? That?s the same absolutely inane excuse I hear all the time. ?Well so and so did it so it must be right.? (See my previous blog post, please.)

Still, I can only offer recommendations. It?s your work. I?m amazed at how many writers ask, ?Why can?t I??? because the bottom line is, You Can and You May. You certainly don?t need my permission. It?s up to you. It?s all a matter of priorities and what you want the reader to notice:

If you want to be certain the reader notices you, the writer, and how cool you are because you wrote without quotation marks around dialogue or without capitalization or? because you wrote in present tense or because you wrote while standing on your head, spitting BBs and juggling three cats and a turtle, by all means, go for it.

I don?t want that for my own writing. I want the reader to enjoy the story, not how I wrote the story. I want her to tell all her friends how wonderful it was to spend some time in the cantina in Agua Rocosa (my fictional village), not get into a discussion with them about why I didn?t use quotation marks around dialogue or why I used strange capitalization or why I wrote in present tense. I want her to read and enjoy without realizing there was a writer behind the scenes at all. I don?t even want the reader to remember my name. But I want her to be so freakin? impressed by the story that she?ll go out of her way to find my name at the front of the book and look up more of my work. And that?s what I want for you as well.

?Til next time, happy writing!

Harvey

PS: If you have a comment about this post, unless it?s extremely personal and will not add to the discussion, please comment below rather than (or in addition to) sending me an email privately. Also, if you found this post useful, please use the Share buttons at the bottom. Thanks!

Source: http://www.harveystanbrough.com/2013/03/20/why-present-tense-is-bad/

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