I hear the old timers amongst you crying when I tell you what I'm up to.

The Winter House has just been turned down again by my favourite publisher, but in such a nice positive and encouraging way, I've threatened to send them something else.

Those of you who’ve been around the block a few times might remember Paying For The Gallery, a romance I worked on when I first joined WW. It’s written entirely in the third-person POV of the main character so, a while ago, I considered switching it into POV1 and posted up two versions of chapter one for feedback and opinions. The jury was split more or less 50/50 and in the end I gave up and moved on to something else.

Now I've started thinking about it again. I enjoy writing short stories in POV1, present tense, but I've always thought it couldn’t sustain a whole novel. Recently I've read a few and I'm wondering if I should have another try at it.

What do you think? I don’t mean about PFTG specifically, but generally, what’s the view on first-person present tense in a novel? Is it fashionable? Or, as Emma says, like hitting yourself on the head with a teaspoon?

Dee


<Added>

Just realised that sounds like I only want feedback from the oldies who read the original… I don’t. I’d appreciate the opinions of anyone.

Dee, that's great news that you've got that interest.

With first person present tense, yes, I do often feel the author's hitting me over the head with a teaspoon. But that's because yes, it is fashionable, and so lots of writers use it when it isn't actually the right form for their story. The main thing is to perhaps to understand why your story seems to want to be that way. I think present tense is great for immediacy - that's obvious. But it's harder to convey anything reflective or nuanced: the teaspoon-effect is something to do with the and... and... and... feel of present tense writing. It's truly without past or future, just unrelenting present, like a goldfish's memory. Thrillers written like that seem to me incredibly superficial, like a bad computer game: bang, bang, bang, you're dead. Finish.

BUT, I think the one that can works really well for the right story is first-person present. There's the kind of short story which is one intensely personal moment, And in a novel then you can convey the person's sense of past and future that intertwines with their present experience - just as our own does in real life. That's why - confession time - I'm using it for two out of my three narrative threads in the new novel, because they both, for different reasons, slip and slither about between the frame of the character's present, and the different parts of their past that have shaped it. The past passages are quite sustained, so it's partly about helping to keep the reader knowing where they are. But once I'd made that practical decision, I found the effect of the present-tense passages very different, and fruitful: these are people who really don't know where they're going. The third strand is also 1st person, but is a more practical narrator in a more straightforward telling of her story in traditional past tense, with no hint (until the end, I think, but I haven't got there yet) of her present situation.

Emma

<Added>

ach! with any person present tense

people who really don't know where they're going.

That’s this character exactly, Emma. I wrote the whole thing from just her POV because I didn’t want her (or readers) to know what’s in the guy’s head. Trouble is, it feels a bit too distanced from her head. I've been playing around with POVs and tenses today, and I'm leaning towards third person present tense. It’s more immediate than third/past, but allows for more reflective narrative than first/present.

Yours sounds mighty complex. How’s it going?

Dee

I'm leaning towards third person present tense. It’s more immediate than third/past, but allows for more reflective narrative than first/present.

Interesting. I think past tense is almost invisible, in the sense that you don't necessarily feel it's all done and dusted, it can be just as immediate in the reading, as many a classic thriller will prove. What's missing for me from present tense is the sense of the depth of the experience, I think. With first/present at least you have the sense of the narrator's experience very immediately, and s/he can reflect in their own terms, as it were. But it's a very personal thing, and I know that as soon as I say 'I wouldn't ever' about some technique, I start thinking, 'but it might work for...'

How’s it going?

Well, until last Thursday I hadn't touched it since June, what with TMOL being published, and the summer holidays, and NZ and Oz, and all. But I think it's back on track; just terribly slow going, and my instincts get skewed by reviews, even though they've been terrific. It's more technically challenging than TMOL, but 'twas ever thus. It's technical challenges that get me all excited - I'm fascinated by structure - and then... well, I have to solve them.

Emma

Dee - if you want to do it 1st person present tense and if you feel that's right for the character, then I'd say go for it, whether it's the fashion or not.

My 4th novel, "Maloney's Law", is written entirely in 1st person present tense because my MC is obsessed with time (due to something that happened in the family when he was a child) and he can only cope, in terms of his ordinary life, with what is in the here and now. It also seemed to be the right "voice" for him.

So, I think it has to be an artistic decision for you to make - Sod the commercial tiddlypop! - where do you feel happiest?

And, as with us all, keep on trucking - I'll buy whatever you publish first!!

)

A
xxx

Anne,

Sod the commercial tiddlypop!

Ooh if only… LOL.

Thing is, you see, I'm on a mission. A secret mission at the moment, but I'm feeling very determined tonight. (tomorrow I’ll probably feel hungover and I have to shift dirty old carpets out of the new house… boo… but it is Saturday night, after all)

I've spent the evening, between watching the X-Factor and seeing a really lovely bloke win a million on WWTBAM, converting some of Paying For The Gallery into third person/present tense. I might upload a section later, but I want to explore it a bit more first.

I'll buy whatever you publish first!!

Thanks hon. xxx

Someone won a million did they? There were no sounds of coughing or anything?

Hehe… no, only the sounds of his two children whimpering when they thought he’d blown it.

written entirely in 1st person present tense because my MC is obsessed with time (due to something that happened in the family when he was a child) and he can only cope, in terms of his ordinary life, with what is in the here and now. It also seemed to be the right "voice" for him.

That sounds like a brillian reason for doing it. What annoys me is writers for whom it's the default, because they're deaf to the particular quality of it, and don't realise what they're missing by not exploring the other possibilities.

Emma

It's great you've got some interest for PFTG. I remember it from when I first joined, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

All the best

Harry

just wanted to say that my dad knew the answer to the million pound question and as someone who still, pretty childishly, thinks his parents don't know nuffink - nuffink at all! - i couldnt stop smiling when it came up right.

yeah, dee - i think third person present gets a bad press. i quite like it and used it in a piece i wrote in which everything takes place in one day and thought it worked rather well.

go for it, and anyway: the past is present, the future tense.

Dee
I homed in on this because I've just posted a short in Ist present tense. It works because it's very personal to my MC. I don't know if I would be able to sustain it for a whole novel without it becoming false. Main problem for me would be you can only go where the character does and in real time. Or do I have it completely wrong? You know your charcter, and if it works for you, go with it. Good luck.
Kat

It's easier and more natural to write in the past tense... just like one does in normal conversation. This is NOT to say that the present tense should be avoided; quite the contrary. A writer is communicating with the readers and often the present tense allows 'better' images to be formed when the writer knows how best this tense may be exploited and where the tense is 'more suited' to the story, the characters, the pace and so on... however this is a decision for the writer to make.

An experienced writer will instinctively know which tense (or tenses) need to be used - there is no right or wrong decision.


So, Dee you are well-experienced and will know the 'right' tense for your work. Without being consciously aware you will ask yourself a number of questions... questions on readers' reactions to your work, the effects you are attempting to create, the characters' emotions, their interactions and so on. Therefore, don't worry... I am sure you will try various ideas and then decide what is 'right' for Dee is 'right' for the work.

Len

Thanks guys!

Kat, I've just commented on that piece of yours – the tense works well there, especially as he’s in a timeless place. It’s good.

PFTG was the first novel I wrote when I got back into writing after an almost 20 year lay-off, and it’s metamorphosed as learned the craft. I think it’s a good story, and it got some excellent feedback when I posted it on here, BUT I've never been 100% happy with the main female character. I felt slightly detached from her, and I think it showed. Switching into present tense seems to have got me right inside her head. However, I’ll let you lot be the judge. I’ll upload a little bit and see what the reaction is… if anyone reads it…

Hey Sammy – I knew the answer too. Mind you , there were several leading up to it that I couldn’t have guessed at! So no cigar for me...

Dee

Please do and I'll take a look. Thanks for looking at mine. Really laughed about shorts on his arm, only I would manage to convey that. Never mind. I will look again at the punctuation. I couldn't make up my mind if it was a story or play. I will stick to story and put in the speech marks.
Kat