Present tense writing is driving me crazy!!!

[Theclearing]

Is this just my own personal cross to bear? I hate hate hate the trend of writing in present tense. You know, like ‘she wants to say this to him, but she can’t quite do it. She crosses the room instead bla bla’

I just find it really hard to get into. Just reading Swan Song about Truman Capote which I want to love so much, but the present tense is driving me crazy.

Am I just really old fashioned?

Totally agree with you. I can sort of see why some writers do it, but it gets really awkward at times as it's difficult to maintain especially if the novel is complicated and you sometimes wonder if you've really understood what is happening!

I agree with you. It must be incredibly hard to write, too, as when we tell someone about something that's happened, we always use the past tense. I can't think of a situation where we think or talk in the present tense for any period of time.

BUT SO MANY OF THEM ARE AT IT WHY WHY!!!

People do do it in real life though. As in
"I'm standing there and I'm like WTF?"

HOwever I dislike it in most fiction and HATE HATE HATE it on Radio 4 when they are discussing Julious Caesar or Henry VIII.

It happenED a long time ago FGS.

That would be Julius Caesar (I think)

Omfg how do they discuss hVIII on the radio in present tense! What like he’s just there between them with his festering leg going ‘well, Jim, I like them young and fresh meself’

If youre old fashioned then so am I.

Hurrah for us! (She says, as she thinks about why writing this way is so impossibly frustrating for certain of her Luddite readers.) aargh even writing it as a joke is painful.

Yes, I'm old and I hate this. I saw a FB post with someone saying (about herself)
"she thought she couldn't do it, she thought she'd fail, but she didn't and she's so proud of herself."
Attention-seeking guff.

She thinks she can't do it, she thinks she will fail but she doesn't and she's so proud of herself, surely?

The whole present tense for historical stuff is called the historical present. It’s a thing.
Listen to Feedback, many people hate it.

What’s Feedback?

Also common in thrillers/women’s fiction/

I hate it. It's usually a load of pretentious guff with no plot.

I was actually going to write the same op myself today. I picked up The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle from the library and a quick flick revealed it's in the present tense I'll give it a go but I find it really off putting.
And I hate that American style of speech "so I'm standing there and I see a man, he's walking out..." no, you were standing there and you saw a man. It enrages me

I met the author of Swan Song once —Kelleigh Something-Double-barrelled? — and disliked her so much I’ve never read it. (Is it any good?)

I think present tense shows up weak writing, and it can work better for some types of story than others — something with a short timescale where a lot of the interest is focused on what is immediately in front of us, rather than the past — but it can be too unreflective, I think. Like the previous page never happened.

On the other hand, Hilary Mantel does it in the Cromwell books, and she is a divinity.

@noeuf you're quite right. I was just ranting in the moment. Third person speak drives me mad though. 😬

When done well it's marvellous. Gives a sense of place and immediacy in a way no other writing style can do. Mantel's Cromwell books, as mentioned by a PP, are the perfect example.

3cats she accepts the correction gracefully, typing into the screen. What's that? She looks over at the door, a dark shadow falls across and ...

100% honourable exception for Hilary Mantel. But she really uses it for a stylistic purpose rather than making it feel like a choose-your-own-ending novel.

Noeuf ...... 3cats enters the room. She hangs her head in shame. She's been gardening all day and desperately needs a gin. She pours, she enjoys. She looks out at her garden......

Ohhhh god, as a teacher I fucking hate this!! I cannot tell you how many stories I have read from children that are written in the present tense, Hunger Games style. They can never sustain it and it leads to a great big literary mess!

But most YA and middle grade books are written in first person, present tense at the mo. It’s just the fashion. And it makes the reader connect more with the story and feel more involved...

I agree it’s hard to do well, though, but there’s no need to hate it just because. It has to be consistent, but then so does a story in past tense...

Compare

She was feeling very cross and sad.

With

Oh no, I could just cry. What am I so stupid?

The second example gets you right in the main character’s head, and avoids telling.

Why, not what!