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?

I step back in shock, frightened by this stranger. What is she doing in my house? I look carefully and recognise the signs of friendliness - gin and a universal hatred of loo brushes.

But this thread isn't about writing in the first person, most people are fine with that. It's about writing in the present tense : "She wakes up. The room is dark. She sits up and reaches for her phone " etc. And that's what most people don't like.

I haven’t seen many books written in present but third person - do you have any other examples?

First person or third person, both irritate me. Though in your children’s book example, I agree it would work well.

EL James’ latest The Mister is written in third person present tense. It’s bad. Both in writing style and subject matter.

Jenny Trout does an excellent breakdown of why. She liked chapter one, then went off it in chapter two. She’s up to chapter eighteen at the moment and it’s not getting better.

jennytrout.com/?p=12554

I'm reading this thread and nodding in agreement.

To contrast with a wonderful book, The Hand That First Held Mine is written like this. Maggie O’Farrell is an amazing writer, I’m def not dissing her.

I think a few years ago it was more of a ‘this is a way some writers like to write and you’re either on board with it or not as a reader’ but it seems now like it’s become much more common.

I think it depends on the writer,and prob the books.
I'd say I hate books written in the present tense,and 3rd person present - why?!?
But Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series are written in 3rd Person present and I think they are brilliant,I didn't even notice how they were written til a long way through the first book,at which point I did think I'd been wrong about how could never read a book written like that!

I completely agree with you, OP, and I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction precisely because of this.

It can be done well - yes, Hilary Mantel leads the pack - but 90% of the time it's bad and lazy. Every aspiring author now thinks 'how hard can writing a book be? I'll just write in the present tense and it'll be really, like, immediate and involving! '

Newsflash: it almost always isn't.

This one really depends on the writer - some can do it well, and others don't pull it off - and Maggie O'Farrell def can.

My own huge bugbear is books written to 'you'. So 'you picked up your briefcase and walked out of the room Powerless, I watched you go.' Not in a 'letter' for a short while, but a whole damn novel.

NOOOOOOOO!!!! I didn't do that, and I can't be arsed with reading a whole damn novel of stuff I didn't do!

infinite curve I was put off reading Elly Griffiths for that reason, but once I actually read them I was hooked! I found I was reading them as if I were watching a play. I wonder if this is the intent? Her other books don't use this technique.

Patricia Cornwell uses present tense for Dr Kay Scarpetta. I always think she does it well.

Ooh agree about the 'you' thing. Second person present tense - utterly painful to read. I used to subscribe to mslexia and there was a trend for some very pretentious short stories of that ilk.

I used to hate present-tense writing AND first-person writing.

I got over it - although it's still not my preference.

Having begun Evelyn Hardcastle I have to eat my words. The present tense works great - the narrator /protagonist has lost his memory so the present tense is all he has!

You get used to it if you read enough of them, IMO. I used to absolutely loathe present tense books, but the other day I was halfway through one and realised I hadn't even noticed.