What are your thoughts present tense writing?

[mindboggled]

Do you like it? Do you it hate? Do you avoid books written in preset tense? Do you not care? Do you write in preset tense?

I write in present tense, it is just the way I starting writing automatically, never really gave it much thought until later. Seemed natural to me. Up until very recently I actually have not read a single story in present tense. The story I read was "Mage, Maze, Demon": a very solid sword and sorcery tale, although it is a little light hearted for my tastes personally. I still recommend it though.

A story of mine has been published in "Corner Bar Magazine", if you would like to check out my writing I would greatly welcome criticism and feed back.  The story is in issue #8, called "Joe's Bizarre Adventure".  

[Von K]

Congratulations on getting your yarn placed in Corner Bar Magazine mindboggled.

Imho, present tense can be great for creating certain kinds of literary effects, depending on the context anything from the colloquial to the surreal. Michael Moorcock used it for the first chapter of Elric of Melnibone where the present tense narration helped to emphasise his sense of alienation among his own people.

Richard A Lupoff wrote a full novel Sword of the Demon entirely in present tense.

[mindboggled]

Dec 4, 2021 17:23:03 GMT -5 Von K said:

Congratulations on getting your yarn placed in Corner Bar Magazine mindboggled.

Imho, present tense can be great for creating certain kinds of literary effects, depending on the context anything from the colloquial to the surreal. Michael Moorcock used it for the first chapter of Elric of Melnibone where the present tense narration helped to emphasise his sense of alienation among his own people.

Richard A Lupoff wrote a full novel Sword of the Demon entirely in present tense.

Thanks a lot!

I did not notice that the first chapter of Elric was in present tense, that's interesting. Although I have not read it, the Bleak House is apparently fully present tense. Which is surprising considering when it was written. I was of the assumption that writing in present is novel. It makes me wonder why more classic authors did not write in present tense?

[bonesaw]

Well, not to state the obvious, but doesn't past tense lend itself to fantasy and Sword and Sorcery in a natural way that gives the reader the possible ability to suspend their disbelief to some degree- that they are reading historical non-fiction? Present tense can be cool too because it feels immediate and can connect the reader with characters as though they are along side of them, experiencing their experiences as they go. So maybe its a question of proximity that you want to achieve with the reader...?