what makes you tense?

[deborah]

I have no objection to present tense narration in any single instance, but oh, my kingdom for a book written in past tense.

Dear authors and publishers: writing everything in the present tense will not give your book the success of Hunger Games. PLEASE STOP.

Comments

[libskrat]

Is this where I admit I put down Brightness Falls from the Air midway through because the present tense was so jarring?

[deborah]

I'm so startled how many editors don't call authors, especially debut authors, on this choice.

[rantingnerd]

This is more and more common with what I've been reading. Sometimes it works (I barely noticed with Hunger Games), sometimes it doesn't.

I wonder how much is the influence of screenplays and/or the desire to get the work optioned.

[deborah]

Hmm, interesting thought.

[aveleh]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Here's a hint - if your choices are so noticeable that they pull me out of the story (and it's not to GUSH), then it's the wrong choice.

[deborah]

right. If you are doing something that noticeable stylistically, you'd better be totally awesome at it.

[kumquatmay]

I think you're reading the wrong books. I just picked up 10 random books on my shelf, pubbed and prepub, and not one was present tense.

I have to say, I see the same amount of submissions with narration in present tense after Hunger Games that I saw beforehand. I don't know anyone making that choice to ape Suzanne Collins in that aspect consciously.

I think it's tucked away somewhere in some "how to write YA" website or SCBWI handout or something.

[deborah]

I hope it's just bad luck on my part. I'm mostly talking about the books sent to me for review, so maybe it's just coincidence regarding the books I have been getting for the last however long. And I agree, I actually don't think it's necessarily a Suzanne Collins thing-- it seems like she was more a successful part of a trend than a bellwether.

But oy, on my ARC shelf it's about half. Almost 100 percent on anything post-apocalyptic, and a good third of the YA fantasy.

[kumquatmay]

ah, the genre is prob a big difference. My random sampling was about 50-50 fantasy/postapoco stuff and contemporary YAs.

personally the one dystopian series I edit? Past tense.