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

[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.