My fingers dance across the keyboard as I search for the next word to type. First person present tense annoys me, I think, because one cannot usually record events as they are happening. At the moment, my butt is in a chair, my eyes fixed on the screen before me, my fingers tap, tap, tapping their familiar, soothing rhythm.
Some people believe writing in the present tense makes the events more immediate. I disagree. I feel this technique makes the events more dreamlike. This may be because I am used to reading in the past tense, and so a departure from the norm is an emotional and psychological oddity that my subconscious translates into a sort of dream state. Or it may be because I know these things are not happening now. The narrator has to have lived through them already, because one does not go into battle, mounted on a white steed, with a typewriter balanced across his knee. (Note: Please feel free to create a situation in which a microchip is implanted in a man’s brain, recording his every thought and action as it takes place. I don’t mind.)
Perhaps, as the narrator sits down to record his thoughts, he is so caught in the moment that he flashes back, reliving as he relays. Sarcasm aside, this is what I usually feel when I read first person present tense stories — and it is, in fact, a dream.
I find first person present tense to be an uncomfortable form to read, especially in novel-length stories. I would have put down Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunter Games” after a page or two if a friend hadn’t sworn it was good. In the end, I was glad I finished it, but I never could shake that surreal feeling, like I was in a dream. Even during the most exciting moments, it created in me a palpable lack of energy. Surreal.
Maybe surreal is exactly what you’re going for, but before you choose a viewpoint that goes against the grain, think about why, and the affect it may have on people.