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.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-for-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}