Writers can get into heated arguments over the use of present tense. These arguments never go anywhere, because the main objection to present tense is that some people don’t like it – because they don’t. While present tense may not be your cup of tea or the best fit for your current story, it has a couple significant advantages. If you haven’t tried it before, it’s worth considering.
Our Discomfort Is Just a Growing Pain
First, let’s put the discomfort with present tense into a bigger context. Many people imagine that fiction writing is an unchanging art, but that’s false. It changes, just not as quickly as many other fields. It can’t move very quickly because as a craft of communication, it requires some level of consensus. A story won’t go far without a significant community that agrees on everything from the punctuation to the meaning of each word.
Now let’s rewind to what our very oldest stories sounded like. Before the written word or even oral storytelling traditions, we probably had:
- Someone we knew relating what happened to them, in first-person past tense.
- Someone we knew relating a secondhand account they heard from someone else, in third-person past tense.
At first, these two styles would have been the only ones we were used to. It’s easy to see how #2 would evolve into an omniscient third-person narrator as storytelling became a tradition. But if a friend walked up to you and related an impossibly detailed account of supposedly true events, complete with every person’s thoughts, you would probably find that weird. The convention of the omniscient narrator had to be established.
It was also a jump for storytellers to use first person for events they didn’t experience. For it to work, the audience has to accept that the storyteller is an actor playing a role. That’s why in ancient Egyptian stories, framing devices were used to explain first-person narration. The story would start in third person, introduce the main character, and then that character would tell the story in earnest.
We no longer need these framing devices. Today, readers are used to a handful of narrative premises that we accept without explanation. And one of the most popular, the unfolding-events premise, simply dispenses with the storyteller altogether. That means readers should feel like they are directly witnessing events, even though those events are expressed through words on paper.
In real life, we don’t witness our surroundings as though they happened in the past. Present tense is the most natural fit for unfolding events, but the use of present tense in stories is relatively new. For readers who aren’t used to it, present tense can feel unnatural and distracting.
Interestingly, the reverse can also happen. Some people who read only present tense find past tense off-putting. However, because past tense is so conventional, this is less common.
Present tense is likely to become more conventional and less contentious over time, but it might take a while before it’s as accepted as past tense.
Present Tense Is More Concise
When we speak, present tense is the default tense.* Because of its heavy usage, it’s also the most efficient. This translates to more concise language on the page, making reading a smoother experience.
- Present tense allows for more contractions, which saves space and syllables. “I am,” “she is,” “it is,” and “they are” can all be contracted, whereas “I was,” “she was,” “it was,” and “they were” can’t be. Contractions aren’t always better, but present tense gives us the option.
- Most present-tense verbs are a letter or two shorter than their past-tense equivalents, saving space. Some of them also save a syllable over the past form: skidded, twisted, pitted, spotted, drifted, distracted, sounded, jolted, reacted, etc.
- When a past-tense narrative refers to an earlier time, it has to switch to past perfect. That requires the extra use of “had” before other verbs, which can be awkward. In contrast, a present-tense narrative can simply switch to past tense.
Let’s compare past and present using an excerpt from Winter World. In it, the viewpoint character has just received a file with data from a space probe. The original is in present tense.
I immediately open it and scan the readings of the solar radiation. I’m shocked. They’re far higher than the readings on Earth, but that makes no sense—the probe is at roughly the same distance from the Sun. Unless the probe was hit with a flare? No, it’s not that: the readings are consistent over time. Maybe it’s a local phenomenon.
This is what the same passage looks like in past tense.
I immediately opened it and scanned the readings of the solar radiation. I was shocked. They were far higher than the readings on Earth, but that made no sense—the probe was at roughly the same distance from the Sun. Unless the probe had been hit with a flare? No, it wasn’t that: the readings were consistent over time. Maybe it was a local phenomenon.
The differences aren’t big, but they are numerous. Enough that these little changes resulted in a paragraph that’s slightly longer.
Narration in present tense sheds letters, syllables, and words up and down the page, every page. That could even make printing a little cheaper.
Present Tense Is More Immediate
Immediacy is the big advantage that most advocates of present tense tout. The reason is obvious: thinking of events as occurring sometime in the past makes them feel more distant. This lowers immersion and tension.
When writers try to make past tense feel immediate, the results aren’t always great. Take this excerpt from Maximum Ride.
My lungs aching for air? I could deal. As long as I could put as much distance as possible between me and the Erasers.
Yeah, Erasers. Mutants: half-men, half-wolves, usually armed, always bloodthirsty. Right now they were after me.
That last sentence is just yeesh. Let’s try it in present tense.
My lungs aching for air? I can deal. As long as I can put as much distance as possible between me and the Erasers.
Yeah, Erasers. Mutants: half-men, half-wolves, usually armed, always bloodthirsty. They’re after me.
In present tense, the “right now” feels redundant. After it’s removed, the narration still has more immediacy than the original.
Let’s look at a teaser from the opening of Twilight. While Twilight uses the unfolding-events premise, it’s in past tense.
I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.
Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something. […]
The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.
Below, I’ve put it in present tense.
I stare without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looks pleasantly back at me.
Surely it’s a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I love. Noble, even. That ought to count for something. […]
The hunter smiles in a friendly way as he saunters forward to kill me.
This tense teaser is even more tense after the change. Similarly, it’s easier to believe that Bella could die – though the narrative premise is doing the heavy lifting there.
The greater immediacy of present tense is probably why it’s most often used with first person. First person already lends itself well to an immersive experience, which makes the pairing ideal for thrilling stories. Third person can also benefit from present tense, but some readers will have greater discomfort when present tense is combined with third person.
Altogether, the importance of immediacy varies from story to story, but it’s never a bad quality to have. However, you may decide to forgo it, and present tense, in favor of other benefits.
Choosing When to Use It
First, every writer has their personal limitations. If you hate present tense, I’m not telling you to write in it. What’s more, changing your narrative style can be tricky and labor intensive. If you’re used to past tense, you may find yourself slipping back into it while you’re trying to write in present. A draft that’s littered with the wrong tense can be difficult to iron out. This is why I recommend testing any new narration style on a short story before committing to using it in a novel.
Next, it’s okay to choose past tense just because some people don’t like present tense. You’re not required to make a bold statement; do whatever is comfortable for you. That said, most readers don’t have a problem with it. Generally, you don’t have to worry about your work’s marketability just because you wrote in present instead of past tense.
Putting practical concerns aside, present tense makes stories feel more modern and thrilling. That’s often a great fit for science fiction, horror, and urban fantasy. However, you may prefer to give your story a more classic feel, particularly if it’s fairy-tale fantasy, historical fantasy, or other-world fantasy. In that case, past tense is a better fit.
Present tense is also incompatible with a character-retelling narrative premise. This is when a character recounts events that happened in their past. A character retelling encourages a more conversational tone and gives the narration more flexibility. Generally, this means it’s less immersive but offers more opportunity for jokes and other fun anecdotes. In most cases, picking a character retelling already means you aren’t prioritizing immersion and tension.
To summarize, the most natural match for present tense is a narrative that:
- Is being told in first person
- Is taking place in the present day or future
- Is prioritizing emotional intensity and tension over banter
Twilight fits all of these qualifications, so I think it would have been better in present tense. However, there are no hard rules here; it’s mostly a matter of artistic preference. You might want to cast historical events in a modern light or use your retelling narrator to make ominous comments about the future. Your narrative style can be a subtle choice that lets the story speak for itself, or it can be a bold choice that casts the story in a new light.
You’ll find many more arguments about present tense online, but they’re mostly hogwash. Present tense doesn’t create any problems with transitioning backward and forward in time, nor is it a profound practice in realism. Choosing present tense doesn’t say anything about you as a writer, with one exception: it says you like present tense.
P.S. Our bills are paid by our wonderful patrons. Could you chip in?
Since present-tense writing has been so unpopular for so long, I suspect there are lots of neat techniques and premises undiscovered that could be explored.
Question: Is past-tense the default form for story telling in ALL languages that have a written literary tradition? If not- if there is some culture where present-tense storytelling is the default- then that would certainly be interesting; must make translations infuriatingly hard. But if past-tense-as-default really IS universal, than that may say something about the viability of present.
I don’t know about other cultures’ written tradition, but I do know that the historical present is quite common when people relate events in *spoken* English.
Past tense is not the default in our own oral tradition, even if we’re more used to it in print.
Historical present is more common when someone’s trying to “paint a picture.” For that reason, you’ll notice it’s more common when (but not exclusive to) recounting something in first-person, as the speaker has a more vivid image of events they personally experienced, and can put themselves in that moment as they run the tape.
chinese doesn’t have tenses. so i think stories in it by default feel more like present tense than past tense. then again, the difference between them actually isn’t large, so i wouldn’t know how to tell.
the choice in tense for a story is largely arbitrary. if you’re a translator, you just pick one and go. can’t go wrong with past, but sometimes a narrator will obliquely address the reader, making it closer to present.
i’m sure a preference of setting stories in the past is universal. after all, if you want your story to feel plausible, wouldn’t an event have to had already happened for you to tell a story about it? and the greatest stories would’ve been passed down through generations. so you would be relaying the words of your ancestors.
in conversational english at least it’s perfectly common for people to talk about past events in present tense. i don’t think it’s a thing in japanese though. that’s all the languages i know
a lot of times, differences in languages don’t point to something fundamental, they’re just about what sounds better
That’s interesting about Chinese.
I’m currently writing a story involving a moral dilemma. It’s in present tense
At the end the moral dilemma is solved. The falling action, what basically amounts to a short epilogue showing the outcome of that decision, is past tense to show that everything is resolved
So far none of my beta readers commented on it one way or the other
That’s rather clever.
Damon Runyon wrote in present tense, even when he’s talking about something that happens long ago
This adds to the slang and informality he apparently wanted, but when he did switch to past incidents the story becomes a bit trickier to read, and feels like an affectation
I always used to have a problem with present tense but I really fell in love with Paul G Tremblay’s writing, read all his horror novels, mostly present tense, back to back and it really grew on me after that
Present tense is nearly universal in scripts for theatre, TV, and film. I write plays here and there, so prose stories written in present tense feel natural to me. What takes me out of a story is more likely to be poor execution than anything else.
You know, when I was just a wee thing, I habitually used present tense in concert with the past tense, along with the odd contraction here and there. It made the prose feel more dynamic, and I was able to write stories like this without any real hesitation; just cranking out page after page, making adjustments and editing later chiefly by way of intuition.
People with no formal education nor any interest in reading actually wanted to see where my stories went; said it was easier for them than the usual sort of wiriting.
On the other hand, I got to meet the formally educated, who then told me that my writing style was bad (and wrong) for not fitting the past-tense-only, contractionless style that’s so enforced. Everything that had made me interested in writing was basically battered out of me over the course of subsequent education.
Normal people stopped reading my stuff and lost interest in the new, stilted, “accessible” prose; whereas the typical meangirl critics still weren’t happy with how I wrote. It’s been taking me a while to get into the habit of just writing again, (rather than fretting over rejection by people I shouldn’t be giving my time,) but it’s coming along, and I can now once again write in a way that resembles something more like a story told by a human being, rather than the owner’s manual of an old pickup truck.