Writing Advice
I Used to Hate Reading Present Tense — Now I Write in It!
What tense do you prefer?
It was a perfectly gloomy day.
Knowing precisely what you wanted to do, you snuggled up in your favorite reading spot: maybe it was a chair, a well-loved sofa, or perhaps your bed.
You felt the excitement of cracking open a brand-new book — a story you had been looking forward to for ages. But then…
Your eyes scanned the first sentence. You stopped reading — no. Nonononono!!! Present tense!
The blurb on the back of this novel was not present tense! This book wasn’t advertised as present tense! Someone should have warned you!
This used to be me — an exaggerated version, but more or less accurate. I hated reading novels written in the present tense. It felt odd. It felt… amateurish, even. It was not at all what I was accustomed to.
And then I read a book by author Lizzie Gayle.
I found Lizzy on Tiktok, which I lovingly refer to as Booktok most of the time (as it is, after all, the ‘side’ of Tiktok I often find myself on), and I agreed to ARC read for her.
For anyone who doesn’t know, this is where you get a free copy of a book in advance in exchange for giving an honest review once the book is published.
I felt that I had to read this book — I already agreed. Besides, I genuinely liked the premise. I liked her as a person, and I wanted to support her as an author!
So I made myself do it.
I stepped out of my comfort zone and I read the present tense novel (a romance fantasy, by the way).
I was a couple of chapters in when something in my brain shifted. Something clicked. In a blink, the present tense all seemed rather normal. Her novel captivated me. I was not distracted or put off by the tense one bit.
While ARC was reading for her, I was also working on my debut novel.
I would sit down to write (I was on my third round of editing my draft) when the most annoying thing kept happening: I was repeatedly slipping into present tense!
Now I was writing how I was reading!
In the beginning, I corrected it. Originally, my novel was written in third person, past tense. Later, I changed it to first-person past tense — that was already a huge change!
But then, I got this crazy notion: What if I write an entire chapter in first person present tense? Just to see. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll like it more. ‘It’s only a test,’ I told myself. ‘If you don’t like it, you don’t have to keep it.’
So I tried it, and the best and worst happened simultaneously when I realized two things.
1.) I liked the present tense, much, much more for my story.
2.) I would now have to re-write my entire book — again.
I also realized that in doing so, I would lose some of my future readers.
There would be people out there who felt like I used to — people who CANNOT make themselves read present tense, and therefore would put my novel in their automatic nope pile.
(Tense Switch activate!)
Still, I believe I made the right call.
Not all of my work is written in present tense, but that series — Dominion of Flame and Sorrow — and my episodic urban fantasy, Princess of Nothing, are.
When it comes to articles, I think there is flexibility. Present tense seems to be more common. I believe my Medium articles are a bit of a toss-up. Perhaps one day I’ll go through and see how many I wrote in past tense and how many I wrote in present tense.
All this to say: No matter the tense, you do what works best for you!
So tell me, fellow readers and writers, what tense do you write in? And what tense do you prefer to read fiction in? Or, perhaps you are like this evolved version of me, and it doesn’t matter so long as you enjoy the story!
Now, I will read any tense, any point of view — I can do it all.
I’m glad my brain was able to make the switch!
