Quote:
Originally Posted by ReadingManiac
More of us need to speak up so they get the message.
If they want to be script writers, let them write scripts in present tense. For novels, the occasional passage for immediacy works but not the entire novel!
I reject Kindle samples out of hand when I find they're written that way. Just no.
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I used to hate present tense -- except for an occasional chapter, like the chapter written from the POV of the serial killer (or dog) or whatever. It annoyed me when I tried to get into legal thrillers because a lot of those authors thought they should use present tense because that's what Scott Turow used for Presumed Innocent. But it worked for Presumed Innocent (unless you loathe present tense) for a reason. (Because you weren't sure if the MC was telling the truth.) For most legal thrillers, it didn't work.
Then, I started reading some of the newer (at the time) young adult "problem" novels. And because a lot of them were in present tense at the time, I got used to present tense.
And now, I'm reading a lot of psychological suspense, and some of those use present tense. It often works with that type of book -- especially with unreliable narrators.