Present Tense Narrative
The present tense is, as any graduate of middle school grammar knows, used to describe events as they occur. As such, it's ubiquitous in the news, magazines, websites, advertisements, nonfiction of all sorts. But as for fiction...
Traditionally, storytelling is done in the past tense. This makes sense, since it generally describes events taking place in the past.
However, there are many tenses available in any really developed language, and though it may be awkward to write mainly in the future or imperfect or pluperfect tenses, there's no technical reason not to do so. Far more common, however, is to write in the present tense. This seems to be a growing trend in modern literature, and is most popular in short stories.
The present tense tends to give a work a sense of urgency and immediacy, and as such is often used to increase tension in the story. The narration may switch from past to present- with or without explanation- to fulfil this end.
Stories which use the present tense sometimes take the form of a journal or Apocalyptic Log, which creates the somewhat jarring impression of a character recording his dramatic experiences while they are happening. However, it does leave open the question of whether the narrating character will survive, whereas if the story was implied to be the recollections of the character written after the fact, we could reasonably assume they did.
Overlaps in many cases with Second Person Narration. See also How Do I Used Tense, for when this is done by accident.
Genre Examples
- Choose Your Own Adventure books are often written in present tense.
- Most Interactive Fiction is written in second person present tense, to simulate the idea that the player is you.
- So are most Western RPGs, to reinforce the connection between the player and their character or party.
- Interactive Comics, being a hybrid between Interactive Fiction and a webcomic, also frequently follow this formula.
Work Examples
- Terry Pratchett does this a lot, particularly to create a cinematic vibe when describing a scene. He also occasionally uses the future tense during such descriptions.
- The second half of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin.
- Parts of The Tomorrow Series are written in the present tense; the whole thing is Ellie's diary of what's happened, which she's writing in big chunks at a time, so most of the action is past tense but a lot of the reflective passages describe what's going on amongst the group in the present tense.
- In the Labyrinth of Reflections novels by Sergey Lukyanenko, all scenes taking place in Real Life are narrated in the past tense, while all scenes inside the local Cyberspace are in the present tense. This is also the first clue that the ending of the first novel never happened in reality.
- Halting State by Charles Stross is written in present tense and second person. As in "You turn on your computer and check your email". With multiple viewpoint characters all referred to as 'you'. Since it's all about video games, the effect is to create the feel of a text adventure or RPG.
- If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino is written in present tense, and second person in the chapters where the reader is the main character.
- The Yiddish Policemens Union by Michael Chabon is written in present tense.
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, the "End of the World" parts are written in present tense in the English translation.
- Neal Stephenson mainly writes using this.
- Katherine Kerr's novel Polar City Blues was written in present tense.
- Played with in Warchild. Parts of the narrative are written in second person and past tense, parts in first person and past tense, and parts in first person with the present tense. The shifts come as a result of the narrator's psyche. The parts in second person recount traumatic abuse that he's trying to disassociate from himself. Those in first person/past tense are events he's lived through and largely coped with. When the narrative switches to present tense, it's to emphasize the immediacy of the situation and the uncertainty of the future.
- Damon Runyon notoriously wrote most of his stories in present tense.
- Charles Dickens' Bleak House switches back between a first-person, past tense narrator and a third-person omniscient narrator in present tense.
- John Updike's novel Rabbit, Run is one of the first major novels written entirely in present-tense.
- A trope often found in Chuck Palahniuk's work, such as Haunted, Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, or Fight Club.
- The novel Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin is entirely written in the present tense. YMMV as to whether or not it works well, or makes the book sound stilted and awkward.
- Comic Books using Thought Captions naturally have Present Tense Narrative, since the "narration" is the character's thoughts. Spider Girl combines it with Second Person Narration: "You are Spider-Girl!"
- The Hunger Games is written in present tense.
- Played with in the Novelization of Crysis 2 (called Crysis: Legion). The novel is told in the first person by the normally silent protagonist, Alcatraz; it's presented as if Alcatraz is being debriefed, and he's recounting the events of the game, but oddly, he describes them in the present tense. This is lampshaded in the when the unheard interviewer doing the debriefing asks Alcatraz why he's talking like that (and so eloquently), and Alactraz just shrugs and says that he sometimes gets caught up in the story himself, and feels as if he's reliving it.
- Larry Milne's Novelisation of Ghostbusters is written in the present tense. It was the first work this troper had read that was written like this, and it was rather a disconcerting experience...
- The Doctor Who Expanded Universe novel Tomb of Valdemar also does this.