I used to think in the present, but I’m past that now

Just in case you didn’t get it from the title, this is about tenses in novels. And how readers perceive them while writers go on using or abusing them. Particularly any of the four present tenses in the English language.

I don’t like books written in present tense. Regardless of its perceived immediacy, I seem to share this dislike with many readers. Maybe it’s just a current trend in literature. Maybe it’s a generation thing, with many novels nowadays targeting a young audience. An audience that’s used to – and expects – snappy soundbites and short video clips. Nothing too strenuous or challenging, and well within the attention span of a gerbil. What better way to hook the youngsters than writing in the present?

Yet, when I start with a blank page and an idea, by default I use present tense unless I force myself not to do so. Working on my first novel, The Influence, I wrote the first part, seven chapters and nearly thirty pages, before I even realised it was all in present tense. Considering that the plot I’d figured out by then wouldn’t have worked in the present, I wasted nearly three weeks rewriting it to past tense. All but the dream sequence, as dreams always happen now.

Why does my subconscious insist on it? Maybe it’s because of my need to visualise a scene before committing it to paper. I close my eyes and see it all take place in front of me: the surroundings; the sounds and the smells and the textures; the characters; the emotions. And not least the dialogue. In other words, I watch the chapter that I’m about to write as a collection of film scenes. Because films are immediate.

I’m not saying that I refuse to read books written in the present tense – I’ve got some fantastic examples on my shelves – I just instinctively dislike them. I don’t even know why. And yet I couldn’t write East of East in any other way than in present tense. Go figure it out. If you do so, please enlighten me.

What about you? Do you have preferences or aversions? Do you know why?