Forums

I hate it when people write in the present tense as, for me, it's a lazy way of creating tension and excitement in the story.  A well written piece can communicate (past) immediacy with the right turn of phrase.  I appreciate, however, that in very short pieces (say, under 300 words) it's harder.  But I agree with Lyn!

I don't mind too much as long as the tense used is consistent. What I particularly hate is a piece that starts with one and then switches to the other.

We all know, when we're reading something written in present tense, that of course it happened in the past ... obviously. I don't mind use of present tense - if it's used well, it can make it feel like listening to the person as they describe their experiences as they happen. Some writers are clumsier in past tense than in present, so sometimes present tense works best.

But I think a good writer should be able to make it real and exciting using past tense, which is more accurate.

Past tense every time for me. Using the present tense comes across as an artificial way of trying to create atmosphere and/or tension and as far as I'm concerned it seldom works. (In fact I find it an immediate turn-off and it has to be a really great piece of writing to persuade me to the end of it.)  Writing competitions in general seem to favour the present tense - as well as the use of conversation - judging by some winning entries that I've read, but I agree with Julia and Lyn (and Kavey) that with the right words and phrases the past tense is better as well as being more accurate.

That old chestnut!
Rhoda's right - competitions do seem to favour the present tense. If you look at the weekly Telegraph travel competition, the majority of pieces seem to be in the present tense.
For longer or more thoughtful pieces, the past tense every time. For a short, light-hearted and  humorous piece, or for a dramatic moment, I think the present tense can work very well and gives immediacy.

At the end of the day, it's all preference and opinion. What's one man's meat is another man's poison, as they say!

Incidently, Keith. I think your piece on 'Crossing the Border' is brilliantly written - and the use of the present tense in it, just adds to the tension and terseness of the situation. At the end of the day, however, it's your choice of words and how you put the sentences together that makes it an exceptional piece of writing, not the tense you have chosen.
You can find the piece here:
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/mywanderlust/members/keithruffles/experiences/crossing-the-border_5284
By the way, I noticed that you had entered it for the Pure Travel Writing Competition, and for my money, it's by far the best piece on there - by a long way.

I think it depends entirely on circumstances, personal preference and who you're writing for.

Writing in the past tense has a few disadvantages, at least in English. Say you're writing about something that happened last week, then want to refer to something that happened last month. Trying to do that elegantly, using different versions of the past tense, is pretty difficult. (Much easier in French).

But the present tense is harder to sustain over a long piece, and can end up feeling laboured. Some people can do it, some can't. It's as much to do with personal style (I can't do it) as anything else.

I also think you can switch tense within a piece - it comes down to timeframes and how you want to represent them. If you're writing a piece that spans a long time period then using past and present can work well.

But if a publication has a past/present tense policy, then you just have to stick to it.

Thank you for all the opinions everyone - I guess a lot of it comes down to a mixture of audience, style, whether it's online or in a magazine, and all those other things that you have to consider when you're putting an article together..! My own inkling is that present tense does suit some pieces but it's very easy to go wrong and there's always the risk that the reader switch off if you overdo it.

And it's interesting to hear that travel competitions may favour present tense - perhaps because they tend to be shorter than magazine articles?

Btw thank you hmoat for the kind words, I'm really glad you liked the story! I struggled for ages before opting for present tense to try to add a bit of immediacy/tension, and it's great to think that in this case it might have worked.

Anyone that uses the present tense should be shot and their families slaughtered. Well, ok, maybe not. But at the very least they should be smeared in syrup and suspended above a pit of hungry marmosets.

I find the use of the present tense (sadly very prevalent in much of today's literary output) very annoying. I do think it's the easiest one to use, hence the over-use of it in amateur writing competitions. I don't agree that writing competitions tend to favour it (although yes, I have seen comp winners using the PT) - people like Lyn will be judging such, and she doesn't like it!

I don't even read present tense contributions, on this site or elsewhere. I find it weak and wishy-washy. Immediacy? Tension? The excuses for using the PT are just as bad as the tense itself. Cheap tricks, in my view. A story is story - it is being recounted, because it has already happened. I bet Og the caveman sure as hell never sat around the campfire in 10,000 B.C, saying 'Og throws spear at mammoth and mammoth starts to run and Og gives chase....' 

But, whatever floats your boat - I don't want to be a Nazi about it. I just won't read it.

I'd disagree with Louise too - English is perfectly capable of describing past events whenever they happened. I can read novels in French and Spanish (and just about in Italian), and the imperfect and the preterite tenses make me just as crazy as the present tense in English.

I wouldn't go quite so far as Sergeant Pluck, but I must say that I do find the use of the present tense to describe events which, obviously, happened in the past to be rather pretentious.

Chocolate? Or chips?
A couple of years ago I wrote a series of articles for Sailing Today about a voyage from Turkey to India. I wrote in the past tense. I enjoyed the challenge of writing almost as much as the adventure itself (well, sort of). So I decided to test my skills by submitting a story to the Telegraph weekly competition. I heard nothing. I sent a couple more. Niente. So I looked at the winning entries and noticed how many were written in the present tense. I changed my style by making it more introspective, and wrote in the present tense. I won. For my second win I mixed past and present: what a crime!
Now I look back at my first attempts at writing and cringe (and not only because many were in the present tense). Two years down the line I'm still feeling my way, and have almost – but not entirely – said goodbye to the present tense. 
The present tense doesn't work for me in factual magazines, or novels, or long pieces. But a honed piece, erring on the side of fiction – perhaps impressionistic, perhaps deeply personal – can work. I disagree that it's an easy option. It is less forgiving than the past tense: for it to work, the writer needs writerly skill and a lightness of touch. If not executed well the present tense can come across as melodramatic, artificial or irritating. Mind you, so can the past tense. 
Perhaps, in the end, it comes down to how well the writer writes, and has nothing to do with tenses at all.

I tend to write in the future tense. I feel this adds a sense of anticipation to my stories.

Now that's a challenge. Maybe the next myWanderlust mini writing piece should be futuristic ...