Matters of Tense

I write in present tense.  I’ve tried to write in past tense, but by the second or third paragraph, I migrate back into present.  Writing in past tense feels “dead” to me.

Now before you jump to defend all your own or others’ past-tense novels, let me clarify that this only refers to my writing tense.  As a reader, I hardly notice tense.  I will enjoy a good past tense novel just as much as a good present tense novel. 

But as a writer, I’m discovering my story, and it’s unfolding right in front of my eyes as the words fill the page.  To write in past tense is to write as if these events have already occurred, that the events I will write are a foregone conclusion, and that the end is historical fact.  But how can that be when they don’t exist yet?

Writing in present tense makes me feel like anything can still happen.  Often, my characters prove this to be true as they make their own decisions and take the story in an entirely unexpected direction.

Writing in present tense makes me feel like part of the action.  I become my characters in those moments, seeing their world through their eyes. 

And it’s all happening.  Right.  Now.