Where are you in 1st-person singular present?

[Rich.]

I always struggle with this, am always a little confused.

First-person singular past – I made tea for the octopus – that makes sense to me: someone is telling me a story about their past. And a third-person narrator can be invisible – Jimmy opened the fridge – or a raconteur – Now, the fun, if that's what you call it, was far from over because as if on cue Jimmy opened the fridge. But first-person singular present – I type with two fingers, a frown puckering my brow, wondering how to phrase the question – where am I when I read this? Am I in the narrator's head as the action unfolds, or is the narrator telling me about their past but using present tense for effect, or am I somewhere else entirely? How does this tense work, conceptually, in storytelling?

 

[Mel L]

I always struggle with this, am always a little confused.

First-person singular past – I made tea for the octopus – that makes sense to me: someone is telling me a story about their past. And a third-person narrator can be invisible – Jimmy opened the fridge – or a raconteur – Now, the fun, if that's what you call it, was far from over because as if on cue Jimmy opened the fridge. But first-person singular present – I type with two fingers, a frown puckering my brow, wondering how to phrase the question – where am I when I read this? Am I in the narrator's head as the action unfolds, or is the narrator telling me about their past but using present tense for effect, or am I somewhere else entirely? How does this tense work, conceptually, in storytelling?

I think both uses of present tense can work. Nick Hornby pulls it off quite well in How to Be Good, where the narrator tells the whole story in first person present tense. I'm not sure if it's meant to imply it's happening at that very instant, as that would be improbable, but rather it's a stylistic device. It really does lend an immediacy to the story like you're there in the scene with the action. I've also seen it used just parts of novels, as you say for effect, to add drama to a specific scene.

 

[Dorm Ant]

I always struggle with this, am always a little confused.

First-person singular past – I made tea for the octopus – that makes sense to me: someone is telling me a story about their past. And a third-person narrator can be invisible – Jimmy opened the fridge – or a raconteur – Now, the fun, if that's what you call it, was far from over because as if on cue Jimmy opened the fridge. But first-person singular present – I type with two fingers, a frown puckering my brow, wondering how to phrase the question – where am I when I read this? Am I in the narrator's head as the action unfolds, or is the narrator telling me about their past but using present tense for effect, or am I somewhere else entirely? How does this tense work, conceptually, in storytelling?

I think it works really well for short stories and flash. Novels? Noooooo.

 

[Brayati]

It's one of my pet hates, but younger people and shorter stories seem to fit it, depending on the intended audience and the stylistic choices for the purpose of the story emotionally - longer pieces I won't read, as it's tiring to the brain.
Why? The tense is immediacy, in the moment, right now, and nothing else can be experienced except what's happening within that character and within that second - there is no sense of being told for effect, it just is, and is only now.
Third person, simple past can be told in the moment, as stuff happens, but it's not as immediate, or as confined, as first present. This is a box that sounds easy (because, hey! only one head to be in) but excludes every other thing from the story. Everything except that moment, from that perspective. Nothing else.

 

[Hannah F]

I always struggle with this, am always a little confused.

First-person singular past – I made tea for the octopus – that makes sense to me: someone is telling me a story about their past. And a third-person narrator can be invisible – Jimmy opened the fridge – or a raconteur – Now, the fun, if that's what you call it, was far from over because as if on cue Jimmy opened the fridge. But first-person singular present – I type with two fingers, a frown puckering my brow, wondering how to phrase the question – where am I when I read this? Am I in the narrator's head as the action unfolds, or is the narrator telling me about their past but using present tense for effect, or am I somewhere else entirely? How does this tense work, conceptually, in storytelling?

It's very common in YA and MG. In fact, I'm writing a YA fantasy just now in first person present tense. My aim is for it to seem as if it's happening right now and the reader is right there, with the protagonist.
Taking one of your examples, I would tend to write, I type with two fingers, my face stuck in a frown. How am I supposed to phrase this question without her thinking I'm being bitchy?
Or I might say, Olga's doing her usual two-finger type, a frown puckering her brow. She'll be working out how to phrase our question.
But I (protagonist) wouldn't refer to myself as puckering my brow (unless faking an expression) because I can't see my own expression, but I will know that I'm frowning.

 

[RK Wallis]

It's very common in YA and MG

I agree, it is, and therefore it becomes a stylised choice. My first encounter with present tense wasn't even YA, it was Chuck Wendig's Blackbirds. That was hard going (took me 2 months of on and off reading), and back then, I didn't realise why, but I was only used to third person, not third person present tense. I persevered and felt my horizons expand.

I'm writing first person present too. You have to have a conscious mindset. As Hannah says:

But I (protagonist) wouldn't refer to myself as puckering my brow (unless faking an expression) because I can't see my own expression, but I will know that I'm frowning

This is so true. I'm forever weeding out this stuff because in the first draft I just write, then I have to go back and find a better way to show the situation. And I'm sure, despite the time I put into doing this, I won't catch everything, but maybe I'll train myself not to do lazy writing in the next draft. I can dream.

 

[Rich.]

I'm not sure if it's meant to imply it's happening at that very instant, as that would be improbable, but rather it's a stylistic device.

Yes, that's what I've always assumed, but as you say:

It really does lend an immediacy to the story like you're there in the scene with the action.

A fact which seems, to me at least, to contradict the idea that it's only a stylistic device, and which leads to my feeling of where am I? You mentioned that:

I've also seen it used just parts of novels, as you say for effect, to add drama to a specific scene.

This is what it always sounds like to me – like a dramatic effect. We all do that thing (don't we?) of switching into present tense when we're telling a particularly juicy tale in conversation.

– So what happened with Billy? Dev said he went mental.​

– Yeah, you could say that. We were in the Dutchman, all of us, and I'd just ordered a round when in comes Billy, off his nut on I don't know what, and Christ-on-a-bike he was angry. He comes straight in and charges at Malcs, and he's got a bloody cosh in his hand, hasn't he? Dev and I get between them, but Billy isn't having it, so it takes all three of us to calm him down. I had to sit on him in the end.​

I suppose my unease with first-person present singular is that a novel written entirely in that elevated dramatic register can get tiring.

It's one of my pet hates, but younger people and shorter stories seem to fit it, depending on the intended audience and the stylistic choices for the purpose of the story emotionally - longer pieces I won't read, as it's tiring to the brain.

We seem to be broadly on the same page, though I won't put a book down just because it's written that way. It's not a tense I'm comfortable with, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it a 'pet hate' – not for me anyway.

It's very common in YA and MG. In fact, I'm writing a YA fantasy just now in first person present tense. My aim is for it to seem as if it's happening right now and the reader is right there, with the protagonist.

Yes, it's very popular, I'm aware. It's interesting that you've deliberatly selected it to make it 'seem as if it's happening right now'. I think you're brave. It strikes me that it needs a really light touch to not be claustrophobic and narcisssistic. Your rewrritten version of my sentence is much better than the clunky example I gave:

I type with two fingers, a frown puckering my brow, wondering how to phrase the question.

I type with two fingers, my face stuck in a frown. How am I supposed to phrase this question without her thinking I'm being bitchy?

Again, I suppose my unease comes from describing mundane actions in what is for me a hightened register (I'm thinking about the typing and frowning bit). But then again, my example was clumsy, and so perhaps I'm being unfair – just creating a strawman to attack. You've got me thinking deeply about this. I guess I'm going to have to read some more in this tense and see if my unease goes away.

I think that's me finished with this particular message. I reach for the mouse and click <Post reply>.