Narrative essay in present tense
A stand-up comedian uses a completely different approach than someone telling a scary story around a campfire. The reader can experience—or be part of—the tale as it happens, and that can be immersive and intriguing.
Be prepared to change from present tense to past in order to see your manuscript accepted by a publisher. And that you face the expectations of readers, readers who include agents and acquisitions editors. Unless you can convincingly pause the action, exposition and flashbacks have to be dumped into the flow of action like a stone.
It is becoming increasingly popular in fiction as it imparts an immediacy that allows the reader to live in the narrative as it is being delivered. A good exercise is to write a list of the main events of the story.
Le Guin.
How to write in present tense
Either they insist using the simple past is the only way to tell a story or they say present tense has much to offer and is as equally valid as past tense. 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. Here, both "wrote" and "lived" are in the past tense since they refer to Dillard's life, not her writings. Autumn comes. Gregory goes back to his tutor; his reluctance is clear enough, though little about Gregory is clear to him. Pick out a significant detail from the story and begin with it. The narration may switch from past to present — with or without explanation — to fulfill this end.Or does his or her face register confusion? Try present tense if you want readers to notice the narrative tense or you want to see if you can make story events even more immediate. When writing for a broader audience, define those terms.
January 31, by Fiction Editor Beth Hill last modified January 31, One of the first decisions for a writer beginning a new story is the choice of narrative tense—will the story be a look into past events or will it race through the present?
Gregory goes back to his tutor; his reluctance is clear enough, though little about Gregory is clear to him.