What’s your favorite tense? All writers have one. I think. Or maybe, like me, you believe the story itself best determines which tense is best.
I have three finished manuscripts and just as heavily-invested in, put partially complete works in progress. In two of those stories I started in one tense and about 40 pages in I switched. (I’ve also switched person 60 pages in, but we’ll save that story for another day.
The manuscript I am currently editing is written in first person, present tense. One of the first debates we had in my novel writing group over my piece was the tense and person. The guys thought it would be exhausting for the reader and hard to carry off. The ladies felt it was typical to a lot of women’s fiction or chick lit we read.
One of the biggest issues was present tense vs. present continuous tense. Since my main character is conveying the action, as it happens, it would be correct to use present continuous tense. (Read the English Club info on tense here.)
However, my female crit partner and I both knew we’d read popular women’s fiction in present tense. She mentioned Sophie Kinsella, as an example of an author that uses present tense.
I haven’t read any of Sophie’s books yet – she is on my to-be-read list. However, I ran across a video of her reading from her book, Remember Me. It is written in first person, present tense and I think it works well.
What is your preferred tense when writing fiction and why?
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Roxanne is... a Freelance Journalist and aspiring novelist living in North Carolina with her husband and young adult son. She is an avid reader with a to-be-read stack that resembles a small skyscraper and a music lover with a thing for singer/songwriters and a bonafide music soundtrack addiction. Roxanne is currently revising the first of three completed manuscripts. 
