Finding Your Voice: First Person Present Tense

Earlier this week, my friend Livia posted about the pros and cons of first person present tense on her blog, and the comments discussion started me thinking about something I struggle with: voice.

For me, the major problem with voice is that, in any piece of writing, there are at least two voices to consider – the character/narrator’s voice and the author’s voice. Enter first person present tense.

While it can be hard to read an entire novel in FPP (for some well-crafted FPP, page through Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls), it can be quite useful when used as a tool for getting in touch with yourself and your characters.

Consider the following passage (excerpted from my current WIP) written in first person past, then FPP:

First Person Past:

In the parking lot, I fell into the crowd waiting at the school gates. Sticky-fingered twelve year olds stood next to jocks. Jocks bumped elbows with guys toting spray paints. In front of me, a girl dug into a packet of chips, crunching loudly. It must have been loud inside her head.

First Person Present:

By the time I get there, there’s a crowd of teachers at one end of the block, while kids spill over the street, into the parking lot, and down to the oval, clustering in gossipy groups.  I fall into the crush easily, sliding between bodies as I look for Ritchie. It’s kind of comforting, the crowd, the way everyone’s together, not touching, not talking, but together. Sticky-fingered twelve year olds stand next to jocks. Jocks bump elbows with guys I’ve seen toting spray paints. In front of me, a girl digs into a packet of chips, crunching loudly. It must be loud inside her head.

The paragraphs are very similar, but the past tense is a bit stilted, while the FPP – which I did actually write second – is a bit more active. Perhaps more importantly, writing the second paragraph was not only easier, but it helped me get a better feel for my main character.

As noted in the comments on Livia’s blog, though, there are a couple of definite cons to writing in FPP. The greatest of these, I think, is that FPP has the tendency to become stilted. For me, the easiest way to avoid this is to tap into the intimacy inherent in the style, to think of FPP as a conversation between author and reader. Reading aloud, or even speaking while writing, can help authors capture the natural simplicity FPP is often missing.

Tomorrow: more about the advantages of reading your work aloud.