The trend of present tense fiction... opinions?

[Pervertedneighbor]

It seems to me that so much of what is coming out in fiction today, and quite popular too, is written in present tense, and I find it rather unappealing.  It all seems to lack character and personality and depth.  Past tense fiction, the good old tried and true, has never failed us.

What's your experience?

[JulesVern]

It seems to me that so much of what is coming out in fiction today, and quite popular too, is written in present tense, and I find it rather unappealing.  It all seems to lack character and personality and depth.  Past tense fiction, the good old tried and true, has never failed us.

What's your experience?

Examples? Personally, I'm not sure I care as long as the story is well written.

[Pervertedneighbor]

That is the problem, you see.  So many seem to think it's the style that they just write that way with very little effort into writing a good book.

I don't think I could come up with a better example than the worst pile of
adolescent garbage of all:
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY and the entire series...

But it seems to me all of the YA books are doing it to a revolting degree.

[IdleBoast]

Then just don't read YA.  Read something written for grown ups...

[MissBarbara]

That is the problem, you see.  So many seem to think it's the style that they just write that way with very little effort into writing a good book.

I don't think I could come up with a better example than the worst pile of
adolescent garbage of all:

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY and the entire series...

But it seems to me all of the YA books are doing it to a revolting degree.

I'd never heard of the current trend to write novels in the present tense, but a little bit of Googling show's you're correct: a surprising number of modern-day YA novels are written in the present tense.

But there are a number of great novels written in the present tense, including John Updike's "Rabbit Run," "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest," "All Quiet on the Western Front" (one of the greatest novels of the 20th century), Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale (one of my favorite novels), and the runaway bestseller "The Girl on the Train" (which I really disliked, but am in the minority with that opinion).

[Gonfalon]

It seems to me that so much of what is coming out in fiction today, and quite popular too, is written in present tense, and I find it rather unappealing.

I also find it unappealing and pretentious. Documentaries likewise. Creators think that the present tense adds impact and excitement. All it does is add confusion.

[Sidonie]

Some present tense novels are also written with chapters dedicated to a characters point of view.

I really don’t care what tense its wrote in, its the journey that matters and the pleasure it gives me.