Just For the Record...

Why I hate First Person Present

First Person Present

You may or may not know what I’m talking about and you may not even care, but this is something I am deeply passionate about and so I choose this topic for my inaugural post. What is First Person Present and why do I despise it so much?

In the English language, there are 3 basic verb tenses, Past, Present, and Future with 4 qualifiers.

·         Simple Present Tense.

·         Present Continuous Tense.

·         Present Perfect Tense.

·         Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

·         Simple Past Tense.

·         Past Continuous Tense.

·         Past Perfect Tense.

·         Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

·         Future Simple Tense

·         Future Continuous Tense.

·         Future Perfect Tense.

·         Future Perfect Continuous Tense

All of which is quite confusing. So let’s just keep it simple. For our discussion, we will stick to the basic three, Past, Present, and Future.

I think we can agree on the Past Tense, something happened, and that’s that. Present Tense refers to what I am doing right now… such as boring you with an English 101 lesson. Stick with me, I’m going someplace with this. Future Tense is what’s going to happen, such as me making my point.

For example. Let’s use the word, “Dance.”

Past Simple – danced, Perfect- was dancing, Continuous – had danced, Perfect Continuous – had been dancing

Present -        dance,    Perfect – am dancing, Continuous – have danced, Perfect Continuous – have been dancing

Future -     will dance, Perfect – will be dancing, Continuous – will have danced, Perfect Continuous will have been dancing

That’s all quite simple, but the problem begins when the author uses the First Person Perfect or FPP to express their thoughts. First Person as in I, me, my. Those proponents of FPP say it moves the story forward and it places the reader in the front seat. That it carrying the reader through a narrative as events and moments are happening in real time. For example, “I open the window and yell at him to leave me alone.”

In my humble opinion, this is Telling not Showing, a cardinal rule in writing. To me, it gets in the way of the reader’s understanding. As I attempt to read a novel written in the FPP, mind you, I only get about two pages in before I toss the book on the pile to go to McKay’s Book Exchange, my mind is constantly converting the Present Tense into Past Tense. The reason is, by the time I’ve read the action in the story, it has already happened. In the aforementioned example, by the time the character opens the window and yells “Leave me alone,” it’s already happened.

So much for putting the reader in the front seat. And that’s my thoughts on FPP.

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And now, as a reward for slogging through my diatribe and to Show rather then Tell, I give you Chapter One of my Audiobook, Loving Miss Bessie. If you enjoy it, and I know you will, you can click the following links to gain access to my Square Store. This LINK will give you access to the ebooks. This LINK will give you access to the print version where you will get a personalized, numbered, and autographed copy of Loving Miss Bessie. Enjoy!