How do you feel about the present tense?

I’ve noticed in reading through the books I received to judge for the Rita, and more and more in the books I’m given to format, use of the present tense is growing in contemporary romance. Have you noticed this too?

It used to be that all novels were written in the past tense—granted, a more active past tense, but still everything was past.

Now that I think about it, I always write in the past tense. The books I write are, this blog is, even my emails are generally written in the past tense. Is that strange or normal? I’m really not sure.

So, what does writing in the present tense do? Well, it makes everything more immediate, that’s for certain. It helps with making sure your reader gets involved in the book, that they live it right along with the character, since they are dogging their every footstep

I walk in the door to my house and plop my bags on the floor to take off my coat.

Yup, I’m right there. In my mind I’m doing everything that the POV character is doing. But is that better than:

I walked in the door to my house and plopped my bags on the floor to take off my coat.

Personally, I don’t think so.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading books written in the past tense for so long that I don’t even think about it. I don’t need it written in the present tense for me to put myself into the book, to experience it with the character.

Marcus pops his head out of the kitchen. “Hey you might want to get in here, fast. She’s here. In fact, she’s been here and she’s not happy,” he says, raising his eyebrows to let me know that he’s not all that happy with me either.

Oh, shit! I forgot she was coming! My stomach clenches and a sheen of sweat begins to prickle my upper lip.

Is this any more immediate than if it were written in the past tense? Does it have more of an impact?

There was nothing for me to do but suck it up and deal with this.  I gave the door behind me a longing glance, but no, I couldn’t escape. She was waiting. She had been waiting. Shit, shit and double shit. And Marcus said she wasn’t happy. That meant that I was not going to be happy for very much longer either. How do I always get myself into these situations?

Which is better? Which puts you into the situation?

For me they’re both immediate. They both work. So if writing in the present tense doesn’t do anything more for a reader than writing in the past, why do it?

The only thing I can think of is the novelty of it. It’s different. We’re not used to reading books written in the present tense so it makes our brains sit up and pay more attention. Instead of sitting back and letting the book over take you, your brain put into a more active state, more on edge waiting for the next thing to happen.

For this reason, if it’s done well, there’s no reason why a contemporary novel shouldn’t be written in the present tense. An historical book, on the other hand, would lose its historical feel written in the present tense.

Since I write historical (for the most part), I’m going to keep on doing what I’ve been doing and writing in the past tense. But if you write contemporary, do you write in the present tense? And if so, why?

What do you think of the present tense and book written in it?