Thread: Present tense third person

I apologise if somebody has already started a thread on this, I used the search function but couldn't find an existing thread.

What do other members think of fiction being written in third person, present tense? It seems to be a bit of a fad with the sort of literature that gets nominated for Man Booker Prize and The Whitbread Award to write in the present tense.

The only example I have ever read is Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. I found it disorientating, not very easy on the eye and I felt disengaged from it.

Sounds like a good reason not to write in it. I have gotten pretty good at staying in past tense, and I remember a writing book that went into the details of when you would use present and even future tense, but I didn't see any real compelling reasons to try using it myself.

I hear lemmings tend to follow trends, but that doesn't always turn out well.

Gimmicks rarely attract readers. Present tense makes no sense, at least to this reader.

It seems a lot of people are in agreement, so why are literary awards leaning heavily in the direction of awarding novels written in the present tense? I would have enjoyed "Wolf Hall" a lot more had it been in the traditional past tense, third person.

I've toyed with this, and while I find it can be kinda fun, I cannot imagine writing a whole novel in it. It's an interesting change of pace, little more. Somewhat like writing a prologue in first-person and then the rest of the book in third. You do it because you can, not because it really makes any sense whatsoever. Whatever- it (PT-3P) is pointless, but not bad pointless. A lot like one of those little battery-powered RC cars you use to scare the heck out of pets.

Maybe the critics think it just takes more moxie to write in present than in past.

Maybe it's like anything that is different, someone thinks it's wonderful because it's different, not necessarily because it is better. I still say the best writing is the kind where I can't tell you the words used, but the story I read. Present tense draws my attention to the writing too often, other than that I can live with it.