WARNING: You may never read another book after reading this essay.

Writing

I may be guilty of overthinking this, but I read a book that got me to thinking about verb tense in storytelling. That's tense as in past, present, or future. Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but it seems to me that most stories are told in the past tense. Consider this example from Charles Dickens: “Marley was dead: to begin with.”

That's the first sentence of Stave 1 in A Christmas Carol. What? Is he no longer dead? Was he not dead at the time of the story? Or should Dickens have written: “Marley is dead: to begin with”?

As I said: I'm overthinking this, or am I?

It's my son's fault. He gave me a book to read, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, in which the author played with the present tense. I say played because he wasn't consistent in its use. I wish he had been. It's the reason I read the book.

I probably wouldn't have read Blood Meridian beyond the first chapter because there weren't any characters whom I liked. That's not my cup of tea. However, the use of the present verb tense caught my attention and I stayed with it hoping that a character or two would have a heart of gold when push came to shove. (No, I'm not going to tell you if it happened. That would be... well, telling.)

Since I mentioned it, allow me to give you a brief synopsis and we'll count this as a book review.

Click to purchase on Amazon

Blood Meridian is a fictional tale of a group of filibusteros – American soldiers of fortune who foment revolution in Latin America ostensibly to bring the blessings of liberty to those suffering under Spanish colonial rule. I learned about filibusteros when I wrote my first novel, Rebels on the Mountain, a story of Castro's revolution in Cuba. One of his commanders was a filibustero. The practice arose in the 19th Century and continued into the early 20th Century. The United States signed treaties with its Latin American neighbors outlawing the practice. Thus, those in Blood Meridian not only have to cope with the harsh Mexican desert, Comanches, and Federales, but also American lawmen and the US Cavalry when they attempt to cross the border. Inasmuch as the filibusteros are ill-equipped to combat these forces, they terrorize the very people they seek to democratize. 

From this you should understand why I was loathe to read it. Still, I hoped for the redemption of a character or two and pressed on to the last page intrigued by the present verb tense at those points when the author chose to use it.

I was intrigued enough to rip apart the novel I am working on currently and try the experiment for myself. However, unlike my mentor, Mr. McCarthy, I'm applying it universally, from page one to the last page. In a word, I'm pleased with the result thus far. Hopefully, so will you.

I've published an Excerpt from The Accidental Spy on my website so that you may judge for yourself. Please let me know what you think.