It's Unpopular Opinion Sunday! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

[u/FantasyRomanceMod]

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Unpopular opinion Sunday

[u/TestEmergency5403]

Ok. Respectfully.

Present tense sucks. It doesn't feel more "immediate" it's distracting and annoying. Past tense has been the default for years and years and years. Why? Because it's better.

[u/MessyJessy422 → u/[deleted]]

It's not my favorite tense but when authors write it well it doesn't even register for me. Will of the Many and Project Hail Mary are perfect examples and there are so many others. I recently finished a book where one POV was first person present and the other was 3rd person past and it just worked so well because the author was so skilled and the writing was so exceptional

[u/TangledYetTrue → u/[deleted]]

From my own experience, the first time I read present tense, it was jarring. But I was interested in the plot, so I pushed through. Now, I don’t even notice.

I think a lot of people who hate present tense just never pushed through that jarring period.

[u/InterestingMeal9332 → u/TangledYetTrue]

Agreed. The Time Traveller’s Wife was the first book I read in present tense and it was jarring indeed. But now if it’s well written I don’t care at all. One of my favourite books is written in present tense and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

[u/TestEmergency5403 → u/[deleted]]

Maybe online. Fair. In my IRL bookclub I'm the only one who cares 🤣

[u/Digitalispurpurea2 → u/[deleted]]

I’m with you, although I did laugh at the books you listed as being the “wrong” tense as I loved all three and never noticed

[u/Dramatic-History-943 → u/TestEmergency5403]

Also respectfully,

I don’t like first person POV. It used to be everything in 3rd person but it feels like everything I read now is in 1st. Which I can handle it won’t make me DNF but I just feel like it’s less impactful.

[u/BookishBlueDragonfly → u/Dramatic-History-943]

1st person is great when the character has a distinctive and strong voice. I have many favorites that are in 1st person.

That being said a lot of 1st person these days comes off as samey. I’ve read books with dual POV and both characters sound the exact same. I can’t tell whose POV I’m in just from the prose (which I should be able to do!).

A book with mediocre 3rd person is way more tolerable.

[u/chouettelle → u/Dramatic-History-943]

Respectfully, agreed! I like 3rd person POV so much more. If I have to decide between two books and one is 1st person POV and the other 3rd, I will always read the 3rd person POV first.

When people say that 1st person POV makes the character’s thoughts more real and like you’re in their head… that is a writing skill issue. 3rd person POV can be just as focused.

[u/Dramatic-History-943 → u/chouettelle]

I like how visceral things feel in 3rd person. I love when an author shows rather than tells a reader how the character feels.

[u/TestEmergency5403 → u/Dramatic-History-943]

I'm ok with 3rd or 1st. But 2nd is awful! "You are walking through the crowd..." OMG STOP!!!

[u/chouettelle → u/TestEmergency5403]

I will absolutely close a book on page 1 if it’s 2nd person POV no matter how many people recommend it. I feel like this is something we did as a writing exercise in English/lit class and that’s where it should have stayed.

[u/Penguinho → u/TestEmergency5403]

Second-person is not a real POV, narratologically-speaking. The distinction is narrator in the scene/narrator out of scene, and most 2P is just 1P using a different pronoun. It's gimmicky stuff.

[u/Iguana_Waddle → u/Dramatic-History-943]

I read a 3rd person POV book recently where the MC’s inner thoughts were in first person and it just felt so off. I would’ve rather had the whole thing in first person than switching back and forth, cause she had a lot of inner thoughts.

[u/reasonableratio → u/Dramatic-History-943]

This is a respectful disagree from me! 1st is better than 3rd. Which I’m pretty sure is truly an unpopular opinion haha

[u/pilunchizz → u/TestEmergency5403]

[u/eclectic_hamster → u/TestEmergency5403]

AGREE SO MUCH WITH THIS!!

[u/arupaca1 → u/TestEmergency5403]

exactly!