Neal Shusterman is the author of a host of dystopian series for young adults, including the “Arc of a Scythe” series, the “Unwind” series, and several stand-alones such as “Roxy” and “Dry” His books explore themes of teenagerhood, life and death, and government and anarchy. His worlds are brutish and filled with a looming sense of existential dread. Part of what defines them is that they are often written in present tense, third person.
Perspective dictates what a storyteller can say. First person is when I go to take my test. Second person is when you go to take your test, and third person is when they go to take their test. Once you know who’s telling the story, you have to know when the story is happening. Is it right now, and it happens in the present? Has it happened in the past? Will it happen in the future? Many books are written in the past tense because stories are usually told after the fact, but present tense is often used to make a reader feel like they’re inside the story.
Third person present tense feels a little like reading the news. In first person present tense, you slip into the mind of the narrator and watch as the plot unfolds. In third person past tense, the audience is distanced from the characters. It takes the reader a step back from the story whereas present tense throws them in.
When combining present tense and third person, the reader has the strange experience of having a picture they aren’t looking at described for them. The reader isn’t sucked into the character’s head, but the present tense lends the writing a bluntness due to the directness of the verbs. The energy of third person present works well with Shusterman’s books because his stories are so down-to-earth. “Unwind” is about a kid, Connor, who goes on the run to avoid being cut up and sold by the government for spare parts. The entire plot is shady and the characters are constantly threatened by the authorities. The bluntness of third person present tense makes Unwind feel less formal and more like a bunch of teenagers living in an airplane graveyard in the middle of the desert. Grimy. Cranky. Bent on making it. In several books, such as “Dry,” Shusterman includes tidbits between chapters — fragments of journal entries, or bits of narration. “Dry” examines a disaster resulting from California’s main water supply being shut off. The narration between chapters looks at the effect of the disaster on innocuous side characters. The third person “snapshots” capture different moments and perspectives while the present tense hits the reader with vivid dread and the illusion of being able to interfere.
Perspective and tense set the guidelines for how you can write your story. They change how you think about the plot and how you make your reader feel. If you write, experiment. Maybe everything falls into place when told in a different way.