There was a fashion started a few years ago for new novels to be written using the present tense throughout. Sadly there is still a tendency for some authors to think this is the way books have to be written now. I really don’t like it at all. Using present tense to describe action that is occurring over several days just doesn’t work for me. Which doesn’t mean to say that it should never be used; it can be used in appropriate circumstances, e.g. when the action described is occurring over a short time period and there is a need to make this scene stand out in contrast to the rest of the novel.
Back in 2010, Philip Pullman (an author I greatly admire) made the case that the present tense should be used sparingly, giving an example of when it is used to good effect by quoting a passage from Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë switches to present tense when Jane meets Rochester by chance whilst out walking, thereby emphasising the importance of that moment in Jane’s memory.
I’d like to add another example. In Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively uses present tense for scenes involving her main character, Claudia, that take place in the present day, but past tense for all the scenes in Claudia’s past – i.e., most of the novel. The reader therefore knows immediately that they are back with Claudia in her hospital room when the tense switches to present.
And yes, I have used present tense in my novel Out of Time. When Slim Tucker writes his Great Moments in Music articles for the Harlem Hot Times (one of the devices I used to show the important events that subsequently sprung out of Slim’s actions) he often employs present tense to draw his Harlem readers into the moment.
I’m sure many readers have no problem with the present tense being used throughout a novel, maybe not even noticing it, content only with enjoying a good story. But I’m sure I’m not alone in finding this trait irritating, so why alienate a potential reader when there is no need to? I’m all for defying writing conventions – but there has to be a good reason for doing so.