Skipping forward in first-person present tense?

Has there ever been any book, ever, written in the first-person present tense that skips forward in the same way:

A movie would use a montage

A first-person past tense work would write "Things went well from then on, and before I realized it, we'd almost finished our journey. Only one last task remained incomplete."

Basically, I want to write this idea I have into a novel in the first-person present tense so that it's more personal and suspenseful, but I also don't want to write an adventure so small it seems insignificant (I don't think I have the patience to write a 400+ page novel either, plus it's kid-appropriate material so I was thinking short would be good for that reason).

edited 25th Dec '10 12:51:13 PM by colbertimposter

I certainly saw it done. It usually went along the lines of "The remaining 30 days of preparation were a blur. I recall...", followed by a collection of scenes you'd put into the montage.

It really depends on the character. If they don't think what happened in between was important just have them handwave away that nothing interesting happened for a while.

I actually put a montage in text in Stuck's second episode, though I'm not sure if that's what you meant. The whole book is kind of supposed to be a "movie in book form", if you will, so it fits that aesthetic, though if it's not really fitting to yours, it's probably a better idea if you did it in a sense that keeps the form going in the same sort of way, like how Koveras is saying.

Here's the "montage".

The crash course was led by a guy named Laz ("Lazerbeam" if you're lucky). He was pretty nice. Laz showed me and a couple of other guys how to do various movements that he said are "just the building blocks of parkour", and that "the real meat is using them while improvising to your environment at the same time”. Of course, the building blocks were pretty hard to get a hold on.

I think the next part would be better told via a montage. Unfortunately, some people may say that those are only for the movies. Well, I say to that, frak it.

I run toward a bench.

I try to vault over it (vaulting = pushing myself over it with only my hand).

I fall flat on my face.

Nora lays a bandage on my face.

Cue two more scenes of me falling, just for emphasis... (maybe).

I gain an (un)impressive array of bandages, in various places around my body.

I contemplate giving up on this and using normal means of evasion.

I spy Max getting beaten up by Damon and Q.

Contemplation cancelled.

I practice the moves.

After quite a few attempts, I land a roll from a high fall for once.

This starts a streak of successes.

I rip off a few bandages.

Successful vault.

I rip off more.

Successful cat balance (it’s exactly what it sounds like: you balance the edge of a building or wall by crawling like a cat.)

My trash can is filled with bandages, which are no longer found on me at all.

Soon enough I'm traversing the obstacles of Greyson City with ease, like a stuntman performing parkour in the movies, just less glamorous and not staged.

This sequence ends with Laz stating, "You're ready."

Frak yeah, I was.

edited 26th Dec '10 3:05:58 PM by Tre

I like writing in first-person present tense, and I always worry if this works. What I tend to do when I have a time skip is just 'I have spent the past week doing this, and now I'm doing this' although I'm really not sure how well it works.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the book being in the present tense but the character speaking in the past tense to get the reader up to speed regarding what happened during the chapter break, or as part of a flashback.

Thank you for the replies, Guys!

I'm really glad to hear it's acceptable to do this.

Fight Club and I'm guessing some of Chuck Palahniuk's works use this method a lot, where the story doesn't so much flow as it jumps and cuts forward, and sometimes back.