: Re: Can I switch from past tense to present tense in an epilogue? I have written my entire novel thus far in past tense. However, I feel like my final chapter/epilogue would work better in present

@Cooney417

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The 'rules' of arts and literature are there to make you stop and think before you break them.

The adverse thing about changing tenses is that it can confuse the reader and break the sense of immersion. Typically if you use the more standard past tense for a narrative the reader stops thinking about it as being paste tense per se and just follows it as a sequence of events and keeping it consistent throughout the bulk of a story maintains the sense of a moving present which is also convenient for cutting out irrelevant passages of time.

Having said that switching to the present tense for an epilogue can also make sense especially if it is a fairly well contained scene.

This is often used when writing something where you want to give the impression that the narrator was involved in the events of the main story and it's often seen in 19/20th century proto-sci-fi/fantasy (Lovecraft, Verne etc ) . The danger here is that it can be a bit of a clunky way to force a twist. But it can work with care, especially if it gives genuinely relevant commentary on the events of the main story.

Ultimately it is up to your skill and discernment as a writer to decide if it works or not but you are doing the right think by asking the question.

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