: Re: How to avoid slipping into the wrong tense? In one of the stories I'm writing at the moment, when the narrator is in the scene, the story is in present tense (which is painful, but so far

@Heady158

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Before you can avoid slipping into the wrong tense, ask yourself what the right tense is. Because it's not consistent for every story that is told.

Jokes use present tense. A man walks into a bar...
A factual (terse) recollection of events uses past tense. John killed my cat and then made it seem like it ran away.
A narrated recollection of events uses present tense. So John pulls out his gun, looks the cat straight in the eye, and pulls the trigger. The wall is covered in cat brains, and I'm standing there wondering if I'm going to be the next victim.

There is no consistent tense. It very much depends on the context of the story. This is one of those things where it's very hard to define what is right and what is wrong, but we often intuitively understand which tense we should use.

If you keep slipping into past tense; it's more than likely that past tense makes the most sense intuitively. I'd suggest you go with your gut on this one. Any inconsistencies can be fixed at a later stage when you are proofreading.

Focus on writing the story first. Focus on fixing the grammatical mistakes at a later stage.

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