: Re: How to deal with things that still exist when writing in past tense? Say I write this: I lived near Les Gobelins, which was a beautiful intersection full of trees. Should it be this?

@Phylliss352

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Not sure if I'm missing something, but this doesn't seem confusing to me.

I'm assuming that the person that "my" refers to is not Anne, in which case it's the narrator. Therefore, I'd say that the first example is more correct. The narrator is recalling a story and telling it to someone, therefore both statements should refer to the past. However, the second example you gave might make sense if the narrator is telling the story from the same location and the corridor is still quiet even today. It's still a bit jarring, however, and I would avoid it. (Perhaps "has always been quiet" makes a lot more sense.)

If Anne is the person that "my" refers to i.e. she's thinking it, then you need to indicate as such, and that will definitely be present tense i.e. the second example with "thought Anne" at the end, or at least in italics to indicate it's her thinking it. The reason for that is because you're writing the words that were thought/said, and those would not change into past tense.

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