: 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?

@Sue2132873

Vote Up Vote Down

For whatever reason, using past tense with everything became the "normal" way of writing in the West. So always, always, always use the past tense for everything you do and you'll be good. The only exception is dialogue: if someone says "Hey, Bob, I am going to the store right now", replacing that with "Hey, Bob, I went to the store now" would just be confusing. But otherwise... "John was 5 foot 11 but now, through the power of mental willpower alone he had increased his height to six foot four" is correct. Just don't think about it too much.

Of course, rules can always be broken. In this case, breaking the past tense rule means you're breaking down the fourth wall. Instead of storytelling, for just a second you're cluing the audience in on what's going on with people in the present day. "Victoria was really bummed out that the pirates didn't come to town, but if you were to ask her about it today she'd probably pretend not to remember it." Actually I think that was just some weird form of past tense that grammarians have some crazy name for, but you get the idea, I think.

(0)

Login to post a comment!