Answer: Present tense and past events

[green_grrl]

Our question today is from ely_baby, who wants to know: When writing mostly in the present tense, what tense should be used for events in the past?

There are a lot of past tense choices, and all of them can work with a present tense narrative.

Comments

[ely_baby]

Thank you so very much for this post. It's exactly what I needed. I love the fact that you can use so many tenses to talk about past events, not so thrilled about the different nuances because I'm not a native English speaker, but I will keep it next to my chapters as I edit my story and I'm sure it'll be really helpful. And thank you for adding those links too! You just made my day a little bit brighter! :D xxx

[green_grrl]

I'm so glad this is helpful! It's great when the answer is, "This is the correct answer!" It's a little harder to say, "Sorry, there are a lot of choices." I hope this and the links help!

Once you make your best effort, it's also a good idea to run your story past a native speaker, especially someone who is a good grammar beta. There are just some times when the answer is, "That sounds strange, even though technically it would be correct. We use this choice instead." (I have to say, though, your English looks excellent!)

[ely_baby]

I will most definitely ask a native beta-read to have a look at my story, but I like to edit my own chapters once I've learnt something new to see if I understood the rule and can actually put it into practice.

Aww, thank you! I'm always feeling all warm and fuzzy inside when someone tells me that my English is good. :D You just made my day! <333