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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/12196
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There are questions here about specific use of tenses, but I wonder if there is a more complete guide on what tense to use when?

For a fictional novel, [Past Tense](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7150/what-work-better-for-the-following-piece-of-writing-past-or-present-tense/7165#7165) is the accepted choice. But which one? Simple, Perfect, Progressive, Past Progressive? When would I change? Would I be mixing tenses as part of the normal flow?

For example, take this:

> He was hiding in the dumpster. He had been hiding here for more than two hours already, and he knew that it would be at least two hours before we could leave. Finally, they were gone and he climbed out of the trash. He unsuccessfully tried to hail a cab -- even cab drivers have standards here -- and walked to his hotel.

This is mixing past (and even future) tenses without use of a device that I would normally consider an acceptable reason to change (e.g., [Flashbacks](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/4344/should-a-flashback-be-in-past-tense-or-past-perfect) or reading out a Newspaper article).

Is there a guidance I could use to figure out what specific past tense I should be using in what context?

Original score: 2