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Q&A Past tense vs present tense

She had green eyes is fine. Readers will undersand that her eye color is still the same since, in real life most people's eyes don't change color. Maybe another example will help. He drove a...

posted 10y ago by raddevus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:51:03Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/14304
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar raddevus‭ · 2019-12-08T03:51:03Z (about 5 years ago)
She had green eyes is fine. Readers will undersand that her eye color is still the same since, in real life most people's eyes don't change color.

Maybe another example will help.

> He drove a blue Ford Explorer.
> 
> However, now he drives a red Volkswagen Beetle.

Well, in that case you could say,

> That was when he drove the blue Ford Explorer.

These days he's driving a red Volkswagen Beetle.

It's only necessary to make more specific notes when it is signficant and since eye color doesn't change unless it is significant to the story\* then just keep the language as it is in the past tense. Otherwise the switching may confuse your reader.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-11-04T12:52:10Z (about 10 years ago)
Original score: 0