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Q&A Use of past tense in a book about the future

No, you can't randomly switch to the present tense like that. You are telling your story in past tense, even if you're talking about the future relative to us. News stories can switch to the pres...

posted 8y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:41Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25704
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:50:18Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25704
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:50:18Z (almost 5 years ago)
No, you can't randomly switch to the present tense like that. You are telling your story in past tense, even if you're talking about the future relative to us.

News stories can switch to the present tense for the general because they are reporting on facts which are relative to the moment you're reading them: _Shannon Faulkner enrolled in the Citadel yesterday, becoming the first female cadet. She deleted all references to gender on her transcript, so the school did not know she is a woman._

Change everything in your story to past tense. You can have some present tense in dialogue, of course, but not narration.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-12-29T13:00:08Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 2