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Q&A Past tense writing troubles. Specifically the word "Now"

I want to say: "Now I was on the plane with my best friend." But don't "Now" and "was" contradict each other? And I specifically want to phrase it this way because earlier on in my book I wrote: "I...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by MegChav‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question tenses
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:08:14Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/26811
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar MegChav‭ · 2019-12-08T06:08:14Z (almost 5 years ago)
I want to say: "Now I was on the plane with my best friend." But don't "Now" and "was" contradict each other? And I specifically want to phrase it this way because earlier on in my book I wrote: "I loved to travel....."

I have such a hard time with past tense writing and I realized it a few months ago. I had written a series all in past tense, but while reading through it, I realized it contained grammatical errors...specifically with past tense vs. present tense. I decided that I would write in present tense. So I went online trying to figure out why present tense was so scarce in writing. Was there an unspoken rule against it? Turns out present tense is super cliché. But I revised the first book in my series anyway, making sure it was completely in present tense. I'm working on the second one now, but I have this feeling that I want to go back into past tense. Only problem is, I can't write in past tense. I'm stuck and it's making me feel like my writing sucks and I should just stop altogether. Any tips?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-19T21:53:38Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 4