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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40476
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The story's tense is all about your _narrative voice_. It can't orient the reader to a larger timeline structure because no matter what tense is used the reader's _now_ is where they are reading.

The narrator and reader exist in the reader's present. The narrator can use tense to indicate events in the _narrator's past_, or the _narrator's future_, but the communication between narrator and reader is always "right now". When the narrator changes tense, it is relative to the narrator. If the narrator starts talking in future tense, it's a **prophesy**. The reader does not feel as if they are in the future.

On the flipside, if the reader skips ahead by a chapter she is not experiencing the book "in the future". She is still reading the book "right now". The reader doesn't experience time the way the narrator does. That's how the narrative voice stays in one tense through an entire novel. The reader is always "right now" and the narrator gives in-story clues to let the reader know how much time has passed since the last scene.

You should stick with the tense of your narrative voice, and begin _in medias res_. Then consider when and how to transition the story back to an earlier event, indicated through in-story clues. Let the reader do a little detective work on their own and they will become more involved by the process.

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