Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Should I change from past to present tense to state a fact that continues into the present and is unyielding?

Yes, if the narrator is in the present telling a story about the past. The narrative is telling a story about something that has already happened. So it's in past tense. But then the narrative p...

posted 5y ago by Cyn‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-20T00:40:34Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41065
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 · 2019-12-08T10:29:28Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41065
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:29:28Z (over 4 years ago)
 **Yes, if the narrator is in the present telling a story about the past.**

The narrative is telling a story about something that has already happened. So it's in past tense.

But then the narrative pulls you, the reader, aside to tell you something about the setting. And you know in this case it's just for the reader, because someone who lives in the Saturn system wouldn't know enough about the Earth system to use it as the base reference.

Using present tense is correct because the moons still exist, even though the story is over.

**If the narrator is less personable and just simply describing, then using past tense is correct.**

Frankly, either one will work. It's just a matter of how you are framing the story.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-06T04:48:46Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2