Post History
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...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-20T00:40:34Z (about 5 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
System
·
2019-12-08T10:29:28Z (about 5 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
**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
System
·
2019-01-06T04:48:46Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 2