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A rule-of-thumb is that characters may become part of the past only in their universe, where they are a "real" person. In this case, you can use the past-tense if you are referring to a "previous v...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-18T21:34:24Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45927 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T12:10:32Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45927 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
A rule-of-thumb is that characters may become part of the past only in their universe, where they are a "real" person. In this case, you can use the past-tense if you are referring to a "previous version", or "younger version" of the character. You would still use the present for the contemporaneous one. In any other universe, e.g. in those where they are fiction, they are elevated to timeless absolutes. The use of the present-tense is preferred. This should hold true for most non-fiction works about fiction.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-06-12T12:16:10Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 5