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Q&A Should I use present or past tense when the narrator talks about an universal/most-often-true statement?

Present tense in some different formatting (I like italics) if those are Eri's thoughts presented as interior dialogue. Past tense if that's her thought in narration. As presented above, you have ...

posted 11y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:18Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9001
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 · 2019-12-08T03:06:23Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9001
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T03:06:23Z (about 5 years ago)
Present tense in some different formatting (I like italics) if those are Eri's thoughts presented as interior dialogue. Past tense if that's her thought in narration.

As presented above, you have her thoughts in interior dialogue, so I'd italicize them and leave them in present tense.

For comparison:

> Eri raised her eyes to the screen again. What a terrible thing it must be for an earthquake to hit right on one's birthday. She wondered how often that happened. Maybe earthquakes were completely indifferent to what was important to people. People, special days. Perhaps to them, people were no more than little ants scurrying around on the surface.
> 
> Eri raised her eyes to the screen again. _What a terrible thing it must be for an earthquake to hit right on your birthday._ She wondered how often that happened. _Maybe earthquakes are completely indifferent to what's important to us. People, special days. Perhaps to them, we're no more than little ants scurrying around on the surface._

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2013-09-26T01:11:36Z (about 11 years ago)
Original score: 1