Kate ~ Tenses

All I have to say is TENSES!

I found this website that actually makes sense of tenses and has some useful tips…

I know these are obvious to most of us, but having them write in front of me while I am working on my tense issues is really helping.  Thought I would share…because I am ripping my hair out!

http://crimsonleague.com/2013/05/04/verb-tense-flashbacks-and-fiction-the-past-of-the-past-in-creative-writing/

THE PRESENT. This is the level where your narrator is located, looking back at past events.

PAST 1. This is the basic level of your action, where the major events of your plot occur and where your characters are. As this level is in the past in comparison to the narration, the basic past tense of verbs is used. Said, yelled, ran, broke down, screamed, etc.

PAST 2. When your characters, in PAST 1, or your narrator, refers to something that happened in the past where PAST 1 is concerned, you get PAST 2. Past two uses the pluperfect tense.

Don’t forget that you’re narrator’s PAST 1 is your character’s PRESENT. So when you consider dialogue in contrast to narration, your verb tenses might shift a level. In fact, unless your characters are discussing hypothetical situations, they probably will shift. This might sound complicated, but it’s really not that difficult. In fact, it’s probably something you do instinctively.

Using a Pure Flashback

There are various ways to handle a flashback. A common one–and my preferred method–is to make it clear that a flashback is occurring, then separate the text of the flashback some way. I usually space an empty line or two, or insert this:

***

This is an effective strategy. Because the preceding section and the textual division establish that the passage to follow occurred further in the past, and isn’t chronological with the rest of the book’s action, I can then narrate it as I narrate the rest of the book–using the simple past–without confusing anybody or forcing the flashback events into a dialogue or a progression of thought.

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MLA had some more advise

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/601/4/

Controlling shifts in a paragraph or essay

General guideline: Establish a primary tense for the main discourse, and use occasional shifts to other tenses to indicate changes in time frame.

Hints:

▪    Rely on past tense to narrate events and to refer to an author or an author's ideas as historical entities (biographical information about a historical figure or narration of developments in an author's ideas over time).

▪    Use present tense to state facts, to refer to perpetual or habitual actions, and to discuss your own ideas or those expressed by an author in a particular work. Also use present tense to describe action in a literary work, movie, or other fictional narrative. Occasionally, for dramatic effect, you may wish to narrate an event in present tense as though it were happening now. If you do, use present tense consistently throughout the narrative, making shifts only where appropriate.

▪    Future action may be expressed in a variety of ways, including the use of will, shall, is going to, are about to, tomorrow and other adverbs of time, and a wide range of contextual cues.

Using other tenses in conjunction with simple tenses

It is not always easy (or especially helpful) to try to distinguish perfect and/or progressive tenses from simple ones in isolation, for example, the difference between simple past progressive ("She was eating an apple") and present perfect progressive ("She has been eating an apple"). Distinguishing these sentences in isolation is possible, but the differences between them make clear sense only in the context of other sentences since the time-distinctions suggested by different tenses are relative to the time frame implied by the verb tenses in surrounding sentences or clauses.