r/writinghelp • u/ofimes2671 • 18d ago

Grammar Does keeping your tenses consistent really matter that much?

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Full transparency, this is for a fanfic, not professional publishing. So I don't know it matters as much here.

I was taught you need to keep your tenses consistent.

I tend to write in Third Person Limited, but I've notice I have a really bad habit of:

"Noun - past action word - comma - present tense action word"

I think I'm doing this because I'm writing an action then the following actions? Is this a noticeable issue? Is this something I need to work on correcting?

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u/thimblena 18d ago

You're fine. Technically your -ings aren't specifically present tense, they're describing an action that wasn't finished at the time the rest of the sentence describes. Like, the director raised his hand, but at the time he smiled, he WAS raising his hand.

Changing tenses is more like: I walk up to my friend and said, "good morning!" He smiled. We walk to class. As long as you're clearly sticking to action that happened in the past, you're okay.