Wrote 50k words before I realized I was using present tense for everything

I was re-reading my first 3 chapters last month and noticed every single scene was in present tense even though I thought I was writing past tense. Has anyone else had a basic grammar thing fly under their radar for that long?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_ramirez3813h ago

Saw a writing blog mention that tense drift is super common because our brains think in present tense but write in past tense, so it messes with us. @casey342, that switching mid sentence thing is rough though, at least it was consistent for 50k words even if it was the wrong tense. Might be why some authors write in present tense on purpose to avoid that whole confusion.

faithpatel7h ago

That explanation actually makes a lot of sense @casey342, maybe you were just more in tune with your brain's default tense. Do you think reading mostly present tense books helps train yourself to stick with it?

casey34214h ago

50k words" dang I wrote three paragraphs before I realized my MC was switching tenses mid sentence.