A tip a day to keep the rejections away
Welcome to my marathon of writing tips—one tip a day to make
you a better writer.
What are my qualifications?
For several years, I’ve written the Pet
Vet column for the Post Bulletin newspaper. I’ve had articles published in RunMinnesota, DVM360 journal, and The
Wagazine. I’m in a wonderful
critique group that meets weekly to tell me everything I’ve done wrong.
Save yourself some time by learning from my mistakes.
Abbreviations as follows:
MS = manuscript
CP = critique partner
WIP = work in progress
MILE FOUR = PAST/PRESENT TENSE CONSISTENCY
I tend to see the most past/present confusion when the real
issue is whether a sentence within a paragraph should really be an internal
thought.
Here’s an example:
Pretending to put books in her locker, she glanced down the hall and sighed. He’s just so
cute, but he doesn’t even know I’m alive. Or if he does,
he doesn’t care.
Past tense = glanced
Present tense = he’s, doesn’t, does
A mix of present and past tenses is awkward and
confusing.
(Yikes! See what I mean? And if you haven't seen this movie, then WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE???)
My proposed solution:
Pretending to put books in her locker, she glanced down the hall and sighed. He’s just so cute, but he doesn’t
even know I’m alive. Or if he does, he doesn’t care.
Putting the MC’s active thoughts in italics avoids tense
confusion. For those writers who despise
using italics for whatever reason (perhaps you wish to always remain in third
person), then be consistent with your tenses.
Final example:
Pretending to put books in her locker, she glanced down the hall and sighed. He was just so
cute, but he didn’t even know she was alive.
Or if he did, he didn’t
care.
Either way, it takes careful line editing to catch and
resolve tense inconsistencies. CPs will
help you with this. (See, you need them for
everything!)
That’s it for today—short and sweet—like me when I’m well
fed.
But watch out when I’m hungry!
See you tomorrow for Mile 5!
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