When you begin an anecdote in one tense, maintain that tense till the end. If you start in the past tense, stay in the past tense; if you open in the present tense, close in the present tense.
Maybe this advice seems like common sense, but it’s not-so-common practice. I often catch authors flipping from present to past tense midstream in a short narrative. Sometimes I feel like a spectator at a badminton game, watching the tenses fly back and forth like a shuttlecock over the net.
Illustrations from the Bible are particularly subject to tense flipping. An author will write,
Jesus and his disciples decide to cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It’s a pleasant day, warm, the sun shining. They hop into a boat and head across the mirror-smooth waters. Jesus, exhausted from the rigors of ministry, decides to catch a nap in the stern.
It’s a fine start. Many Christian writers like to use the present tense in portraying a biblical scenario. But then comes the next paragraph.
And then all hell broke loose. A furious storm pounced on them out of nowhere. The placid sea became a maelstrom, mountainous waves crashed over the side, and even the experienced fishermen among the disciples knew they were in trouble.
What just happened? Suddenly we’re thrust into the past tense, and the lack of a transition leaves us feeling jarred, disoriented.
Tense flipping becomes even more awkward when it happens back to back between sentences and even clauses:
Saul, overwhelmed by jealousy, tried to pin David to the wall with his spear. David flees for his life. Saul wound up mustering his troops and hounding David through the desert. Twice David had an opportunity to kill his deadly enemy, but both times he refuses to take the matter into his own hands.
How does your head feel after reading that? Mine hurts. Past tense or present tense: let’s have either one or the other. But not both. Please. We’re so confused!
Buried Tense Flipping
So far we’ve looked at obvious examples of switched tenses. A more insidious scenario can occur when a writer injects commentary into an anecdote, thus fragmenting the account. The commentary can take on a life of its own, and the tense used in the actual anecdote easily gets changed.
Jesus and his disciples decide to cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It’s a pleasant day, warm, the sun shining. They hop into a boat and head across the mirror-smooth waters. Jesus, exhausted from the rigors of ministry, decides to catch a nap in the stern.
Isn’t this picture a lot like our own lives! How often do we sail forth on an untroubled day, the skies of our circumstances cloudless . . . but then the weather changes. Drastically. Fearfully. As it did for the disciples in their small craft in the middle of deep waters suddenly darkened by a storm.
All hell broke loose. A furious squall pounced on them out of nowhere. The placid sea became a maelstrom, mountainous waves crashed over the side, and even the experienced fishermen among the disciples knew they were in trouble.
In this case, the culprit is the word did in “As it did for the disciples. . . .” It creeps in subtly and dictates the tense of the next paragraph, and our vignette, which began in the present tense, now continues in the past tense.
The Solution
What to do in the above situation? Do we want to maintain the present tense? If so, then let’s switch did to does and fix the last paragraph. Or do we decide that, gee, we really like how the past tense feels? If that’s the case, then we need to edit our opening paragraph accordingly.
The good news is, correcting flipped tenses is usually easy. Just pick which tense you want to use. Then go through your anecdote and change any verbs that don’t agree with that tense to ones that do. For instance, here are my edits of the Saul and David account, shown in both past and present tenses.
Past Tense
Saul, overwhelmed by jealousy, tried to pin David to the wall with his spear. David fled for his life. Saul wound up mustering his troops and hounding David through the desert. Twice David had an opportunity to kill his deadly enemy, but both times he refused to take the matter into his own hands.
Present tense
Saul, overwhelmed by jealousy, tries to pin David to the wall with his spear. David flees for his life. Saul musters his troops and hounds David through the desert. Twice David has an opportunity to kill his deadly enemy, but both times he refuses to take the matter into his own hands.
* * *
Switching tenses is common in speaking. It is also inevitable and necessary in the broader scheme of writing; however, it normally requires a transition of some kind. In an anecdote, a tense change should be avoided unless it’s deliberate and carefully handled. The best solution to tense flipping is simply to be aware. Awkward changes in tense sneak in when a writer is so focused on what she is writing right now that she’s not attuned to its context. So keep tabs on your tenses.