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171 fifteen Verb Tense Shifting In outlining this book, I had to make some difficult decisions about which elements of grammar, convention, and style a fiction writer most needs to master. While I feel strongly about the topics ultimately included, I’m sure I’ve failed to address a few important issues, and probably some of the chapters won’t be helpful for everyone. But throughout the project, this chapter and its subject shone as a beacon in my dark night of uncertainty. From the moment I conceived of the idea for the book, I knew it would need a chapter on verb tense shifting, and no one was going to talk me out of it. I need to clarify what I mean by “verb tense shifting,” because any written work will contain a multitude of verb tenses, depending on the situation and intent. The error we’re talking about here occurs when a writer moves from the past tense to the present tense, or vice versa, with no grammatical , contextual, or aesthetic reason for doing so. That is, he makes the shift arbitrarily (“arbitrary verb tense shifting”—A.V.T.S.—might be a better name for it, but it’s a bit inelegant). Here are two examples: Jacoby turns and begins to strike a match. He lit the cigar and smiled at Henrietta. It was cold, so she and Dennis stay in and listen to Gershwin albums. This may not be the most common error made by writing students—some would argue spelling problems or comma misuse takes the prize—but it’s certainly in the top five. Furthermore, it needs to be addressed more stringently than the others because it’s the most insidious. I have two reasons for saying this. The first is that writers tend to make the mistake even when they’ve been warned about it; like a radon leak, it’s wickedly difficult to detect in your own house. The second reason I consider verb tense shifting so dastardly is that it will break a reader out of the fictive dream like no other language error. At this point, we seem to have arrived at a dead end. I’ve pointed out 172 | C o mm o n E r r o r s the error, shown examples of it, and explained that it’s one of the most significant and common mistakes made by writers on all levels (and I mean it—I’ve read manuscripts submitted for fiction contests and grad school applications that were clean of virtually every language error except for A.V.T.S.). I’ve also asserted that it does more damage to the reader’s suspension of disbelief than any other linguistic mistake. So now you know to watch out for it. What else is there to say? By now you know me well enough to guess that the answer is “Lots.” I’m weirdly fascinated by verb tense shifting, and I have a few theories about why it’s so common, why it’s so distracting, and how even this travesty may be used for artistic effect. So I encourage you to engage with the ideas in the sections that follow. You should know, however, that I’ve already said the most important thing I can say about this topic: arbitrary verb tense shifting is extremely common and extremely damaging. As I tell my students the day before they hand in an assignment, “In spite of my warnings, at least one of you will turn in a work that arbitrarily shifts verb tense. Do everything in your power not to be that person.” The Source of the Distraction In the climactic scene of the fourteenth-century narrative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the reader encounters the following passage (italics mine): When he came to the stream he refused to wade: He hopped over on his axe, and forcefully strides Fiercely grim on a clearing . . . It’s a stirring scene, but what should stand out to you is the way the author shifts verb tense. (NB: although the passage has been translated from Middle English, the shift also occurs in the original.) He tells us that the green knight “came” to the stream, “hopped” over it, and “strides” to a clearing. One of those things, as they say, is not like the other. According to George Sanderlin, “seemingly random shifts from present to past, and from past to present, are common in early literature...

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