To Be Or To Were Not To Have Being
Let's talk about tenses.
Tenses must agree!
I find myself writing this line in almost every editorial report I write, but authors already know this (right?). So why does this line come up again and again and again?
Because tenses are more complex than they should be and certain verbs/verb phrases (to be, I’m looking at you) have multiple forms.
To Be
Present: am, is, are
Simple past: was, were
Infinitive: be
Present participle: being
Past participle: been
I won’t break down the distinction between each of these tenses or the reasons why we have eight verb forms for this irregular verb, but looking at this list it’s no wonder so many writers slip up!
Because I think working an example is the best way to learn something, let’s do exactly that. In the following passage, find the places where the tenses don’t agree and think of a way to fix the problem.
He would make the King watch as civil wars tear his precious kingdom apart, as his loved ones starve and perish.
If you didn’t find a solution, that’s okay, it’s what editors like me are for! If you did, drop it in the comments below.
One possible solution to this would be to change all the present verbs to their past verb form.
He would make the King watch as civil wars tore his precious kingdom apart, as his loved ones starved and perished.
There are other approaches you could take for this one (aren’t there always?) but this fixes the problem we had. If you want some practice with this, find some sentences in your book where your tenses have slipped (there will be one – it happens) and find as many solutions as you can.
Let’s take another example. This time there are multiple tenses required to tell the story but choosing where to switch is tricky!
He sat back in the chair and closed his eyes. Then, thinking of his home in London, a memory surfaced of his wife’s twenty-third birthday party. She looked so happy entertaining the guests. When they finally left, he embraced and kissed her.
This is a more subtle shift and comes in the form of had.
There are two times in this passage: the now and the memory. For ease, I’ll put the memory in bold.
He sat back in the chair and closed his eyes. Then, thinking of his home in London, a memory surfaced of his wife’s twenty-third birthday party. She looked so happy entertaining the guests. When they finally left, he embraced and kissed her.
Now it’s easier to see where out tenses should be changing. The bold sentences should be written in past tense, turning our has/have to had.
He sat back in the chair and closed his eyes. Then, thinking of his home in London, a memory surfaced of his wife’s twenty-third birthday party. She had looked so happy entertaining the guests. When they had finally left, he embraced and kissed her.
Except… this doesn’t feel right. Read that last sentence again – it needs more work, doesn’t it? It’s a little messy.
We can do better.
He sat back in the chair and closed his eyes. Then, thinking of his home in London, a memory surfaced of his wife’s twenty-third birthday party. She had looked so happy entertaining the guests. When they had finally left, he they embraced and kissed her.
Now, you could work away at this for ages, rewrite and rewrite, but the problem we came here to fix (the problem of tenses) has been fixed and the prose has been tidied while retaining the author’s voice and message.
No matter how much you edit something, keep in mind the perfect sentence doesn’t truly exist! Don’t sweat over the small things – that’s what editors are here for!