If your story is written in the present tense, it is important to maintain the present tense throughout. The first time you use a present tense verb, you are telling the readers that this particular event is happening "now". From that point on, your readers will expect events unfolding after this to continue to be written in the present tense, as if they are right there in the moment with the characters.

Take this opening sentence as an example: "I stand there, waiting, as I rock myself forward and back on the balls of my feet." The present tense verb is "stand". The main character is "right now" standing, waiting, and rocking. The readers are prompted to imagine this scene unfolding before them in the present.

This use of present tense verbs doesn't mean that every verb in your story must be in its present tense form, though. If you start talking about things that happened before your story's "now", you will have to use the proper verb forms for those past events. You will then have to make sure to return to present tense verbs when you go back to talking about "now". There are a few different rules to keep in mind while doing this.

The easiest example of switching to past tense verbs is flashbacks or memories of events that happened before your story's "now".

"And when I was younger, I used to throw tantrums about how much I hated my father."

This sentence starts with a clause that tells the readers that the events happened in the past. "When I was younger" is a way of establishing a point in time, a point in time that we know is before "now". That means that the use of "was", "used", and "hated" are all correct.

Those verbs are all in the past tense, but you may also need to use a tense called the present perfect. This tense is used when talking about things that started in the past and are still happening or when talking about things that happened at an unspecified time in the past. It uses "has" or "have" with what is called the past participle of the verb.

Here's an example of the first: "I've played so many times before I know I could do it again."

"Played" is the past participle of "play". The narrator played in the past and still does play.

The problem with this sentence is the verb "could". "Could" is the past tense of "can". When the narrator says "I know", she is moving back to the "now" of the story, telling her thoughts in the moment. This means that the correct verb is "can". The switch to present perfect only applies to the action that was happening partially in the past, the playing. After that is done being discussed, we should go back to seeing present tense verbs.

Another example of present perfect is this sentence: "I have never messed up in a performance before."

This is different from our previous example that used "when I was younger" to set a specific point of time. The use of words like "never", "ever", or stating a number of times that something has happened in the past (many times, a few times, nine times, etc.) are a good indication that present perfect is needed, while words like "yesterday", "last week", or a phrase that starts with "when" and describes a past event or a past state of being are a good indication that past tense is needed.

Another time you might need to use a different verb tense is when your story goes from talking about past events into talking about events that happened even further back in the past. Everything needs to be measured against the "now" of your story. That "now" is like an anchor, holding your readers to the specific time and place of your story. Whenever you are talking about a different time, it always needs to be in relation to that starting point so that the readers don't get lost and confused about what is happening when.

The use of past tense indicates events before "now". In order to talk about events that happened before those past events, you can turn to the past perfect. This uses the word "had" with the past participle.

This is a sentence piece that should make use of the past perfect: "my father was sweaty as though he was running for a long time."

It has already moved into the past. Her father was sweaty at the time being described. He got to be sweaty, the narrator guesses, because he was running before that. The sentence should read: "my father was sweaty as though he had been running for a long time."

One last thing to note is that you have to think very carefully about what you are describing. Are you describing past events or present impressions of past events? An excellent example is this scene in which the narrator is looking at a set of photographs.

"A picture appears[,] and I'm surprised. It's a picture of [M]other and [F]ather holding hands. They look so young..."

The story is describing the narrator's thoughts in the present moment while she looks at the photographs. Because of this, the use of present tense is correct, but the fact that the photographs show events of the past make it easy for the writer to make mistakes like this:

"Her veil covers a portion of her face[,] which was flawless".

The photograph is of a past event, so the temptation is to describe the character's face with the past tense, but the sentence is actually describing how the face in the photograph looks to our narrator in the present. This has been established previously, so we know that "her face" actually refers to the face in the photograph. The face in the photograph is flawless.

As you write, make sure you always talk about events in relation to your story's present. Keep track of whether you have moved into the past, the further past, or are describing the current appearance or state of things. This will ensure that your readers always know when they are as well.