As I began to read over my first 10 chapters I noticed that I am messing up tense occasionally. I will be writing in past tense which seems right for the part and then at random times I start writing in present tense. I think it is whenever I stop writing and sit back down to finish my work that I do this and it really bugs me. I am going to pay a lot closer attention to it now that I have noticed it but I was wondering if anybody had helpful tips on how to stop this bad habit.
Never stop writing. I would just actively think about the fact that you are doing it whilst you are writing, and if do maybe you will always start to use correct tense and the problem will cease to exist.
I think as time passes you'll just make less mistakes. And if you can see where you're going wrong that's already halfway there. There's no shame in having to go back to tidy things up.
I recently reread some of the stuff I wrote back when I was 13. There were some awful things in there - awful - anything from tense issues to grammar horrors to spelling confusions. Not really sure if I was aware of it then, but with time I stopped making those mistakes. Sounds to me like you just lose track of it sometimes. What might help is putting notes at the end of a paragraph about things y0u need to think of once you continue.
Don't worry too much about it. I tend to like present tense so I slip into it occasionally. Mainly I just fix it when I go over the piece.
