Hi! So, I've been sending out query letters and recently I noticed something big. My very first line is in present tense. The rest of the novel is in past tense. This is the first two lines: Today marks one year since the death of simple life. One year since the council called for a state of emergency town meeting: The wall had been breached. I really like the way it sounds, but I know it can't stay that way for tense reasons, ugh. Does anyone have any ways to reword that first line to make it sound just as good without being present? or is there anyway it somehow works, LOL. Thanks.
Does the rest of chapter 1 take place "today"? I don't see a huge problem with it. Today can still be in the past. "Today I went shopping." - I went shopping at some point earlier today.
To be honest, I think it's fine the way it is. It sounds almost speechlike, and a person would say "Today marks one year..." I don't really see the problem.
The problem would be the tense in not consistent.That's kind of important. Sure, the sentence is fine, but when the OP is trying to write in past tense it does stand out and not in a way they seems intentional when you look at the whole example.
‘Today marked one year since...’ sounds like even more of a contradiction to me. You have a past tense word immediately following, and referencing, a present tense word. I avoid the use of words such as ‘now’ or ‘today’ when writing in present tense. I’d go with something like: One year ago signalled the death of simple life...
