Chapter six of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft on “Subject Pronoun and Verb” is one of my favorite chapters. I underlined or starred about 3/4 of the paragraphs. Here’s the bit that grabbed me the most, though:
To discuss the use of tense, we have to realize that in fictional and nonfictional narrative, the “past tense” is not past and the “present tense” is not present. Both are entirely fictive. The story, whether or not it’s based on a real even, exists only on the page. The only real present time is the reader’s.
myfanwy collins 