Question

What forms of the past tense do narratives most often use?

Answer 1

simple past tense

past perfect tense

Answer 2

Explanation:

The narrative of most stories is written in past tense:

She ignored the knock on the door. In these days of social distancing, she didn’t want to take any chances.

Dialogue (including direct internal dialogue) is written in present tense:

“I need some chocolate to get me through this day. Stat.”

Backstory (events that occurred before the story present) is written in past perfect tense:

She had eaten all the snacks in the house already.