My novel is written in the first person but I haven't worked on it in a looong time because I have a really problem with past and present tense - I'm jumping all over the place. I really love the novel and want to finish it so can anyway point me in the direction of a good tenses tutorial (if such a thing exists)?

Not sure one does exist, judging by the number of searches that pick up a blog post of mine on the subject. That wasn't a tutorial, I'm afraid, more a meditation on when present does and doesn't work. You'd certainly find a run-down of how the grammar works in something like David Crystal's Rediscover Grammar, or is it a different problem?

Emma

Funnily enough, after starting the thread I was browsing the blogs and found you post about tenses. I agree with what you say about writing in the present tense - it can be a bit too intense.

My problem is that I seem to jump between present and past tense willy nilly. I'm probably worrying too much and should just right the thing and worry about tenses, etc when I edit it.

Well, since forging ahead with the story without too much technical fretting is a good strategy for most writers, maybe it's a case of just doing some very fierce, fine-toothed-comb revisions afterwards.

Though if you feel you may not pick up all the mistakes later - and it is the kind of basic error that agents and editors will certainly notice - then you might to better to do some practice writing, perhaps in something small you don't have so much invested in, and practice vigilance as you go (rather as we all learnt to practice vigilance with spelling at school) till it becomes automatic.

Emma