This is because stories were traditionally told using the past tense. This made the narrator sound as if they were narrating events from a distance, instead of being 'present' amongst the action.

The past tense is used for things that have already happened. He was sticky. The present tense is used when something is happening now or when something happens regularly. He is sticky.

The abstract is usually in the past tense due to it showing what has already been studied. Example: “This study was conducted at the Iyarina Field School, and within the indigenous Waorani community ...

When two things occurred in the past, the past perfect tense comes in handy to express them within a clause. In other words, unlike the present perfect tense which states an action that started in ...

In this book Arjan Nijk investigates the variation between the past and present tenses to refer to past events in Classical Greek and beyond ... Philomen Probert Source: Bryn Mawr Classical Review The ...