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I learn that when we are telling a story, we should use past tense. What if in our story there's an event that will happen after the story being told?

For example, in the following sentence:

When he called me last night, I was in the middle of preparing my itinerary for my next travelling adventure which will/would(?) be in the coming month.

What should we use there? Present future or past future?

2 Answers 2

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In formal writing, you should make the tenses agree. "Would be in the coming month" means that the event would happen in the month after he called you. "Will be in the coming month" reads as if the event will happen in the month after the reader reads the sentence.

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  • ah! I still have questions about narrative tenses but this could give me a start. Thanks!
    – Threl
    Sep 6, 2010 at 14:59
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This has also been an issue for me. I would write-

When he called me last night, I was in the middle of preparing my itinerary for my next travelling adventure which was going to be in the coming month.

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