Today's piece of advice:
95% of the time, you don't need the word "had'.
Yes!Had:
Rose had a banana. The Doctor wanted the banana, but he also wanted Rose. The Doctor stole Rose's banana, had it for dinner, and then he had Rose for dessert.
Fail!Had:
Sam and Dean had parked the Impala next to a big, blue box. Dean'd walked around it several times, squinting.
"What's a 'Police Public Call Box'?"
Sam had looked confused, too. "It's a holdover from the 1950s, before everyone had cell phones. If there was an emergency, you just found one and used it to call the police."
Dean had given Sam a look. "Dude. Weird."
It had obviously been a comment on his intelligence, but Sam wasn't phased. He'd stepped up and put his hand on the box, feeling a slight humming just underneath the surface of the wood.
"You're telling me. They never used these in America, Dean. They're from England."
95% of the time, you don't need the word "had'.
Yes!Had:
Rose had a banana. The Doctor wanted the banana, but he also wanted Rose. The Doctor stole Rose's banana, had it for dinner, and then he had Rose for dessert.
Fail!Had:
Sam and Dean had parked the Impala next to a big, blue box. Dean'd walked around it several times, squinting.
"What's a 'Police Public Call Box'?"
Sam had looked confused, too. "It's a holdover from the 1950s, before everyone had cell phones. If there was an emergency, you just found one and used it to call the police."
Dean had given Sam a look. "Dude. Weird."
It had obviously been a comment on his intelligence, but Sam wasn't phased. He'd stepped up and put his hand on the box, feeling a slight humming just underneath the surface of the wood.
"You're telling me. They never used these in America, Dean. They're from England."
Using "had + verb" is called "past perfect" tense. It's used to describe an action that happened before another action that is happening in the past. A lot of fanfiction authors confuse past perfect tense with plain old past tense, liberally scattering unneeded 'hads' everywhere.
Turning a Fail!Had into a Yes!HadSam and Dean parked the Impala next to a big, blue box. Dean walked around it several times, squinting.
"What's a 'Police Public Call Box'?"
Sam looked confused, too. "It's a holdover from the 1950s, before everyone had cell phones. If there was an emergency, you just found one and used it to call the police."
Dean gave Sam a look. "Dude. Weird."
It was obviously a comment on his intelligence, but Sam wasn't phased. He stepped up and put his hand on the box, feeling a slight humming just underneath the surface of the wood.
"You're telling me. They never used these in America, Dean. They're from England."
When It's Okay To Use Past Perfect
Most of the time, you just want to use regular old past tense. But sometimes, when you're using past tense, you need to describe something that happened in the past of the past you're writing about (sheesh, grammar sure is timey-wimey). Like so:
The Doctor thoroughly enjoyed his dessert. Somewhere in the hazy bits, between the flavor of banana and the flavor of Rose, he had lost track of where they'd meant to land, and so when they finally opened the doors, he was not expecting the American midwest, or the two surly-looking boys examining his TARDIS. It was completely worth it, though, because while not nearly as lovely as his magnificent time ship, the car - the car was a thing of beauty.
This has been a public service announcement.
"What's a 'Police Public Call Box'?"
Sam looked confused, too. "It's a holdover from the 1950s, before everyone had cell phones. If there was an emergency, you just found one and used it to call the police."
Dean gave Sam a look. "Dude. Weird."
It was obviously a comment on his intelligence, but Sam wasn't phased. He stepped up and put his hand on the box, feeling a slight humming just underneath the surface of the wood.
"You're telling me. They never used these in America, Dean. They're from England."
When It's Okay To Use Past Perfect
Most of the time, you just want to use regular old past tense. But sometimes, when you're using past tense, you need to describe something that happened in the past of the past you're writing about (sheesh, grammar sure is timey-wimey). Like so:
The Doctor thoroughly enjoyed his dessert. Somewhere in the hazy bits, between the flavor of banana and the flavor of Rose, he had lost track of where they'd meant to land, and so when they finally opened the doors, he was not expecting the American midwest, or the two surly-looking boys examining his TARDIS. It was completely worth it, though, because while not nearly as lovely as his magnificent time ship, the car - the car was a thing of beauty.
This has been a public service announcement.
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