Having trouble grasping the proper use of tenses

Hi,

 I am trying to write a fictional story. My understanding fails here:

"This time it was Brenda's turn to laugh." vs "That time it was Brenda's turn to laugh."

I am trying to write in the past tense but feel I am lacking some basic understanding of how to go about this.

"This time it was..." sounds better to my ear, but am I mixing tenses if I write like this? Is there a rule of grammar that dictates which pronoun is proper to use? Perhaps I'm missing some subtlety regarding using this/that...

Interesting question. I'm not a writer, but let me try to offer a few comments.

'This' and 'that' don't relate to tenses but to proximity. If I say 'Look at this', it's closer to me in some way than if I say 'Look at that'. It seems to me that the effect of saying 'This turn it was Brenda's turn to laugh' is to put the reader close to the action, as if he/she were there with Brenda at that point and place in time. Generally speaking, that seems to me like a desirable way to tell a story.

This example isn't my only problem with English grammar. I have spent plenty of time reading about proper grammar, yet the whole concept of proper tense use seems to be evading me. If you have other examples or questions you'd like to pose for comments, please feel free.

Best wishes, Clive

Hi again,

P.S. Do you happen to know, when writing in English (fiction), is it acceptable to bounce between tenses for different sentences? paragraphs? chapters?

Can you perhaps post a little bit of writing to illustrate what kind of tense use you are thinking of?

Best wishes, Clive