Hi, I'm writing my first story, and I need a little help with two matters.

1.) How should narration be used. When is there too much and/or when is it a inappropriate time to use a narrator?

2.) In a story, should everything be past tense, or are some actions in present tense, like:

A.) "look, the MacGuffin !" he said while jumping over Mary Sue.

B.) "look, the MacGuffin !" he said as he jumped over Mary Sue.

C.) All the above.

D.) Phil has Two Apples.

E.) None of the above.

Sorry if these are general knowledge, I haven't tried something long and fictional like this before, and I thought it be bad to make an incorrect assumption on something so key and basic to a story.

This is a good question, one that many, many more people should ask and I thank you for being brave enough to do so. You can write a story in any tense you want to, past tense, present tense, even future tense if it fits the story. The thing is, you are obviously new to it, so choose past or present and stick with it throughout your whole story. WHen you get better, you can experiment with a blend, having certain characters in one tense, while others in another or only changing tense with the chapters. Point is, consistency is key.

If you ever change tense, make sure that whatever the reason, you do it every time that reason comes up. I wrote a fic where flashbacks were in past tense, third person and everything in the 'now' was first person, present tense. Here is the link for a visual:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4123848/1/Jokes_on_Batman

I also did one (not posted) where only a certain character was first person, present tense and everything else was third, past.

A.) "look, the MacGuffin !" he said while jumping over Mary Sue.

B.) "look, the MacGuffin !" he said as he jumped over Mary Sue.

Both can work. 'While jumping' (not present or past tense, it's variable) means it was done at the same time, so it can work in past and present tenses. Just make sure that if you go with past tense, you stick with it (with the possible exception of a clear seperation between the past and present tenses, if you think you can handle it.)

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