Can I switch from past tense to present tense in an epilogue?

Question

I have written my entire novel thus far in past tense. However, I feel like my final chapter/epilogue would work better in present tense. I want to give the reader the sense that everything s/he has read so far is a narration of events. What do you think? Is the tense-switching rule so vital that it would take away from the overall strength of my book?

Answer 1

I think the idea of having your story go from past tense to present is not only possible, but also something I've seen in a few exceptional novels. To let the reader in on a change in time, you may want to have something in the epilogue directly or indirectly say that time has passed. This could be in the case of saying something like "X years later" or writing in a way that hints at the passing of time.

Similar to yourself, I am working on writing a novel or book (not sure which yet) and am having to where the epilogue is a sort of "what happens next" and follow up to explain the prologue.

Happy writing!