Years ago, during a time of tight educational budgets, the satirical newspaper “The Onion” ran a story that to deal with the belt tightening some school districts had decided to cancel all teaching of the past tense, since the past was, by definition, “outdated.” Today, that might not be happening, but when it comes to blogging ideas, you could be forgiven for thinking that it already did.

Blogging is almost always about the present tense and the hear and now. Typically, blogging journalism is about current stories and online information that is very much in the present tense. Great life tips might include platitudes such as to live in the present. Nonetheless, the past also informs the present, which is why William Faulkner said the past is never dead. In fact, it is not even the past.

There are a lot of reasons why people might want to live in the present. But there is almost no doubt that, when people write, they almost universally want to write there. The Read More