Past-Past

In the majority of stories you will come across an instance where you need to talk about the past tense, the easiest way to do this is by using the word "had." Example: Jessica had dealt with this before. The problem comes when you working in past tense and trying to write about something that happened before the current past tense. Therefore you get the past of the past. Though I am an English Major, I don't claim an expert knowledge on the technical terms of all of the ins and outs of writing. I am sure there is an official name for it, but I like to call it the past-past tense.

I read somewhere that the past-past tense often trips people up and the best way to write it is to use "had" once at the beginning of the section to let your reader know it is now past tense. From then on you are good to write it in regular past tense. Don't feel obligated to put it in every time because it bogs down the reading.

Justin remembered how he had hated second grade. It wasn't that he had been a poor student. It was that no one had wanted to share in his adventures. Instead of spending recess playing tag with the other students, he'd spent it alone, with the friends his own mind had created. Now as a senior, that was different. People praised the creations of his mind.

Now without the "had"

Justin remembered how he had hated second grade. It wasn't that he was a poor student. It was that no one wanted to share in his adventures. Instead of spending recess playing tag with the other students, he spent it alone, with the friends his own mind created. Now, as a senior, that was different. People praised the creations of his mind.

You can see that it is still clear that the events of the paragraph are taking place in the past.