That is indeed weird. The default prompts do not affect how the prompts are actually behaving - they're just the defaults that get applied when creating a chat or a new beat.

We also haven't fundamentally changed the default writing prompts, just how we add the context. The regular scene beat instructions were kept from before.

Can you check in the novel settings as well as the prompt preview (via 'tweak and generate') that the instructions say "past tense" and not present tense? It sometimes also has to do with the model (I think Wizard or Mistral preferred present tense, can't remember), which one are you using for writing?

Thanks in advance!