Do I have the right idea with ～てきた here?

Question

「日記を書いていたらまさにお腹がすいてきた」

That's the sentence. I believe it'd be, "I am certain to get hungry when I write in my diary."

I'm just not entirely sure I'm right simply because the it is きた instead of くる, which has me thinking I don't understand something with this grammar...

I understand ～てくる as a way to express something has happened and continues to be happening. So, in this case, the person becomes hungry when they write in their diary and won't stop being hungry until they do something, like eat.

Aye, the more I think about it the more convinced I am I'm missing a point. Help me figure this out once and for all, haha.

Answer 1

「日記{にっき}を書{か}いていたら(、)まさにお腹{なか}がすいてきた。」

does not mean:

"I am certain to get hungry when I write in my diary."

That English sentence suggests that the speaker always or habitually gets hungry when he writes in his diary, correct? The point of utterance can be anytime.

The original sentence does not talk about what always/usually happens. It is only talking about what is happening at a specific time which is 'right now'. The only possible point of utterance is the present moment.

「お腹がすいてきた」 may look like it is in the past tense, but it is describing what has been happening right now. Point is it takes some time (usually more than just a few minutes) to get from the "non-hungry" state to the "hungry" state. The 「～～てきた」 part describes the situation ("process" may be a better word) where one has finally gotten to the point where one is "pretty" hungry.

Thus the original sentence means:

"I have gotten quite hungry while writing in my diary."

or even

"I am getting quite hungry while writing in my diary."