time period in novel

This is just me, but I think your story should be told well enough as to convey the time period without actually coming out and announcing it.

Either way can work. You could:

-- Start with a section or chapter heading, like "November, 1692" or "1-1-84" or "2100 AD."

-- Have a character mention a "recent" event, like "Hey, you see how Nixon was sweating bullets in that debate?"

-- Describe clothing, vehicles, buildings, settings. Names will also say much. "Gaius Publius skirted the Forum, lest any of the other senators notice how a passing chariot had spattered his toga with muck."

-- Have a date appear in a newspaper or magazine a character's reading.

-- Songs, movies, TV shows and so forth define eras. Of course in our media-saturated world, access to old films and music is very easy. A character hearing "Satisfaction" could be living in 1965 or listening to a 60s radio station in 2008. The character's reaction to the song, as startlingly new or old-school, could go further to pinpoint the era.

-- An omniscient narrator, used throughout or intermittently, could simply state the time period. Or, like Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, he could state it at length, with a final twist of irony.

-- Or you can state no particular time at all, but let the reader generally realize that the setting is generally ancient or medieval or contemporary or future by a plethora of details.

J.R.R Tolkien went to extremes, and kept callenders when he plotted events. The ringwraiths left Mordor on this day...

Most authors do not. They will give references to how many leagues were traveled, or to how many moons. However, you do have to leave clues to suggest the passage of time if that's important to the novel.

Some readers want those details, and look for inconsistancies, but the majority are more interested in the general story.

Depending on how detached your story is from time/space, it could change the genre some.

I happen to think time period isn't drastically important, depending on how realistic your story is, because people are people are people. Regardless.

I'm usually a bit ambiguous about time period and use object names instead of brand names that might date the story (almost always). Sometimes elements from different time periods mix into my stories, though they aren't usually realistic, literary fiction or historical fiction so maybe that makes it easier to get away with.

If you are targeting a time period, you should be mindful of language, though that isn't to say you can't write in modern diction about historical events etc.

I like reading first chapters that mention a date. It helps ground me in the story I'm about to read without having to read all over the place for some clues. Of course the details do complete the picture.

Hey, congrats on finishing your book!

Oh, and I was meaning historical novels. Probably not as important in other genres.

Nateskate said:

Some readers want those details, and look for inconsistancies, but the majority are more interested in the general story.

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I just have to add that if you're doing tie-in writing (D&D, Star Wars, etc.), that those audiences tend to be VERY detail-oriented, and often know the universe better than you do, so you need to be make sure you have your dates, distances, phases of the moon(s), etc. correct, or someone WILL call you on it.

For your typical novel, though, while I still think it's important to keep track of these things, you probably have a bit more leeway.

But in terms of establishing your setting/time period, I think you'd want to incorporate both actual dates and details (because if someone isn't familiar with a certain time period, then describing your heroine's whale-bone corset in detail isn't going to help them figure out exactly when your story is taking place).

-- Marcy

Really a personal choice, as I've seen it done both ways. If the reader could be distracted from the story by trying to figure out when it takes place, then perhaps be clear. If not, then just background the time stamping

Depends on the story. I like to know, unless it doesn't matter.

I have no choice about mentioning the date in my current WIP, since one of the characters has to ask for it. (It's this year.) So I'm making sure everything happens on the right day of the week, and doing my best to get the clothes and technology right, but making up the weather as I go along and totally omitting the news items from the period of the story that would, if I included them, interest my characters so much that the plot would get derailed.

You could consider going to the library and looking at the first couple of pages of some historical novels. Say one of Ellis Peters' Caedfael mysteries, Lindsey Davis's Falco books, and Gone With the Wind to start yourself off.

Don't forget the "show don't tell" rule. If the setting is real (not fantasy) it's easy to show the period using clothes or having a character mention an important event in history to give the reader an idea. Does anyone not have a rough idea of the period when William the Conqueror invaded England? Or when Princess Diana was killed? These may not offer exact dates, but they should conjure a vision of the setting/world as it was then.

If it's fantasy, it doesn't matter.

Carmy said:

Don't forget the "show don't tell" rule. If the setting is real (not fantasy) it's easy to show the period using clothes or having a character mention an important event in history to give the reader an idea. Does anyone not have a rough idea of the period when William the Conqueror invaded England? Or when Princess Diana was killed? These may not offer exact dates, but they should conjure a vision of the setting/world as it was then.

If it's fantasy, it doesn't matter.

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Even in fantasy, the issue is still important; you should be clearly demonstrating level of technology and type of society from page one, by weaving it into your narrative. Obviously an alternate world fantasy won't have a similar calendar or history to our own, but you still have to illustrate where the society is at.

As long as you don't have your MC mentioning the fact that it is 234BC, you should be alright. I bring it in tangentally because the MC finds she is going to fight in the 100 Years War at a specific time.