Style of writing time in fiction.

I don't get specific. I use clues. A character may rub his five o'clock shadow, or a character may wonder where the last ten years went to, or "after the revolution completed its cycle. . . "

But that's just me. Some like to give specific times and dates. I don't. I allow the flow of the story to show the reader how much time has passed, or in what era the story is taking place.

I trust the reader's imagination.

I suppose it is just a matter of preference. That is mine.

I always spell it out. Period. Once again, that is just my preference. I'm one that has a funny thing about consistency.

Patricia said:

Others say, to spell it out in narration, and numerical in dialogue.

Click to expand...

I agree with this suggestion, but I'm not a published writer. This is the way I do it. I found a thread here that discusses numbers. It is talking about how to write Psychology 101, but maybe you can decide from the responses. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33398. Hope this helps.

Do it any way you like. If your book is published, the publisher will have a style sheet they adhere to (I forget what they call it) and it will be changed then, if necessary.

Strunk & White don't say anything specific about time as expressed here, but it does seem to agree with the idea that spelling out dates or other serial notations (ex: August 9, 1963; Chapter XII; 352nd infantry) should only be done in dialogue (ex: "I arrived home on August ninth" but "In the year 1970, I turned twenty-one.").

I tried finding something in the online version of the Chicago Manual of Style, but the only thing that was even close is that with the exception of 24-hour time (as for the military) 12:00 should be expressed as either noon or midnight to avoid confusion.

While it is more than likely okay to use either, I've used both. If the story is set in the present or future––digital should be fine.

Right now I'm working on something set in Victorian-age Philadelphia. When I needed to use the time of day for the setup of a scene, I spelled it out.



Let's see what the big hitters say. Good question.





Mike

It's good to familiarize yourself with the Chicago Manual of Style's version of things, if only so you know what your copyeditor thought s/he was doing.

Don't rush out and buy the Chicago; the public library will have a copy or three.

Some writers spell it out to the extreme in dialogue.

e.g. "THe class starts at five oh clock ay-em."

I don't remember for the life of me who did that, but it drove me up the wall.

...

In answer to your question, I generally spell it out, even in dialogue. If my character is reading something that I transcribe directly, and it has numbers on it, I'll use them. For example, "John looked at her badge, which said "HELLO, my NAME is OPAL, I have WORKED here for 5 YEARS""

Whereas if it were narration I would write, "John say from her brightly colored nametag that she was not only named Opal, but she had worked there for five years."

I've seen it done as jargon (Steve King and Neil Gaiman both used it, now I think on it) but I've seen it just used as style.

I'm really trying to remember who it was. I'll be hunting through my bookshelves now. I haven't seen it in a long time, so the odds are good I don't even have the book I'm referencing now. Which bugs me... Sorry.