On long interstellar journey, how to date-stamp chapter headers?

CindyRae

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My WIP involves a long interstellar journey by colonists onboard a budget transport.

I need a way to indicate the passage of long periods of time. The journey takes almost three years. What's the best way to note the date at the head of a chapter?


  1. "Departure + 18 months" and "Arrival - 6 months"
    (I like basing it off departure because it fits the way the story presents)
  2. "June 2160" and "March 2230" -- awkward; time relative to what? An atomic clock?
  3. "Stardate 121.34" and "Stardate 201.2" a la Star Trek? Seems rather cryptic
  4. Something else?

And, yes, I could just write, "Ten months later, the..." but it's a little more intrusive than I wanted.
 

lizmonster

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I think you could make any of it work, but personally I like option 1. I'd also stick with either Departure or Arrival and not mix them.
 

Introversion

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Do you actually need to show it in chapter titles? Can't "passage of time" be shown organically, in the drama & conversations aboard ship?
 

rainbowsheeps

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I'd vote for departure+days (or months). And maybe not do arrival time. Departure is a fixed point - it already happened, and arrival might be a slightly moving goalpost depending upon situational factors throughout the journey. You could let the readers know an estimate of how long the trip should take / when they should arrive in narration, of course.
 

Vhb_Rocketman

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Unless you have some bizarro custom date system (which I've seen in other novels and works quite well...but don't copy somene elses), I'd vote for option one.

Then I'd choose either departure or arrive depending on which one is more significant to the story. Like if everyone is expecting a big event at the end you could go with Arrival - 30. But if it's the departure that's important and the journey itself the focus, then I feel Departure + 30 would work better.
 

talktidy

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I like option 1, too.

IMHO it would be more like how people would think of things in this situation. If they are aboard ship, one day would presumably be little different from another. Maybe -- and it's a very big maybe -- after the halfway point, you could change to arrival in x months. Big celebration at the halfway point. The colonists will need something to buck them up.

Dates without evidence of the passing of seasons seems a bit meaningless and the stardate type thing is going to put people in mind of Trek.
 

frimble3

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Option one. It's simple, straight-forward, and easy to understand.
'Stardates' are essentially random numbers, as are the 'future time' dates,
It's a controlled environment, so no seasons. And departure would have been the big inciting event.
'Departure + X' seems sensible.
You could use 'Arrival' but as others have said, that might be a moving target, and it feels like the suspense is diminished.
Also, if you plan other stories in this world, ' Arrival, or, Landing + X' fits in smoothly.
 
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TSJohnson

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Also vote for option 1.

I like the arrival as much as departure, but it really depends on a lot of factors that make the book. If it's even the tiniest bit of hard SF, the arrival time would be very strictly calculated, because planets move darn fast in big orbits, and hitting that sweet spot is quite necessary for any space travel, unless it's stargates or wormholes that travel with planets. Also, I can already see a twist when they are still in the vessel, and the title says 'Arrival +15 days'.
 

nickj47

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Another vote for Option 1. I don't think you could come up with something as inventive as star date that wouldn't remind everyone of start date. Roddenberry was there first, everything else looks like a copy.
 

Thomas Vail

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Do you actually need to show it in chapter titles? Can't "passage of time" be shown organically, in the drama & conversations aboard ship?

It can be part of the story telling structure. One, it's useful in avoiding 'as you know' if for whatever reason, there tend to be long gaps in between chapters. In the same vein, it can provide some dramatic tension. The arrival time decreases with each chapter, and then suddenly it's increased significantly? I recall a short story from some time ago a story that had the arrival countdown for scene breaks, and then near the end you saw 'Time to destination: Unknown' and it evoked a definite feeling of 'oh shit.' I wish I remembered anything more about it than that. ;)
 

CindyRae

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Thank you all for the advice.

The journey is long, around three years or so. Integrating the timeline into the scenes won't work for some of the time jumps, so I will try the departure-plus approach as chapter headers and see how it goes.