Time of day in writing

Time of day

As I write this, it's 2:02pm

What does that have to do with writing?

Absolutely nothing.

Well then, what is this post about?

It's about how the time of day affects the mood of scenes throughout the book.

This is going to be another one of those blog posts where you talk to yourself, isn't it?

Yes, yes it is.

*sigh*  Tell the readers about the time of day in writing.

Bossy aren't you?  Very well.  Here goes.

The time of day can have an important effect on the mood of a scene.  This is an invaluable tool for any writer.  As you write, think about what time of day it is in the story and how that might help convey a message of hope, despair, or even normalcy.  Certain times of the day are associated with different feelings.

The most obvious of these are day and night.  It's harder to be scared when the sun is out and there are people around.  On the other hand, nighttime hides danger.  People shrink in on themselves.  You can amplify these feelings by adding details on the time of day or night too.

How will dawn affect the scene?

I'm glad you asked. 

Dawn is generally associated with rising and hope.  It's a new day and all the bad stuff hasn't happened yet.  If you wish a scene to be filled with possibility, start at dawn.  This even works in horror.  It makes the fall into whatever bad stuff you wish to torture your character with even more terrible.

It's a great way to start a book too.  Have the person get up from bed, stretch and smell coffee, or someone cooking breakfast.  No matter how the story goes, you start out with a clean slate.

Dawn is also a great way to end despair and hopelessness.  If the previous chapters have been at night and things are going badly, you can bring dawn about to erase that despair.

On the rare occasion, dawn can actually bring an even greater hopelessness.  If things aren't better when dawn breaks, then you make the negative mood even more powerful.

"Rain Glade" begins at dawn.  You don't have to buy it.  If you want to see a sample, you can just look at the preview of the first page or two to see how I set the mood.

How will morning affect the scene?

Boy, you're good at asking these questions.

Morning is a great way to set the tone of the rest of the book.  The person has had time to drink a pot or three of coffee, they've gone to work, school, or sent the kids off for the day.  This is the perfect time to give the reader details about what's going to happen in the rest of the story.

Let me guess, you're going to tell us about noon next?

Good call!

This is when the gunfight happens.  The sun is beating down, it's hot, people are hiding inside.  Noon is almost always sunny.  Thinking about it, I can't ever remember a book where it was raining at noon, although I'm sure there's a few.  I have one that has steady rain for five days . . . so I guess I can think of a book, but we'll pretend I can't.  Noon is a good time for lunch scenes, obviously.

Anyway, noon is a great time for heat and hiding.  It's excellent for showing how characters are suffering under the whip of a slave master.  It's good to show oppression and tiredness.

What about midnight?

What?!!!  Midnight?  . . . Ohhhh, I see what you're doing.  You're trying to trip me up.  It's not going to work.  Ask me about afternoon instead.

If I must.  What about afternoon?

I'm glad you asked.

Afternoon is very versatile.  You can do just about anything with it.  It's a great time for action.  Something always seems to be happening in the afternoon.  It can be good, bad, or indifferent.  You don't really have to talk about what time it is either.

People have usually been at their routine for a while in the afternoon.  It's a good time to throw a wrench in their plans.  Maybe they don't get to go home.  Maybe there's a fight that's going to happen in the parking lot.

Let me guess, evening is good for dinner scenes, right?

Of course!

In addition to dinner scenes, evening brings the promise of night.  You can use it to create a sense of trepidation in the reader.  This is a great place to start a thriller book.  Something is going to happen, but you still have enough light to describe the characters and set the scene.  Build suspense by telling ghost stories around the campfire.

It's also when people get ready for parties or a night out.  Evening is a great time for discussions and dialogue.

Sunset.

Just one word?  That's it?  You're not even going to phrase it in a question?

Sunset?

*sigh*  Jerk.

Sunset is another excellent setting . . . (pun might have been intended, not sure)  Just as dawn is a great way to start a story, sunset is a great way to end a story.  We've all heard of riding into the sunset.  It works.  It's very romantic.

It's also a good way to add color to a scene.  Sunset has lots of reds, violets, golds and blues in it.  The bottoms of clouds can be pink or lined with silver.  This is a great romantic setting for a kiss.

Oddly enough, it's often as filled with hope as dawn is.

It's also a great time to turn off the lights and begin the scenes of fear in a horror story.

Night is when horror stories occur, right?

Well, Dracula certainly doesn't come out during the day.  He wouldn't want to sparkle . . .

Night is also a time of passion.  People can sneak away in the dark for a tryst.  If you want your characters to go to bed and get it on, this is a good time to do so.  I'll leave the details to you.

But yes, night is when the terror is easiest to write.  Monsters hide under the bed, or in the bushes at night.  You can't see them coming, and when they do, it's always behind you.  Empty parking garages are scarier at night with only the sound of high heels echoing through against the concrete.

It's good for campgrounds too.  The sound of crickets or wildlife can add to the affect.  Jason does his best work in campgrounds at night.  Teens also drink and do drugs, making them act stupid while being chased.

Does it matter if it's midnight?

Most definitely!!!

Midnight is a powerful time historically.  This is when rituals have historically occurred in many cultures.  It's great for moonlight ceremonies or sacrifices.  Any story about New Years must include midnight in it.

What about early morning?

I'm glad you asked. 

A common saying is, "It's always darkest before the dawn".  People are often tired during this time if they're awake at all.  This is when you sneak past the guards because they're not alert.  This is when the horror victim breaks down and cries because they don't think they're going to make it til morning.  It's when red-eye flights arrive if you want an empty airport scene.

It's also one of the least used times in books because most characters are sensibly sleeping during this time.

Would you like to recap?

Yes I would.  That's very considerate of you.

So if a scene just isn't clicking for you, think about what time you have it set in.  Perhaps you can make it stronger by changing the time.  It's always good to add how the light, or lack thereof, colors the scene at that time of day too.  You can add emotion that way.

Anyway,  that's all for now.  I hope you've had a good time. ;)

John H. Carroll

Writing a fantasy novel: How to define time

Do I keep the measure of time the same in a Fantasy novel?

This is a matter that I've considered to great lengths.  I'm building a fantasy world and writing novels within that world.  With fantasy, there are a lot of things to consider, the primary one being magic.  What sort of magic is it?  How does it work?  How powerful or common is it?

There are other things to consider, like whether or not humans are the only race, or do you throw more in?  Many writers add elves, dwarves and other Tolkienesque style races in.  At first I was going to add those, but decided to go with all human instead.  That changed when I added the Rojuun as a race.  But in doing so, I tried to make them largely unique, not following any of the normal fantasy stereotypes.

Plants and animals have to be considered.  If you make everything in your world brand new, you use up all the words describing those things.  I decided to keep a lot of the same trees and animals that are found on Earth.  I add extra flowers, but keep a lot of what's on Earth too.  The way I make it a fantasy world is by adjusting things, and adding supernatural creatures.  I have emo bunnies (surprise, surprise) carnivorous fairies, dragons, dryads, Mother Trees and things like that.  Also, the flowers are a great deal more powerful and sentient, which came about with the creation of Liselle as the Flower Child.

Currency, architecture, level of technology and how much magic replaces science are all important considerations too, but this blog isn't about those things.  It's about time.

These are many questions I've asked myself:  how many months should a year have, how is the month measured, especially since I have two moons, how many weeks and days in the month?  How many hours in the day?  Do they even have hours?  What about minutes and seconds?  How do they tell time?  How did people measure time before technology?  Does anybody really know what time it is?

Deciding what elements to add
At first I didn't want to stop writing to spend who knows how many hours figuring out a system.  I did briefly look at other books to see how they did it, but nothing jumped out at me that I was desperate to use.  At the time, I stuck with normal time because I wasn't about to interrupt the flow of words that was coming.  Writing can be very hard sometimes, especially when you're first starting.  I didn't succeed until I set aside all the distractions and just plowed through the first draft of the story.

The time came to make a decision and I finally decided to just stick primarily with standard measurements, though I made some adjustments.  There are twelve months in the year, BUT I don't actually talk about it in the story.  I've written three novels and have started the fourth in the world of Ryallon, and not once have I said what month it is.  All of my descriptions have been by season instead.

In the first trilogy, Book 1 started in early spring and ran through to early summer.  Book 2 went from early summer to late summer.  Book 3 went from early fall to late fall.  I eventually had to do a timeline of everything that happened to make sure I wasn't messing it up.  I also had to figure out the phases of the two moons in the world.  Luckily I didn't seem to mess anything up too badly.

The book I'm currently writing occurs years earlier than the other trilogy.  Originally I was going to start it in the middle of summer, but as I was writing I realized that it was snowing, so I switched the season to late fall.  Writing is like that sometimes; the scene or the characters decide what they're doing without really telling you.  It happens with weather too.  I've learned to go with the flow.  The writing is much more natural and fun that way.

The months have four weeks of seven days, making them twenty-eight days long.  I haven't told the reader that either, but use the knowledge for myself.  I haven't named any of the months or days either and have no clue what they're going to be called.  Part of the problem is that when I do, I have to tell the readers and explain why everything is named that way.  It's more important to me to describe things like magic and location as well as tell the story.  Actually, the story is the most important part, obviously.

I figure different civilizations in the world will have different calendars too.  Humanity has been that way, why not a fantasy world?  But I can leave that until necessary or interesting.

Then we get to hours and minutes.  I do not define seconds, instead calling them moments.  Seconds seem like a modern concept and they don't really fit in my image.  I've decided to keep hours and minutes because the reader can relate to them.  When writing, especially sci-fi and fantasy, it's important to give the reader stable information that they can relate to.  It helps them come to terms with the fantastic.

I'm finding that sometimes the information that's not told to the reader is just as fascinating as what is told.  The reader will fill in the missing information with what they already know.  As I write more, I learn what is and isn't important to describe.  It's really interesting to me, honestly.


Conclusion
So, the final result is that while I have years, months, weeks, hours, minutes and moments, to the reader, I only define seasons and times of day: morning, afternoon, evening, sunset, sunrise, early night, late night, early morning, noon, before sunrise . . . etc.  At no time have I told them what year it is, what month it is, what day it is or exactly what time it is on the clock.  When I realized this, I found it amazing.  I like it too.

My characters know what time it is though.  I've had them tell each other that they would meet in an hour or that something would happen in a few minutes.  The words were necessary for them to communicate to each other.  Even with that, they were talking to each other, not the reader.  It's a subtle distinction.

In finishing, I'd like to state that these are not rules and guidelines on how to do things.  Every writer is different and finds systems that work for them.  I talk about how I do things so that other writers can see how someone else does things and maybe get an idea.  I also do it so that my readers can get insight as what I am thinking when I write. (I caution them against delving to deeply into my thoughts because it's scary in there)