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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/14449
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

If this were a question about usage in a technical paper or an essay, I'd suggest referring to a style manual for guidance. However, outside of formatting and punctuation rules, I don't think there are any absolute rules for fiction.

Narrative writing is meant to show people in real world believably, and people don't always use exactly the same terms for the same things. I might mention that it's "ten AM" or "ten in the morning," depending on the context of what I'm saying, or my mood at the time.

Also, is the character speaking referring to a digital clock, a train timetable, or a sundial? Is a scheduled event a rocket launch, which will have a precise time; or a dinner party, where is expected to be fashionably late?

While this sort of inconsistency is most pronounced in dialog, remember that the narrator of a book is also a character: The tone of the narration--even when the "narrator" is an omniscient narrator--sets the tone of the story. If the narrator is finicky, you might want to be utterly consistent; if not, you can treat the narrator's words like they're coming out of the mouth of an annoyingly fallible character.

Original score: 5