Expressing large numbers in dialogue?

Digits tend to be read faster and are less important. Spelling out numbers takes longer to read and are emphasized. So there are two things to consider:

1) How do people think of dates? Do you think of this year as "twenty seventeen" or "two thousand seventeen"? Was Bill Clinton president in the "nineteen-nineties" or the "one thousand nine hundred nineties"? Use the intuitive phrasing.

2) How much emphasis do you need to put on the date? If they're jumping forward a few hundred years, then you can use digits, because it's close enough to be relatable:

"The date appears to be late April 2432," she said.

If they've advanced several thousand years, then spelling it out will underscore just how far ahead they are:

She looked at her screen in astonishment. "According to these readings, it's approximately the year twenty-four thousand, three hundred fifty-six."

posted almost 8 years ago

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Lauren Ipsum‭

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i feel that in a dialogue nobody will say "The year is 24356," maybe they will say "it's 56", "we are in 56"

also such a large number for readers that are not used to it, makes almost no sense, it is just a random number, that's why most writers use something like "year 1405, new galatic era"

But if you want to emphasise the distance from the present, use "24th millenium", or "24th millenium, 400th century", "24.4 millenium", and then later the more precise "24356" or better for accentuating the date, "August 9, 24356"

posted almost 8 years ago

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Reed‭

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