Photo by Ricce
What is time? If you’re writing SF/F, steampunk, or any other fictionally odd genre, it’s a question you may find yourself wondering. How would time differ from one place to another? How do we measure time? What would cause a shift in time?
Some writers choose to think far outside the box, using different “turns” of planets, and other methods to distinguish what parts make up an hour/parsec/etc. For the mathematically inclined, the study of the measure of time can be endlessly fascinating–and even from a linguistic perspective it’s a whole ton of fun. Our own world has plenty of wonderful history on the subject!
Initially in The Aldersgate, I didn’t consider time to be much different than our own. Earena is very like earth in size and shape, and distance from the sun (the year is a little longer, but not by much). So in the first draft, everything in minutes, seconds, hours, that’s sort of thing. As the steampunk aesthetic started to make itself more apparent, as well as the reigning Queen’s obsession with machinery, I thought I’d use a “tick” as a minute and a “turn” as an hour–like in a clock. The second hands, technically, tick as well, but so do the hour hands in older technologies. I like it anyway!
One of my pet peeves in fantasy literature in particular has to do with the language of the year. How many books have you picked up that say, “he was eight summers old at the time,” or, “she had already lived eighty winters.” Yes, seasons are important and, yes, it works as a method of time. But it’s hackneyed, folks.
I honestly haven’t used a substitute for the year yet, because I need to do more research into the effects of two moons on a planet like ours. I imagine messing with tides, and phases would change the way that people perceive of time a bit. I do know that when the moons are both at their fullest, it’s Spring–hence the whole Blooming Day theme in the first few chapters. Moons, of course, have all sorts of wonderful mythological connections to women, so there’s that too. I just need to pick an astrophysicist’s brain for a while, and then I can come up with some concrete answers.
At any rate, whatever choose to do with time, make sure it’s consistent throughout, and make it your own. Time is a fascinating subject–real and imagined–and is often a small detail that, when done right, can really help transport your readers into another world.
The Aldersgate Cycle 
August 28, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I’ve had the same problem with time… and with measurement! It’s painfully obvious that people in my world don’t use standard feet, inches, ounces, pounds…
But then, I figured, they aren’t speaking English, either. All the nice idioms I’m using for them is technically incorrect, so drawing a line can be difficult.
My solution to it is to figure that since I’m ‘translating’ for them anyway, I might as well show their clocks and their measuring ropes, and just deliver the end result in common terms. It makes more sense for the reader, and hopefully they’ll realize that there’s more going on.
August 28, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I agree with elizaw above on the subject of measurement, though I did have a grand time – so to speak – developing measurement of time for my novel The Fire Within. As a society that generally worships light, they have no time measurement based on the movement of the moon and use simply years, seasons, and weeks. I liked an idea from an ancient calendar I found in which each date falls on the same day each year, with naturally a few days left over at the end of the year – used for a new-year’s festival – which makes sense, as it gives a fairly uneducated Medieval society less counting to do to know what part of the year it is. Day five, week six, season two.
I am a little disappointed that I can’t reuse the system in the novel I’m currently writing – which takes place in an entirely different world – and I’ve been putting off developing that world because it did take a lot of time. Ah well.
August 29, 2008 at 3:10 am
@elizaw That’s definitely a good point. I think to a certain extent there needs to be enough familiarity to keep the reader engaged… you have to strike the balance. Sometimes, depending on the situation, keeping it just as it is here in our world.
August 29, 2008 at 3:12 am
@thejinx I like that idea! There are so many fascinating calendars in our world, and they often do translate exceptionally well to fantasy writing. Ah, the joys of world building.
August 29, 2008 at 6:20 pm
There is a conceptualization of time in the Native American cosmology that would say something like: day came to him 4 times. I’ve always liked that. But I get your point about the seasons perhaps being different on a different planet with a different cosmology.
Makes me think. Thanks for that!