Writing In Numbers
Monday, May 3
Several times in writing you'll have a character counting, n
umbers engraved on doors, or a rough estimate of how many guards are chasing them. So what's the proper way to write these numbers; numerical or linguistic?
The official "rule" is to spell out numbers greater than ten (10).
Eleven or more, basically
But I feel that there are some exceptions when it comes to the emotional appeal of writing a story.
For me, I feel that as a writer, you should just write out the numbers, regardless of it being lower than eleven. A numerical "12" jumps off the page when it's completely surrounded by words.
But sometimes, that's what we want. If you are describing imagery, something the reader needs to visualize, I believe that you should write it how it appears to the characters. (How many doors have "twelve" written on them versus "12"?) For example, do they see;
But that's just my opinion. What do you think?
umbers engraved on doors, or a rough estimate of how many guards are chasing them. So what's the proper way to write these numbers; numerical or linguistic?
The official "rule" is to spell out numbers greater than ten (10).
Eleven or more, basically
But I feel that there are some exceptions when it comes to the emotional appeal of writing a story.
For me, I feel that as a writer, you should just write out the numbers, regardless of it being lower than eleven. A numerical "12" jumps off the page when it's completely surrounded by words.
But sometimes, that's what we want. If you are describing imagery, something the reader needs to visualize, I believe that you should write it how it appears to the characters. (How many doors have "twelve" written on them versus "12"?) For example, do they see;
OR
But that's just my opinion. What do you think?
4 comment(s):
I've always struggled with that in my writing, and I don't know what exactly to do about it! For example, is my character 23 or twenty-three? Is it 10:00 or ten o'clock??? :/
Ooh, this problem has hit my writing before too. I agree with the door idea.
No, actually that's very helpful! Thanks!
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