: Re: How to continually and organically let my readers know what time it is in my story? My novel takes place in a big world, with MANY POVs. Although I know when things are happening, I am afraid

@Deb2945533

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As of this answer, this question is marked as being "asked 19 hours ago". Is this a lazy way of SE to tell us when the question was asked? Should they have found a more organic way of telling us when questions are asked?

Books are full of numbers: they generally have page numbers in the corners, chapter numbers at the beginning of the chapter, etc. The show 24 started each episode saying which hour of the day it takes place in, and showed the clock throughout the episode. Star Trek peppered references to "star dates" throughout the show (albeit not in an entirely consistent manner). Flowers for Algernon starts each "diary entry" with the date.

This does depend a bit on the genre: constant reference to dates goes well with the science fiction genre of Star Trek. A constantly ticking clock goes well with the suspense genre of 24. If you're writing a medieval novel, having a chapter subtitle of "21/03/1421" might take away from the atmosphere, but if you're writing a steampunk novel, it would add to it.

You shouldn't rely on only chapter subtitles, though. If your novel makes sense only if the reader is constantly checking the subtitles, you should think about how it can be clearer. There are lots of ways of organically telling the passage of time: a character wearing the same clothes can mark that it's the same day, a different hair cut indicates longer time periods, ski trip can indicate that it's winter, an injury can slowly heal over time. Time can be given in reference to important events: a character has only three days to get a gift for their friend's wedding, or they're still learning the ropes after starting a new job a few weeks ago.

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