: Re: What format should I use when beginning a chapter with the time and location of the events? What format should I use when beginning a chapter with the time and location of the events? I was

@Sarah872

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It kind of depends, to my way of thinking at least, on who the narrator of the tale is; if they are a disembodied third person POV then it's more or less authors choice, pick something you like and stick with it consistently. If, on the other hand, you're using a character from the narrative as the storyteller then you have to decide how your character thinks about time and use a consistent format in keeping with their background. For example if Steve has worked anywhere that deals with 24/7 scheduling he's likely to use 2100 rather than 9pm.

As a note if you're going to head one chapter head them all, otherwise get your characters to keep track of time "in narrative" instead:

Steve got out of the office earlier than usual, and took a cab to meet his friend who was sitting on a park bench by his lonesome.
"Come on it's only 9, the night is young." he said by way of greeting and they...

This can be more organic and if you don't need to keep constant track of time throughout the whole narrative then it requires less attention from the reader than a separate header. You can do it as you need it, when you need it, to keep events in order when it matters and not worry about it when the narrative timeline is linear.

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