Writing Blog Number 2

20241211 Using Numbers In Writing

Using Numbers In Writing

In the last post, I looked at the rule of three. In this one, I am going to look at numbers that could help a writer… and look at writing numbers.

Number facts!
         1) If you double the dimensions of an object or animal, you quadruple the surface area (multiply by 4) and octuplet the mass (multiply by 8). This is important when looking at creating large animals… because can their bone structure support such an increase in mass?
         2) There are 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46.08 seconds in a standard Earth year. We call it 365 days. So, every four years is a leap year of 366 days. However, if the year can be divided by 100, then it is NOT a leap year… unless it can also be divided by 400, in which case it IS a leap year. So, 1800 was NOT a leap year, 1900 was NOT a leap year, 2000 WAS a leap year, 2100 will NOT be a leap year.
         3) The year 2000 is also the year:
                   5760 in the Hebrew/Jewish calendar. Their year 2000 was in 1760BC. The Lunar calendar they use dates to 3760BC, Jewish traditional beginning of the world;
                   4698 in the Chinese calendar. Their year 2000 was in 698BC;
                   1921 in the Reformed Indian calendar. Their year 2000 will be in 2079CE;
                   1421 in the Muslim calendar. Their year 2000 will be in 2579CE;
                   1378 in the Persian calendar. Their 2000 will be in 2622CE;
                   2543 in the Theraveda Buddhist Calendar. Their year 2000 was in 1457CE. (Dates from 544BC, the date of Buddha’s death).
So, so long as you have a 365 or so day year, on Earth there are many ways you can number your years, as can be seen by those used to this day.
         4) The ancient Romans had no sign for the number zero. It was left blank if not written as a word (nullus).
         5) If you are reading a book from before the twenty-first century, you need to be aware that the USA and UK had different forms of the number billion and above. In the USA (which is now standard in the world) a billion is 1,000 times a million; in the UK it was a million times a million. In the USA, a trillion is 1,000 times a billion; in the UK it was a billion billions. The USA increased numbers linearly; the UK exponentially. We have gone to the USA system because, let’s be honest, it is easier and makes more sense.

Writing Numbers
Writing numbers in a work is… complicated.
         In a technical or scientific paper, all numbers are written as numerals. It is that simple.
         In other non-fiction works, the numbers one to ten, sometimes one to twenty, are written as words, and everything else is written as a numeral. This does often come down to the style guide of a publishing company, or even the preferences of the writer. The main thing here is that it is consistent throughout the work.
         In non-fiction, all ordinals are written numerically – 1st, 2nd, 100th, 10,000th, etc.
         Fiction is where it gets really complex. It is generally accepted that every number to twenty is written as a word; twenty-one onwards… hmmm.
         So… I personally write every number up to one thousand as a word, and then the even thousands, millions, etc. afterwards. So I would write nine hundred and ninety, one thousand, 1001, ten thousand, twenty-two thousand, 34,790, one million, a hundred million, 234,891,209, etc. Only one publisher has changed my numbers over a hundred to numerals. When it comes to ordinals, words to twentieth, from 21st onwards, I do tend towards numerals, but have lately been writing the full word up to hundredth, then use numerals.
         However, some publishers do have in their guidelines what they want done with numerals. A lot less nowadays than in the past, but some are there. If not, so long as you’re consistent in your own work, I think publishers mind a lot less than they used to. It is possibly the influence of social media for numerals, or maybe an attempt by traditional media to separate itself from social media for the written word. I have not seen any publisher guidelines regarding ordinals, but my understanding is industry standard is words to twentieth, then numerals after, as I do it (which is why I started doing it that way in the first place).
         So… what does a writer do when writing fiction? Standard is up to twenty is the written word. After that, I would suggest it is your call, just be consistent.
         As a side comment, all years are written in numerals. In dates, unless quoting a written piece, write the month as the word and it is generally accepted that the numeric part will be a numeral, but that is also not set in concrete. So April 23, 2022, or 23 April, 2022, or 23rd April, 2023, or April twenty-third, 2022, or twenty-third of April, 2022. Please note the use of the comma before and after the year. Not 23/4/2022 nor 4/23/2022 nor 4-23-2022 nor 23-4-2022 (month then day is only used in the USA, but that’s because you guys just wanted to annoy the British and it stuck). The reason for this is because the USA does it differently, and it can completely change the meaning of the date. For me, for example, 9/11 means the ninth of November. In non-fiction, never use the slash/dash date technique.
         But feel free to ignore all of the fiction advice and just do your own thing. In non-fiction, there will be a style guide for a publication. If not… really? In which case, do what you think best.