Should I make up my own names for the days of the week/months












14















I'm writing a light fantasy book. I think it will end up falling into the YA genre.



I'm considering making my own names up for the days of the week/months. The book is set in a fantasy world, so it would make sense, but I feel like I'm over complicating things if I do that. It also feels a little pretentious



Should I do it anyway?










share|improve this question


















  • 6





    Are the readers suppose to memorize and keep track of those names, or you just mention new names here and there with no consequence?

    – Alexander
    2 days ago






  • 1





    Alexander's comment points at "Chekov's Gun" principle, in short:: "every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed" In my opinion, creating your own days, month etc. (or a whole culture!) really helps in fleshing out the world, making it feel more alive and thus more interesting. However, keep in mind, that once you start walking that path you have to follow it and you can end up writing and writing about the world, but not getting anywhere with the story you actually want to tell.

    – Imago
    2 days ago






  • 1





    I personally find it very annoying if names for already existing things are simply changed. Skyrim and Star Trek are good examples. In Skyrim it may rely on some calendar of the past (or just different names), but Star Trek has a fictional method. In both cases it's near useless for the reader unless they invest sufficient time in learning them. Unless you are fundamentally changing the time system and deem it relevant enough, I'd advise you to refrain from that.

    – Battle
    yesterday






  • 3





    Required reading: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a “smeerp”'

    – Mr Lister
    yesterday











  • Obligatory XKCD

    – Flater
    yesterday
















14















I'm writing a light fantasy book. I think it will end up falling into the YA genre.



I'm considering making my own names up for the days of the week/months. The book is set in a fantasy world, so it would make sense, but I feel like I'm over complicating things if I do that. It also feels a little pretentious



Should I do it anyway?










share|improve this question


















  • 6





    Are the readers suppose to memorize and keep track of those names, or you just mention new names here and there with no consequence?

    – Alexander
    2 days ago






  • 1





    Alexander's comment points at "Chekov's Gun" principle, in short:: "every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed" In my opinion, creating your own days, month etc. (or a whole culture!) really helps in fleshing out the world, making it feel more alive and thus more interesting. However, keep in mind, that once you start walking that path you have to follow it and you can end up writing and writing about the world, but not getting anywhere with the story you actually want to tell.

    – Imago
    2 days ago






  • 1





    I personally find it very annoying if names for already existing things are simply changed. Skyrim and Star Trek are good examples. In Skyrim it may rely on some calendar of the past (or just different names), but Star Trek has a fictional method. In both cases it's near useless for the reader unless they invest sufficient time in learning them. Unless you are fundamentally changing the time system and deem it relevant enough, I'd advise you to refrain from that.

    – Battle
    yesterday






  • 3





    Required reading: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a “smeerp”'

    – Mr Lister
    yesterday











  • Obligatory XKCD

    – Flater
    yesterday














14












14








14


4






I'm writing a light fantasy book. I think it will end up falling into the YA genre.



I'm considering making my own names up for the days of the week/months. The book is set in a fantasy world, so it would make sense, but I feel like I'm over complicating things if I do that. It also feels a little pretentious



Should I do it anyway?










share|improve this question














I'm writing a light fantasy book. I think it will end up falling into the YA genre.



I'm considering making my own names up for the days of the week/months. The book is set in a fantasy world, so it would make sense, but I feel like I'm over complicating things if I do that. It also feels a little pretentious



Should I do it anyway?







creative-writing fantasy world-building






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share|improve this question











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share|improve this question










asked 2 days ago









klippyklippy

19237




19237








  • 6





    Are the readers suppose to memorize and keep track of those names, or you just mention new names here and there with no consequence?

    – Alexander
    2 days ago






  • 1





    Alexander's comment points at "Chekov's Gun" principle, in short:: "every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed" In my opinion, creating your own days, month etc. (or a whole culture!) really helps in fleshing out the world, making it feel more alive and thus more interesting. However, keep in mind, that once you start walking that path you have to follow it and you can end up writing and writing about the world, but not getting anywhere with the story you actually want to tell.

    – Imago
    2 days ago






  • 1





    I personally find it very annoying if names for already existing things are simply changed. Skyrim and Star Trek are good examples. In Skyrim it may rely on some calendar of the past (or just different names), but Star Trek has a fictional method. In both cases it's near useless for the reader unless they invest sufficient time in learning them. Unless you are fundamentally changing the time system and deem it relevant enough, I'd advise you to refrain from that.

    – Battle
    yesterday






  • 3





    Required reading: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a “smeerp”'

    – Mr Lister
    yesterday











  • Obligatory XKCD

    – Flater
    yesterday














  • 6





    Are the readers suppose to memorize and keep track of those names, or you just mention new names here and there with no consequence?

    – Alexander
    2 days ago






  • 1





    Alexander's comment points at "Chekov's Gun" principle, in short:: "every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed" In my opinion, creating your own days, month etc. (or a whole culture!) really helps in fleshing out the world, making it feel more alive and thus more interesting. However, keep in mind, that once you start walking that path you have to follow it and you can end up writing and writing about the world, but not getting anywhere with the story you actually want to tell.

    – Imago
    2 days ago






  • 1





    I personally find it very annoying if names for already existing things are simply changed. Skyrim and Star Trek are good examples. In Skyrim it may rely on some calendar of the past (or just different names), but Star Trek has a fictional method. In both cases it's near useless for the reader unless they invest sufficient time in learning them. Unless you are fundamentally changing the time system and deem it relevant enough, I'd advise you to refrain from that.

    – Battle
    yesterday






  • 3





    Required reading: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a “smeerp”'

    – Mr Lister
    yesterday











  • Obligatory XKCD

    – Flater
    yesterday








6




6





Are the readers suppose to memorize and keep track of those names, or you just mention new names here and there with no consequence?

– Alexander
2 days ago





Are the readers suppose to memorize and keep track of those names, or you just mention new names here and there with no consequence?

– Alexander
2 days ago




1




1





Alexander's comment points at "Chekov's Gun" principle, in short:: "every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed" In my opinion, creating your own days, month etc. (or a whole culture!) really helps in fleshing out the world, making it feel more alive and thus more interesting. However, keep in mind, that once you start walking that path you have to follow it and you can end up writing and writing about the world, but not getting anywhere with the story you actually want to tell.

– Imago
2 days ago





Alexander's comment points at "Chekov's Gun" principle, in short:: "every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed" In my opinion, creating your own days, month etc. (or a whole culture!) really helps in fleshing out the world, making it feel more alive and thus more interesting. However, keep in mind, that once you start walking that path you have to follow it and you can end up writing and writing about the world, but not getting anywhere with the story you actually want to tell.

– Imago
2 days ago




1




1





I personally find it very annoying if names for already existing things are simply changed. Skyrim and Star Trek are good examples. In Skyrim it may rely on some calendar of the past (or just different names), but Star Trek has a fictional method. In both cases it's near useless for the reader unless they invest sufficient time in learning them. Unless you are fundamentally changing the time system and deem it relevant enough, I'd advise you to refrain from that.

– Battle
yesterday





I personally find it very annoying if names for already existing things are simply changed. Skyrim and Star Trek are good examples. In Skyrim it may rely on some calendar of the past (or just different names), but Star Trek has a fictional method. In both cases it's near useless for the reader unless they invest sufficient time in learning them. Unless you are fundamentally changing the time system and deem it relevant enough, I'd advise you to refrain from that.

– Battle
yesterday




3




3





Required reading: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a “smeerp”'

– Mr Lister
yesterday





Required reading: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a “smeerp”'

– Mr Lister
yesterday













Obligatory XKCD

– Flater
yesterday





Obligatory XKCD

– Flater
yesterday










7 Answers
7






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oldest

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13














Since you feel there's no reason for your world to have the same days of the week as our world (that's reasonable), why must your world have weeks at all? Why must the weeks be of X days? A month is a length of time that's tied to a natural phenomenon - the turn of the moon around the earth. The week is tied to nothing but religion. Is there a similar justification for it in your world?



You can, if your story demands it, make some justification for having weeks, you can pick the length of those weeks, you can have weekly day(s) off, you can choose the names of the days (although some cultures just have names that mean 'first', 'second' etc., so that too is an option).



But consider first - why do you need this at all? What does your story gain, that would not be expressed by "on the tenth day of the seventh month"? If your story would gain something by adding day names, go ahead and add those. If it gains nothing, don't bother. ("The tenth day of the seventh month" is how the Torah sets up Yom Kippur, btw. So that's a real-life example.)






share|improve this answer



















  • 1





    The seven day week is not purely religious in origin. It does seem to be related to being (approximately) 1/4 of a month, though, and a fantasy world need not have the same length as Earth.

    – eyeballfrog
    2 days ago






  • 1





    A week is (roughly) the time for the moon to go from New to half-Full, then to Full, then to half-Full (waning), then back to New. So four weeks is (roughly) a month. Incidentally, the word month derives from the same source as moon.

    – Oscar Bravo
    yesterday











  • Actually, the 7 day week is Norse, for the seven observable objects in the sky (Sun, Moon, five planets). That is more astronomical purposes. The days are named after Norse gods (and SUNday and MOONday). The Month was originally "MOONTH", 29.5 days. But our months are politicitized from Rome; which carved up the previous calendar to invent two more, "JULIUS" and "AUGUSTUS". Sorry I don't have time to write an answer.

    – Amadeus
    yesterday











  • @Amadeus by the time the "Norse" guys were even a thing, we have had two Temples destroyed and spent a few centuries in exile. The seven-days week and the idea of "Sabbath" date back at least to late First Temple. The English names for the days are indeed Norse, but the idea of a seven-day week predates them by over a thousand years (though they might have come up with it independently - I don't know).

    – Galastel
    yesterday








  • 2





    @Amadeus Settlement in ~5000 BC, writing beginning in ~3000 BC give or take

    – Semaphore
    yesterday



















7














I don't see why. Presumably your book is written in English, but people in your world did not speak or write in English, so you offer a translation of the events. Why would you translate everything else except the words for the days and months?



It would only make sense if there are concept which are not readily mapped to words known to the reader, for example if there are extra days in a month not belonging to a week, or if there are a different number of months/days completely - maybe there are two moons or two suns.






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  • We only have twelve months and seven-day weeks because of the length of time it happens to take our moon to orbit us, relative to the time it takes us to orbit the sun and the time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis. It would be quite a coincidence if this other world had the same properties, so day and month names wouldn't readily map. Having said that, one would have to make a judgement call about whether it's better to just use the familiar names and have a few people think, "Heeeey, how come this planet orbits the same way as earth?" or make up new names and confuse people.

    – David Richerby
    2 days ago











  • Except months do not really have anything to do with Moon anymore... for last 2000 years or so. Yes. they were made to roughly replace lunar months of the past, but yearly cycle took precedence, so they got longer to fit (and 12 is very nice number regarding divisions, so it made more sense to have 12 longer ones than 13 shorter ones). It is perfectly possible that other world would also standardize on 12 months in the year - maybe their months would be even more regular than our ones if year is slightly longer.

    – Artur Biesiadowski
    yesterday



















4














You are creating a world and a society. Have faith in your choices and create your own names for months if you wish. What reason would your world have for having months named after Roman emperors?



You could have your world follow a lunar year as that is more intuitive. New month, new moon.



It is your world. As long as the paradigm holds, go for it. You can even rename the seasons, the reader will know that a harvest season is probably late summer and fall. We have artificial divisions of time based on religion, the industrial revolution and emperors your world never knew.



One could say that authors need to be pretentious to carry off the world crafting and give the characters an appropriate setting and culture.



Make it different and have fun doing it.






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    4














    You don't need to invent new names for concepts, unless they somehow relate to the storyline.



    Instead, use relative names like tomorrow and yesterday, but not Thursday or next-week. Relative Celestial names like "next month" or "after the new moon" or "next growing season" are totally transferable too.



    +1 for realising its pretentious. Remember the Fiction Rule of Thumb in https://xkcd.com/483/






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    • 2





      If it doesn't relate to the storyline it belongs in your rendition of The Similarion : a lore book that only your fanatics will want to read. Million dollar IPs such as Star Wars and The Elder Scrolls have their own calendars, which are ignored at best and simply confusing at their worst.

      – Mazura
      2 days ago






    • 1





      +1 - and if Monday is good enough for Terry Pratchett's Discworld it's good enough for the rest of us.

      – John U
      yesterday






    • 1





      @JohnU "mondays are recognizable anywhere in the known universe - cultures that have invented a repeating calendar knows the bane of the unloved day."

      – Criggie
      yesterday











    • You deserve an extra +1 for the XKCD reference too.

      – John U
      17 hours ago



















    2














    I would say No for the most part. There is the question of "Why would we have a Saturday if no one's ever heard of the god, Saturn" or indeed Rasdahan's point of naming months after Roman emperors.



    However, there's a known trope in writing, the "Translation Convention", which means that even though the characters in their universe aren't speaking English, it's presented to the reader in English and the reader is just not supposed to think about it too much.



    Most words in English - and presumably all languages - has an etymology that is specific to our world, so days of the week or months of the year need not be any different. You'd end up translating most of the dialogue if you took all the Latin-influenced words out (for example) because Latin didn't exist in your world.



    However.



    Perhaps your world also has gods (or highly honoured faeries, or heroes or species of insect or something else) as part of the story or history of the world, and as part of enriching your world you want the people to have named time periods after them. As a deliberate thrust in that direction, then it would do no harm and put some depth into the world (but keep it to a minimum, you don't want the reader to have to be memorising the entire new calendar). If you're doing it for that reason, fine, but don't feel like you have to simply because "there are no Norse gods in this world, so they couldn't have a Thursday"






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      1














      I'd say no. George R. R. Martin managed to write five really long books without having to name a single day. He used "third day of the seventh moon" and stuff like that.






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        0














        So let me pose this questions. Using only the Star Wars films, describe for me the physical shape of a Nerf that would be herded by "Scruffy-looking Nerf Herders.



        The point here is that you may have a date system that is different to our world for various reasons (Your world has a 28 hour day cycle... or a 422 day annual cycle... or is like real world time, but the Norse Gods don't exist so they can't lend their names to the 7 days of the week). This shows a really decent amount of world building and attention to details that fans will appreciate... but how often do you name the day of a week in the fantasy genre (Harry Dresden and Potter might, because both are in genres that days of the week could matter on (the former is Fantasy Noir, and thus might comment on how it's an unusual Wednesday and the later is in a Fantasy Boarding School genre and will be in certain classes on certain days or off on the Weekends))?



        A casual drop of an unusual day name in a common Euphamism that will translate to the readers (i.e. A talking camel declares Scigduleday his favorite day of the week, because it's Hump Da). This will immediately translate to the audience because the joke is referring to the famous Geico Commercial that features a talking Camel who is just so happy that it's Wednesday. The reader can infer that the date system is different in some way, because of the way the day is used in conjunction to our real world days. Scigduleday is clearly the middle of the work week. Thanking the Gods that it's Farramday will instantly line up with the TGIF of real life, and that Daantday Morning blues is clearly the beginning of the week.



        It is not necessary for the reader to understand the dating system to get the joke that the days might be different but the sentiments about them remain. You can overbuild the world and show that there is constitantcy, either by making the jokes to show you thought about this, or if you have a spinoff, properly dating things (The Stardate system of Star Trek came in handy when it's consistent use in the TNG era was helpful for fans to know Chronology of the events that occured over two seperate television series and a movie franchise at it's peak in the 90s (TNG films, DS9, and Voyager all were in production at this time. The last episode of Voyage happens shortly before the last TNG movie (within a year of each other)).



        Showing you created the system is what can be termed as Biblical information, which are documents and notes that one can use as rules for how the series operates. For example, J.K. Rowling first "outed" Dumbledoore during production of the Sixth movie as the original script had Dumbledoore refer to a young romance he had with a woman... because she had this information thought up for some time, she got the line removed from the script. This was sometime before she gave the more public outing. Similarly, the team of How I Met Your Mother, had to do several Biblical notes as the series progressed and they realized they needed to keep things consistent. They had had enough forwarning to shoot a scene in season 2 that would only be used in the season finale, which at the point in there production run, was not known to them (it was indeed used in the season 8 finale for the series).






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          7 Answers
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          13














          Since you feel there's no reason for your world to have the same days of the week as our world (that's reasonable), why must your world have weeks at all? Why must the weeks be of X days? A month is a length of time that's tied to a natural phenomenon - the turn of the moon around the earth. The week is tied to nothing but religion. Is there a similar justification for it in your world?



          You can, if your story demands it, make some justification for having weeks, you can pick the length of those weeks, you can have weekly day(s) off, you can choose the names of the days (although some cultures just have names that mean 'first', 'second' etc., so that too is an option).



          But consider first - why do you need this at all? What does your story gain, that would not be expressed by "on the tenth day of the seventh month"? If your story would gain something by adding day names, go ahead and add those. If it gains nothing, don't bother. ("The tenth day of the seventh month" is how the Torah sets up Yom Kippur, btw. So that's a real-life example.)






          share|improve this answer



















          • 1





            The seven day week is not purely religious in origin. It does seem to be related to being (approximately) 1/4 of a month, though, and a fantasy world need not have the same length as Earth.

            – eyeballfrog
            2 days ago






          • 1





            A week is (roughly) the time for the moon to go from New to half-Full, then to Full, then to half-Full (waning), then back to New. So four weeks is (roughly) a month. Incidentally, the word month derives from the same source as moon.

            – Oscar Bravo
            yesterday











          • Actually, the 7 day week is Norse, for the seven observable objects in the sky (Sun, Moon, five planets). That is more astronomical purposes. The days are named after Norse gods (and SUNday and MOONday). The Month was originally "MOONTH", 29.5 days. But our months are politicitized from Rome; which carved up the previous calendar to invent two more, "JULIUS" and "AUGUSTUS". Sorry I don't have time to write an answer.

            – Amadeus
            yesterday











          • @Amadeus by the time the "Norse" guys were even a thing, we have had two Temples destroyed and spent a few centuries in exile. The seven-days week and the idea of "Sabbath" date back at least to late First Temple. The English names for the days are indeed Norse, but the idea of a seven-day week predates them by over a thousand years (though they might have come up with it independently - I don't know).

            – Galastel
            yesterday








          • 2





            @Amadeus Settlement in ~5000 BC, writing beginning in ~3000 BC give or take

            – Semaphore
            yesterday
















          13














          Since you feel there's no reason for your world to have the same days of the week as our world (that's reasonable), why must your world have weeks at all? Why must the weeks be of X days? A month is a length of time that's tied to a natural phenomenon - the turn of the moon around the earth. The week is tied to nothing but religion. Is there a similar justification for it in your world?



          You can, if your story demands it, make some justification for having weeks, you can pick the length of those weeks, you can have weekly day(s) off, you can choose the names of the days (although some cultures just have names that mean 'first', 'second' etc., so that too is an option).



          But consider first - why do you need this at all? What does your story gain, that would not be expressed by "on the tenth day of the seventh month"? If your story would gain something by adding day names, go ahead and add those. If it gains nothing, don't bother. ("The tenth day of the seventh month" is how the Torah sets up Yom Kippur, btw. So that's a real-life example.)






          share|improve this answer



















          • 1





            The seven day week is not purely religious in origin. It does seem to be related to being (approximately) 1/4 of a month, though, and a fantasy world need not have the same length as Earth.

            – eyeballfrog
            2 days ago






          • 1





            A week is (roughly) the time for the moon to go from New to half-Full, then to Full, then to half-Full (waning), then back to New. So four weeks is (roughly) a month. Incidentally, the word month derives from the same source as moon.

            – Oscar Bravo
            yesterday











          • Actually, the 7 day week is Norse, for the seven observable objects in the sky (Sun, Moon, five planets). That is more astronomical purposes. The days are named after Norse gods (and SUNday and MOONday). The Month was originally "MOONTH", 29.5 days. But our months are politicitized from Rome; which carved up the previous calendar to invent two more, "JULIUS" and "AUGUSTUS". Sorry I don't have time to write an answer.

            – Amadeus
            yesterday











          • @Amadeus by the time the "Norse" guys were even a thing, we have had two Temples destroyed and spent a few centuries in exile. The seven-days week and the idea of "Sabbath" date back at least to late First Temple. The English names for the days are indeed Norse, but the idea of a seven-day week predates them by over a thousand years (though they might have come up with it independently - I don't know).

            – Galastel
            yesterday








          • 2





            @Amadeus Settlement in ~5000 BC, writing beginning in ~3000 BC give or take

            – Semaphore
            yesterday














          13












          13








          13







          Since you feel there's no reason for your world to have the same days of the week as our world (that's reasonable), why must your world have weeks at all? Why must the weeks be of X days? A month is a length of time that's tied to a natural phenomenon - the turn of the moon around the earth. The week is tied to nothing but religion. Is there a similar justification for it in your world?



          You can, if your story demands it, make some justification for having weeks, you can pick the length of those weeks, you can have weekly day(s) off, you can choose the names of the days (although some cultures just have names that mean 'first', 'second' etc., so that too is an option).



          But consider first - why do you need this at all? What does your story gain, that would not be expressed by "on the tenth day of the seventh month"? If your story would gain something by adding day names, go ahead and add those. If it gains nothing, don't bother. ("The tenth day of the seventh month" is how the Torah sets up Yom Kippur, btw. So that's a real-life example.)






          share|improve this answer













          Since you feel there's no reason for your world to have the same days of the week as our world (that's reasonable), why must your world have weeks at all? Why must the weeks be of X days? A month is a length of time that's tied to a natural phenomenon - the turn of the moon around the earth. The week is tied to nothing but religion. Is there a similar justification for it in your world?



          You can, if your story demands it, make some justification for having weeks, you can pick the length of those weeks, you can have weekly day(s) off, you can choose the names of the days (although some cultures just have names that mean 'first', 'second' etc., so that too is an option).



          But consider first - why do you need this at all? What does your story gain, that would not be expressed by "on the tenth day of the seventh month"? If your story would gain something by adding day names, go ahead and add those. If it gains nothing, don't bother. ("The tenth day of the seventh month" is how the Torah sets up Yom Kippur, btw. So that's a real-life example.)







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 2 days ago









          GalastelGalastel

          27k478148




          27k478148








          • 1





            The seven day week is not purely religious in origin. It does seem to be related to being (approximately) 1/4 of a month, though, and a fantasy world need not have the same length as Earth.

            – eyeballfrog
            2 days ago






          • 1





            A week is (roughly) the time for the moon to go from New to half-Full, then to Full, then to half-Full (waning), then back to New. So four weeks is (roughly) a month. Incidentally, the word month derives from the same source as moon.

            – Oscar Bravo
            yesterday











          • Actually, the 7 day week is Norse, for the seven observable objects in the sky (Sun, Moon, five planets). That is more astronomical purposes. The days are named after Norse gods (and SUNday and MOONday). The Month was originally "MOONTH", 29.5 days. But our months are politicitized from Rome; which carved up the previous calendar to invent two more, "JULIUS" and "AUGUSTUS". Sorry I don't have time to write an answer.

            – Amadeus
            yesterday











          • @Amadeus by the time the "Norse" guys were even a thing, we have had two Temples destroyed and spent a few centuries in exile. The seven-days week and the idea of "Sabbath" date back at least to late First Temple. The English names for the days are indeed Norse, but the idea of a seven-day week predates them by over a thousand years (though they might have come up with it independently - I don't know).

            – Galastel
            yesterday








          • 2





            @Amadeus Settlement in ~5000 BC, writing beginning in ~3000 BC give or take

            – Semaphore
            yesterday














          • 1





            The seven day week is not purely religious in origin. It does seem to be related to being (approximately) 1/4 of a month, though, and a fantasy world need not have the same length as Earth.

            – eyeballfrog
            2 days ago






          • 1





            A week is (roughly) the time for the moon to go from New to half-Full, then to Full, then to half-Full (waning), then back to New. So four weeks is (roughly) a month. Incidentally, the word month derives from the same source as moon.

            – Oscar Bravo
            yesterday











          • Actually, the 7 day week is Norse, for the seven observable objects in the sky (Sun, Moon, five planets). That is more astronomical purposes. The days are named after Norse gods (and SUNday and MOONday). The Month was originally "MOONTH", 29.5 days. But our months are politicitized from Rome; which carved up the previous calendar to invent two more, "JULIUS" and "AUGUSTUS". Sorry I don't have time to write an answer.

            – Amadeus
            yesterday











          • @Amadeus by the time the "Norse" guys were even a thing, we have had two Temples destroyed and spent a few centuries in exile. The seven-days week and the idea of "Sabbath" date back at least to late First Temple. The English names for the days are indeed Norse, but the idea of a seven-day week predates them by over a thousand years (though they might have come up with it independently - I don't know).

            – Galastel
            yesterday








          • 2





            @Amadeus Settlement in ~5000 BC, writing beginning in ~3000 BC give or take

            – Semaphore
            yesterday








          1




          1





          The seven day week is not purely religious in origin. It does seem to be related to being (approximately) 1/4 of a month, though, and a fantasy world need not have the same length as Earth.

          – eyeballfrog
          2 days ago





          The seven day week is not purely religious in origin. It does seem to be related to being (approximately) 1/4 of a month, though, and a fantasy world need not have the same length as Earth.

          – eyeballfrog
          2 days ago




          1




          1





          A week is (roughly) the time for the moon to go from New to half-Full, then to Full, then to half-Full (waning), then back to New. So four weeks is (roughly) a month. Incidentally, the word month derives from the same source as moon.

          – Oscar Bravo
          yesterday





          A week is (roughly) the time for the moon to go from New to half-Full, then to Full, then to half-Full (waning), then back to New. So four weeks is (roughly) a month. Incidentally, the word month derives from the same source as moon.

          – Oscar Bravo
          yesterday













          Actually, the 7 day week is Norse, for the seven observable objects in the sky (Sun, Moon, five planets). That is more astronomical purposes. The days are named after Norse gods (and SUNday and MOONday). The Month was originally "MOONTH", 29.5 days. But our months are politicitized from Rome; which carved up the previous calendar to invent two more, "JULIUS" and "AUGUSTUS". Sorry I don't have time to write an answer.

          – Amadeus
          yesterday





          Actually, the 7 day week is Norse, for the seven observable objects in the sky (Sun, Moon, five planets). That is more astronomical purposes. The days are named after Norse gods (and SUNday and MOONday). The Month was originally "MOONTH", 29.5 days. But our months are politicitized from Rome; which carved up the previous calendar to invent two more, "JULIUS" and "AUGUSTUS". Sorry I don't have time to write an answer.

          – Amadeus
          yesterday













          @Amadeus by the time the "Norse" guys were even a thing, we have had two Temples destroyed and spent a few centuries in exile. The seven-days week and the idea of "Sabbath" date back at least to late First Temple. The English names for the days are indeed Norse, but the idea of a seven-day week predates them by over a thousand years (though they might have come up with it independently - I don't know).

          – Galastel
          yesterday







          @Amadeus by the time the "Norse" guys were even a thing, we have had two Temples destroyed and spent a few centuries in exile. The seven-days week and the idea of "Sabbath" date back at least to late First Temple. The English names for the days are indeed Norse, but the idea of a seven-day week predates them by over a thousand years (though they might have come up with it independently - I don't know).

          – Galastel
          yesterday






          2




          2





          @Amadeus Settlement in ~5000 BC, writing beginning in ~3000 BC give or take

          – Semaphore
          yesterday





          @Amadeus Settlement in ~5000 BC, writing beginning in ~3000 BC give or take

          – Semaphore
          yesterday











          7














          I don't see why. Presumably your book is written in English, but people in your world did not speak or write in English, so you offer a translation of the events. Why would you translate everything else except the words for the days and months?



          It would only make sense if there are concept which are not readily mapped to words known to the reader, for example if there are extra days in a month not belonging to a week, or if there are a different number of months/days completely - maybe there are two moons or two suns.






          share|improve this answer








          New contributor




          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.





















          • We only have twelve months and seven-day weeks because of the length of time it happens to take our moon to orbit us, relative to the time it takes us to orbit the sun and the time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis. It would be quite a coincidence if this other world had the same properties, so day and month names wouldn't readily map. Having said that, one would have to make a judgement call about whether it's better to just use the familiar names and have a few people think, "Heeeey, how come this planet orbits the same way as earth?" or make up new names and confuse people.

            – David Richerby
            2 days ago











          • Except months do not really have anything to do with Moon anymore... for last 2000 years or so. Yes. they were made to roughly replace lunar months of the past, but yearly cycle took precedence, so they got longer to fit (and 12 is very nice number regarding divisions, so it made more sense to have 12 longer ones than 13 shorter ones). It is perfectly possible that other world would also standardize on 12 months in the year - maybe their months would be even more regular than our ones if year is slightly longer.

            – Artur Biesiadowski
            yesterday
















          7














          I don't see why. Presumably your book is written in English, but people in your world did not speak or write in English, so you offer a translation of the events. Why would you translate everything else except the words for the days and months?



          It would only make sense if there are concept which are not readily mapped to words known to the reader, for example if there are extra days in a month not belonging to a week, or if there are a different number of months/days completely - maybe there are two moons or two suns.






          share|improve this answer








          New contributor




          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.





















          • We only have twelve months and seven-day weeks because of the length of time it happens to take our moon to orbit us, relative to the time it takes us to orbit the sun and the time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis. It would be quite a coincidence if this other world had the same properties, so day and month names wouldn't readily map. Having said that, one would have to make a judgement call about whether it's better to just use the familiar names and have a few people think, "Heeeey, how come this planet orbits the same way as earth?" or make up new names and confuse people.

            – David Richerby
            2 days ago











          • Except months do not really have anything to do with Moon anymore... for last 2000 years or so. Yes. they were made to roughly replace lunar months of the past, but yearly cycle took precedence, so they got longer to fit (and 12 is very nice number regarding divisions, so it made more sense to have 12 longer ones than 13 shorter ones). It is perfectly possible that other world would also standardize on 12 months in the year - maybe their months would be even more regular than our ones if year is slightly longer.

            – Artur Biesiadowski
            yesterday














          7












          7








          7







          I don't see why. Presumably your book is written in English, but people in your world did not speak or write in English, so you offer a translation of the events. Why would you translate everything else except the words for the days and months?



          It would only make sense if there are concept which are not readily mapped to words known to the reader, for example if there are extra days in a month not belonging to a week, or if there are a different number of months/days completely - maybe there are two moons or two suns.






          share|improve this answer








          New contributor




          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.










          I don't see why. Presumably your book is written in English, but people in your world did not speak or write in English, so you offer a translation of the events. Why would you translate everything else except the words for the days and months?



          It would only make sense if there are concept which are not readily mapped to words known to the reader, for example if there are extra days in a month not belonging to a week, or if there are a different number of months/days completely - maybe there are two moons or two suns.







          share|improve this answer








          New contributor




          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.









          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer






          New contributor




          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.









          answered 2 days ago









          pipepipe

          1736




          1736




          New contributor




          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.





          New contributor





          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.






          pipe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
          Check out our Code of Conduct.













          • We only have twelve months and seven-day weeks because of the length of time it happens to take our moon to orbit us, relative to the time it takes us to orbit the sun and the time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis. It would be quite a coincidence if this other world had the same properties, so day and month names wouldn't readily map. Having said that, one would have to make a judgement call about whether it's better to just use the familiar names and have a few people think, "Heeeey, how come this planet orbits the same way as earth?" or make up new names and confuse people.

            – David Richerby
            2 days ago











          • Except months do not really have anything to do with Moon anymore... for last 2000 years or so. Yes. they were made to roughly replace lunar months of the past, but yearly cycle took precedence, so they got longer to fit (and 12 is very nice number regarding divisions, so it made more sense to have 12 longer ones than 13 shorter ones). It is perfectly possible that other world would also standardize on 12 months in the year - maybe their months would be even more regular than our ones if year is slightly longer.

            – Artur Biesiadowski
            yesterday



















          • We only have twelve months and seven-day weeks because of the length of time it happens to take our moon to orbit us, relative to the time it takes us to orbit the sun and the time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis. It would be quite a coincidence if this other world had the same properties, so day and month names wouldn't readily map. Having said that, one would have to make a judgement call about whether it's better to just use the familiar names and have a few people think, "Heeeey, how come this planet orbits the same way as earth?" or make up new names and confuse people.

            – David Richerby
            2 days ago











          • Except months do not really have anything to do with Moon anymore... for last 2000 years or so. Yes. they were made to roughly replace lunar months of the past, but yearly cycle took precedence, so they got longer to fit (and 12 is very nice number regarding divisions, so it made more sense to have 12 longer ones than 13 shorter ones). It is perfectly possible that other world would also standardize on 12 months in the year - maybe their months would be even more regular than our ones if year is slightly longer.

            – Artur Biesiadowski
            yesterday

















          We only have twelve months and seven-day weeks because of the length of time it happens to take our moon to orbit us, relative to the time it takes us to orbit the sun and the time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis. It would be quite a coincidence if this other world had the same properties, so day and month names wouldn't readily map. Having said that, one would have to make a judgement call about whether it's better to just use the familiar names and have a few people think, "Heeeey, how come this planet orbits the same way as earth?" or make up new names and confuse people.

          – David Richerby
          2 days ago





          We only have twelve months and seven-day weeks because of the length of time it happens to take our moon to orbit us, relative to the time it takes us to orbit the sun and the time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis. It would be quite a coincidence if this other world had the same properties, so day and month names wouldn't readily map. Having said that, one would have to make a judgement call about whether it's better to just use the familiar names and have a few people think, "Heeeey, how come this planet orbits the same way as earth?" or make up new names and confuse people.

          – David Richerby
          2 days ago













          Except months do not really have anything to do with Moon anymore... for last 2000 years or so. Yes. they were made to roughly replace lunar months of the past, but yearly cycle took precedence, so they got longer to fit (and 12 is very nice number regarding divisions, so it made more sense to have 12 longer ones than 13 shorter ones). It is perfectly possible that other world would also standardize on 12 months in the year - maybe their months would be even more regular than our ones if year is slightly longer.

          – Artur Biesiadowski
          yesterday





          Except months do not really have anything to do with Moon anymore... for last 2000 years or so. Yes. they were made to roughly replace lunar months of the past, but yearly cycle took precedence, so they got longer to fit (and 12 is very nice number regarding divisions, so it made more sense to have 12 longer ones than 13 shorter ones). It is perfectly possible that other world would also standardize on 12 months in the year - maybe their months would be even more regular than our ones if year is slightly longer.

          – Artur Biesiadowski
          yesterday











          4














          You are creating a world and a society. Have faith in your choices and create your own names for months if you wish. What reason would your world have for having months named after Roman emperors?



          You could have your world follow a lunar year as that is more intuitive. New month, new moon.



          It is your world. As long as the paradigm holds, go for it. You can even rename the seasons, the reader will know that a harvest season is probably late summer and fall. We have artificial divisions of time based on religion, the industrial revolution and emperors your world never knew.



          One could say that authors need to be pretentious to carry off the world crafting and give the characters an appropriate setting and culture.



          Make it different and have fun doing it.






          share|improve this answer




























            4














            You are creating a world and a society. Have faith in your choices and create your own names for months if you wish. What reason would your world have for having months named after Roman emperors?



            You could have your world follow a lunar year as that is more intuitive. New month, new moon.



            It is your world. As long as the paradigm holds, go for it. You can even rename the seasons, the reader will know that a harvest season is probably late summer and fall. We have artificial divisions of time based on religion, the industrial revolution and emperors your world never knew.



            One could say that authors need to be pretentious to carry off the world crafting and give the characters an appropriate setting and culture.



            Make it different and have fun doing it.






            share|improve this answer


























              4












              4








              4







              You are creating a world and a society. Have faith in your choices and create your own names for months if you wish. What reason would your world have for having months named after Roman emperors?



              You could have your world follow a lunar year as that is more intuitive. New month, new moon.



              It is your world. As long as the paradigm holds, go for it. You can even rename the seasons, the reader will know that a harvest season is probably late summer and fall. We have artificial divisions of time based on religion, the industrial revolution and emperors your world never knew.



              One could say that authors need to be pretentious to carry off the world crafting and give the characters an appropriate setting and culture.



              Make it different and have fun doing it.






              share|improve this answer













              You are creating a world and a society. Have faith in your choices and create your own names for months if you wish. What reason would your world have for having months named after Roman emperors?



              You could have your world follow a lunar year as that is more intuitive. New month, new moon.



              It is your world. As long as the paradigm holds, go for it. You can even rename the seasons, the reader will know that a harvest season is probably late summer and fall. We have artificial divisions of time based on religion, the industrial revolution and emperors your world never knew.



              One could say that authors need to be pretentious to carry off the world crafting and give the characters an appropriate setting and culture.



              Make it different and have fun doing it.







              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered 2 days ago









              RasdashanRasdashan

              3,781735




              3,781735























                  4














                  You don't need to invent new names for concepts, unless they somehow relate to the storyline.



                  Instead, use relative names like tomorrow and yesterday, but not Thursday or next-week. Relative Celestial names like "next month" or "after the new moon" or "next growing season" are totally transferable too.



                  +1 for realising its pretentious. Remember the Fiction Rule of Thumb in https://xkcd.com/483/






                  share|improve this answer



















                  • 2





                    If it doesn't relate to the storyline it belongs in your rendition of The Similarion : a lore book that only your fanatics will want to read. Million dollar IPs such as Star Wars and The Elder Scrolls have their own calendars, which are ignored at best and simply confusing at their worst.

                    – Mazura
                    2 days ago






                  • 1





                    +1 - and if Monday is good enough for Terry Pratchett's Discworld it's good enough for the rest of us.

                    – John U
                    yesterday






                  • 1





                    @JohnU "mondays are recognizable anywhere in the known universe - cultures that have invented a repeating calendar knows the bane of the unloved day."

                    – Criggie
                    yesterday











                  • You deserve an extra +1 for the XKCD reference too.

                    – John U
                    17 hours ago
















                  4














                  You don't need to invent new names for concepts, unless they somehow relate to the storyline.



                  Instead, use relative names like tomorrow and yesterday, but not Thursday or next-week. Relative Celestial names like "next month" or "after the new moon" or "next growing season" are totally transferable too.



                  +1 for realising its pretentious. Remember the Fiction Rule of Thumb in https://xkcd.com/483/






                  share|improve this answer



















                  • 2





                    If it doesn't relate to the storyline it belongs in your rendition of The Similarion : a lore book that only your fanatics will want to read. Million dollar IPs such as Star Wars and The Elder Scrolls have their own calendars, which are ignored at best and simply confusing at their worst.

                    – Mazura
                    2 days ago






                  • 1





                    +1 - and if Monday is good enough for Terry Pratchett's Discworld it's good enough for the rest of us.

                    – John U
                    yesterday






                  • 1





                    @JohnU "mondays are recognizable anywhere in the known universe - cultures that have invented a repeating calendar knows the bane of the unloved day."

                    – Criggie
                    yesterday











                  • You deserve an extra +1 for the XKCD reference too.

                    – John U
                    17 hours ago














                  4












                  4








                  4







                  You don't need to invent new names for concepts, unless they somehow relate to the storyline.



                  Instead, use relative names like tomorrow and yesterday, but not Thursday or next-week. Relative Celestial names like "next month" or "after the new moon" or "next growing season" are totally transferable too.



                  +1 for realising its pretentious. Remember the Fiction Rule of Thumb in https://xkcd.com/483/






                  share|improve this answer













                  You don't need to invent new names for concepts, unless they somehow relate to the storyline.



                  Instead, use relative names like tomorrow and yesterday, but not Thursday or next-week. Relative Celestial names like "next month" or "after the new moon" or "next growing season" are totally transferable too.



                  +1 for realising its pretentious. Remember the Fiction Rule of Thumb in https://xkcd.com/483/







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 2 days ago









                  CriggieCriggie

                  1614




                  1614








                  • 2





                    If it doesn't relate to the storyline it belongs in your rendition of The Similarion : a lore book that only your fanatics will want to read. Million dollar IPs such as Star Wars and The Elder Scrolls have their own calendars, which are ignored at best and simply confusing at their worst.

                    – Mazura
                    2 days ago






                  • 1





                    +1 - and if Monday is good enough for Terry Pratchett's Discworld it's good enough for the rest of us.

                    – John U
                    yesterday






                  • 1





                    @JohnU "mondays are recognizable anywhere in the known universe - cultures that have invented a repeating calendar knows the bane of the unloved day."

                    – Criggie
                    yesterday











                  • You deserve an extra +1 for the XKCD reference too.

                    – John U
                    17 hours ago














                  • 2





                    If it doesn't relate to the storyline it belongs in your rendition of The Similarion : a lore book that only your fanatics will want to read. Million dollar IPs such as Star Wars and The Elder Scrolls have their own calendars, which are ignored at best and simply confusing at their worst.

                    – Mazura
                    2 days ago






                  • 1





                    +1 - and if Monday is good enough for Terry Pratchett's Discworld it's good enough for the rest of us.

                    – John U
                    yesterday






                  • 1





                    @JohnU "mondays are recognizable anywhere in the known universe - cultures that have invented a repeating calendar knows the bane of the unloved day."

                    – Criggie
                    yesterday











                  • You deserve an extra +1 for the XKCD reference too.

                    – John U
                    17 hours ago








                  2




                  2





                  If it doesn't relate to the storyline it belongs in your rendition of The Similarion : a lore book that only your fanatics will want to read. Million dollar IPs such as Star Wars and The Elder Scrolls have their own calendars, which are ignored at best and simply confusing at their worst.

                  – Mazura
                  2 days ago





                  If it doesn't relate to the storyline it belongs in your rendition of The Similarion : a lore book that only your fanatics will want to read. Million dollar IPs such as Star Wars and The Elder Scrolls have their own calendars, which are ignored at best and simply confusing at their worst.

                  – Mazura
                  2 days ago




                  1




                  1





                  +1 - and if Monday is good enough for Terry Pratchett's Discworld it's good enough for the rest of us.

                  – John U
                  yesterday





                  +1 - and if Monday is good enough for Terry Pratchett's Discworld it's good enough for the rest of us.

                  – John U
                  yesterday




                  1




                  1





                  @JohnU "mondays are recognizable anywhere in the known universe - cultures that have invented a repeating calendar knows the bane of the unloved day."

                  – Criggie
                  yesterday





                  @JohnU "mondays are recognizable anywhere in the known universe - cultures that have invented a repeating calendar knows the bane of the unloved day."

                  – Criggie
                  yesterday













                  You deserve an extra +1 for the XKCD reference too.

                  – John U
                  17 hours ago





                  You deserve an extra +1 for the XKCD reference too.

                  – John U
                  17 hours ago











                  2














                  I would say No for the most part. There is the question of "Why would we have a Saturday if no one's ever heard of the god, Saturn" or indeed Rasdahan's point of naming months after Roman emperors.



                  However, there's a known trope in writing, the "Translation Convention", which means that even though the characters in their universe aren't speaking English, it's presented to the reader in English and the reader is just not supposed to think about it too much.



                  Most words in English - and presumably all languages - has an etymology that is specific to our world, so days of the week or months of the year need not be any different. You'd end up translating most of the dialogue if you took all the Latin-influenced words out (for example) because Latin didn't exist in your world.



                  However.



                  Perhaps your world also has gods (or highly honoured faeries, or heroes or species of insect or something else) as part of the story or history of the world, and as part of enriching your world you want the people to have named time periods after them. As a deliberate thrust in that direction, then it would do no harm and put some depth into the world (but keep it to a minimum, you don't want the reader to have to be memorising the entire new calendar). If you're doing it for that reason, fine, but don't feel like you have to simply because "there are no Norse gods in this world, so they couldn't have a Thursday"






                  share|improve this answer




























                    2














                    I would say No for the most part. There is the question of "Why would we have a Saturday if no one's ever heard of the god, Saturn" or indeed Rasdahan's point of naming months after Roman emperors.



                    However, there's a known trope in writing, the "Translation Convention", which means that even though the characters in their universe aren't speaking English, it's presented to the reader in English and the reader is just not supposed to think about it too much.



                    Most words in English - and presumably all languages - has an etymology that is specific to our world, so days of the week or months of the year need not be any different. You'd end up translating most of the dialogue if you took all the Latin-influenced words out (for example) because Latin didn't exist in your world.



                    However.



                    Perhaps your world also has gods (or highly honoured faeries, or heroes or species of insect or something else) as part of the story or history of the world, and as part of enriching your world you want the people to have named time periods after them. As a deliberate thrust in that direction, then it would do no harm and put some depth into the world (but keep it to a minimum, you don't want the reader to have to be memorising the entire new calendar). If you're doing it for that reason, fine, but don't feel like you have to simply because "there are no Norse gods in this world, so they couldn't have a Thursday"






                    share|improve this answer


























                      2












                      2








                      2







                      I would say No for the most part. There is the question of "Why would we have a Saturday if no one's ever heard of the god, Saturn" or indeed Rasdahan's point of naming months after Roman emperors.



                      However, there's a known trope in writing, the "Translation Convention", which means that even though the characters in their universe aren't speaking English, it's presented to the reader in English and the reader is just not supposed to think about it too much.



                      Most words in English - and presumably all languages - has an etymology that is specific to our world, so days of the week or months of the year need not be any different. You'd end up translating most of the dialogue if you took all the Latin-influenced words out (for example) because Latin didn't exist in your world.



                      However.



                      Perhaps your world also has gods (or highly honoured faeries, or heroes or species of insect or something else) as part of the story or history of the world, and as part of enriching your world you want the people to have named time periods after them. As a deliberate thrust in that direction, then it would do no harm and put some depth into the world (but keep it to a minimum, you don't want the reader to have to be memorising the entire new calendar). If you're doing it for that reason, fine, but don't feel like you have to simply because "there are no Norse gods in this world, so they couldn't have a Thursday"






                      share|improve this answer













                      I would say No for the most part. There is the question of "Why would we have a Saturday if no one's ever heard of the god, Saturn" or indeed Rasdahan's point of naming months after Roman emperors.



                      However, there's a known trope in writing, the "Translation Convention", which means that even though the characters in their universe aren't speaking English, it's presented to the reader in English and the reader is just not supposed to think about it too much.



                      Most words in English - and presumably all languages - has an etymology that is specific to our world, so days of the week or months of the year need not be any different. You'd end up translating most of the dialogue if you took all the Latin-influenced words out (for example) because Latin didn't exist in your world.



                      However.



                      Perhaps your world also has gods (or highly honoured faeries, or heroes or species of insect or something else) as part of the story or history of the world, and as part of enriching your world you want the people to have named time periods after them. As a deliberate thrust in that direction, then it would do no harm and put some depth into the world (but keep it to a minimum, you don't want the reader to have to be memorising the entire new calendar). If you're doing it for that reason, fine, but don't feel like you have to simply because "there are no Norse gods in this world, so they couldn't have a Thursday"







                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered yesterday









                      colmdecolmde

                      36717




                      36717























                          1














                          I'd say no. George R. R. Martin managed to write five really long books without having to name a single day. He used "third day of the seventh moon" and stuff like that.






                          share|improve this answer








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                            1














                            I'd say no. George R. R. Martin managed to write five really long books without having to name a single day. He used "third day of the seventh moon" and stuff like that.






                            share|improve this answer








                            New contributor




                            Leonardo Herrera is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                            Check out our Code of Conduct.























                              1












                              1








                              1







                              I'd say no. George R. R. Martin managed to write five really long books without having to name a single day. He used "third day of the seventh moon" and stuff like that.






                              share|improve this answer








                              New contributor




                              Leonardo Herrera is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                              Check out our Code of Conduct.










                              I'd say no. George R. R. Martin managed to write five really long books without having to name a single day. He used "third day of the seventh moon" and stuff like that.







                              share|improve this answer








                              New contributor




                              Leonardo Herrera is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                              Check out our Code of Conduct.









                              share|improve this answer



                              share|improve this answer






                              New contributor




                              Leonardo Herrera is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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                              answered yesterday









                              Leonardo HerreraLeonardo Herrera

                              1113




                              1113




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                              New contributor





                              Leonardo Herrera is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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                                  0














                                  So let me pose this questions. Using only the Star Wars films, describe for me the physical shape of a Nerf that would be herded by "Scruffy-looking Nerf Herders.



                                  The point here is that you may have a date system that is different to our world for various reasons (Your world has a 28 hour day cycle... or a 422 day annual cycle... or is like real world time, but the Norse Gods don't exist so they can't lend their names to the 7 days of the week). This shows a really decent amount of world building and attention to details that fans will appreciate... but how often do you name the day of a week in the fantasy genre (Harry Dresden and Potter might, because both are in genres that days of the week could matter on (the former is Fantasy Noir, and thus might comment on how it's an unusual Wednesday and the later is in a Fantasy Boarding School genre and will be in certain classes on certain days or off on the Weekends))?



                                  A casual drop of an unusual day name in a common Euphamism that will translate to the readers (i.e. A talking camel declares Scigduleday his favorite day of the week, because it's Hump Da). This will immediately translate to the audience because the joke is referring to the famous Geico Commercial that features a talking Camel who is just so happy that it's Wednesday. The reader can infer that the date system is different in some way, because of the way the day is used in conjunction to our real world days. Scigduleday is clearly the middle of the work week. Thanking the Gods that it's Farramday will instantly line up with the TGIF of real life, and that Daantday Morning blues is clearly the beginning of the week.



                                  It is not necessary for the reader to understand the dating system to get the joke that the days might be different but the sentiments about them remain. You can overbuild the world and show that there is constitantcy, either by making the jokes to show you thought about this, or if you have a spinoff, properly dating things (The Stardate system of Star Trek came in handy when it's consistent use in the TNG era was helpful for fans to know Chronology of the events that occured over two seperate television series and a movie franchise at it's peak in the 90s (TNG films, DS9, and Voyager all were in production at this time. The last episode of Voyage happens shortly before the last TNG movie (within a year of each other)).



                                  Showing you created the system is what can be termed as Biblical information, which are documents and notes that one can use as rules for how the series operates. For example, J.K. Rowling first "outed" Dumbledoore during production of the Sixth movie as the original script had Dumbledoore refer to a young romance he had with a woman... because she had this information thought up for some time, she got the line removed from the script. This was sometime before she gave the more public outing. Similarly, the team of How I Met Your Mother, had to do several Biblical notes as the series progressed and they realized they needed to keep things consistent. They had had enough forwarning to shoot a scene in season 2 that would only be used in the season finale, which at the point in there production run, was not known to them (it was indeed used in the season 8 finale for the series).






                                  share|improve this answer




























                                    0














                                    So let me pose this questions. Using only the Star Wars films, describe for me the physical shape of a Nerf that would be herded by "Scruffy-looking Nerf Herders.



                                    The point here is that you may have a date system that is different to our world for various reasons (Your world has a 28 hour day cycle... or a 422 day annual cycle... or is like real world time, but the Norse Gods don't exist so they can't lend their names to the 7 days of the week). This shows a really decent amount of world building and attention to details that fans will appreciate... but how often do you name the day of a week in the fantasy genre (Harry Dresden and Potter might, because both are in genres that days of the week could matter on (the former is Fantasy Noir, and thus might comment on how it's an unusual Wednesday and the later is in a Fantasy Boarding School genre and will be in certain classes on certain days or off on the Weekends))?



                                    A casual drop of an unusual day name in a common Euphamism that will translate to the readers (i.e. A talking camel declares Scigduleday his favorite day of the week, because it's Hump Da). This will immediately translate to the audience because the joke is referring to the famous Geico Commercial that features a talking Camel who is just so happy that it's Wednesday. The reader can infer that the date system is different in some way, because of the way the day is used in conjunction to our real world days. Scigduleday is clearly the middle of the work week. Thanking the Gods that it's Farramday will instantly line up with the TGIF of real life, and that Daantday Morning blues is clearly the beginning of the week.



                                    It is not necessary for the reader to understand the dating system to get the joke that the days might be different but the sentiments about them remain. You can overbuild the world and show that there is constitantcy, either by making the jokes to show you thought about this, or if you have a spinoff, properly dating things (The Stardate system of Star Trek came in handy when it's consistent use in the TNG era was helpful for fans to know Chronology of the events that occured over two seperate television series and a movie franchise at it's peak in the 90s (TNG films, DS9, and Voyager all were in production at this time. The last episode of Voyage happens shortly before the last TNG movie (within a year of each other)).



                                    Showing you created the system is what can be termed as Biblical information, which are documents and notes that one can use as rules for how the series operates. For example, J.K. Rowling first "outed" Dumbledoore during production of the Sixth movie as the original script had Dumbledoore refer to a young romance he had with a woman... because she had this information thought up for some time, she got the line removed from the script. This was sometime before she gave the more public outing. Similarly, the team of How I Met Your Mother, had to do several Biblical notes as the series progressed and they realized they needed to keep things consistent. They had had enough forwarning to shoot a scene in season 2 that would only be used in the season finale, which at the point in there production run, was not known to them (it was indeed used in the season 8 finale for the series).






                                    share|improve this answer


























                                      0












                                      0








                                      0







                                      So let me pose this questions. Using only the Star Wars films, describe for me the physical shape of a Nerf that would be herded by "Scruffy-looking Nerf Herders.



                                      The point here is that you may have a date system that is different to our world for various reasons (Your world has a 28 hour day cycle... or a 422 day annual cycle... or is like real world time, but the Norse Gods don't exist so they can't lend their names to the 7 days of the week). This shows a really decent amount of world building and attention to details that fans will appreciate... but how often do you name the day of a week in the fantasy genre (Harry Dresden and Potter might, because both are in genres that days of the week could matter on (the former is Fantasy Noir, and thus might comment on how it's an unusual Wednesday and the later is in a Fantasy Boarding School genre and will be in certain classes on certain days or off on the Weekends))?



                                      A casual drop of an unusual day name in a common Euphamism that will translate to the readers (i.e. A talking camel declares Scigduleday his favorite day of the week, because it's Hump Da). This will immediately translate to the audience because the joke is referring to the famous Geico Commercial that features a talking Camel who is just so happy that it's Wednesday. The reader can infer that the date system is different in some way, because of the way the day is used in conjunction to our real world days. Scigduleday is clearly the middle of the work week. Thanking the Gods that it's Farramday will instantly line up with the TGIF of real life, and that Daantday Morning blues is clearly the beginning of the week.



                                      It is not necessary for the reader to understand the dating system to get the joke that the days might be different but the sentiments about them remain. You can overbuild the world and show that there is constitantcy, either by making the jokes to show you thought about this, or if you have a spinoff, properly dating things (The Stardate system of Star Trek came in handy when it's consistent use in the TNG era was helpful for fans to know Chronology of the events that occured over two seperate television series and a movie franchise at it's peak in the 90s (TNG films, DS9, and Voyager all were in production at this time. The last episode of Voyage happens shortly before the last TNG movie (within a year of each other)).



                                      Showing you created the system is what can be termed as Biblical information, which are documents and notes that one can use as rules for how the series operates. For example, J.K. Rowling first "outed" Dumbledoore during production of the Sixth movie as the original script had Dumbledoore refer to a young romance he had with a woman... because she had this information thought up for some time, she got the line removed from the script. This was sometime before she gave the more public outing. Similarly, the team of How I Met Your Mother, had to do several Biblical notes as the series progressed and they realized they needed to keep things consistent. They had had enough forwarning to shoot a scene in season 2 that would only be used in the season finale, which at the point in there production run, was not known to them (it was indeed used in the season 8 finale for the series).






                                      share|improve this answer













                                      So let me pose this questions. Using only the Star Wars films, describe for me the physical shape of a Nerf that would be herded by "Scruffy-looking Nerf Herders.



                                      The point here is that you may have a date system that is different to our world for various reasons (Your world has a 28 hour day cycle... or a 422 day annual cycle... or is like real world time, but the Norse Gods don't exist so they can't lend their names to the 7 days of the week). This shows a really decent amount of world building and attention to details that fans will appreciate... but how often do you name the day of a week in the fantasy genre (Harry Dresden and Potter might, because both are in genres that days of the week could matter on (the former is Fantasy Noir, and thus might comment on how it's an unusual Wednesday and the later is in a Fantasy Boarding School genre and will be in certain classes on certain days or off on the Weekends))?



                                      A casual drop of an unusual day name in a common Euphamism that will translate to the readers (i.e. A talking camel declares Scigduleday his favorite day of the week, because it's Hump Da). This will immediately translate to the audience because the joke is referring to the famous Geico Commercial that features a talking Camel who is just so happy that it's Wednesday. The reader can infer that the date system is different in some way, because of the way the day is used in conjunction to our real world days. Scigduleday is clearly the middle of the work week. Thanking the Gods that it's Farramday will instantly line up with the TGIF of real life, and that Daantday Morning blues is clearly the beginning of the week.



                                      It is not necessary for the reader to understand the dating system to get the joke that the days might be different but the sentiments about them remain. You can overbuild the world and show that there is constitantcy, either by making the jokes to show you thought about this, or if you have a spinoff, properly dating things (The Stardate system of Star Trek came in handy when it's consistent use in the TNG era was helpful for fans to know Chronology of the events that occured over two seperate television series and a movie franchise at it's peak in the 90s (TNG films, DS9, and Voyager all were in production at this time. The last episode of Voyage happens shortly before the last TNG movie (within a year of each other)).



                                      Showing you created the system is what can be termed as Biblical information, which are documents and notes that one can use as rules for how the series operates. For example, J.K. Rowling first "outed" Dumbledoore during production of the Sixth movie as the original script had Dumbledoore refer to a young romance he had with a woman... because she had this information thought up for some time, she got the line removed from the script. This was sometime before she gave the more public outing. Similarly, the team of How I Met Your Mother, had to do several Biblical notes as the series progressed and they realized they needed to keep things consistent. They had had enough forwarning to shoot a scene in season 2 that would only be used in the season finale, which at the point in there production run, was not known to them (it was indeed used in the season 8 finale for the series).







                                      share|improve this answer












                                      share|improve this answer



                                      share|improve this answer










                                      answered yesterday









                                      hszmvhszmv

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