#and I use both regular dates and a calculated one-decimal Stardate

[kimberlychapman]

Yeah this is all well and good until you're writing Star Trek TNG fanfic and have to involve Data in any scene ever.

[image below: actual map I had to concoct to make sure all of my stardates were accurate relative to warp speed and distance in both canon and my made-up stuff, all to ensure that I can always accurately have Data say precisely how long ago something happened BECAUSE HE WILL SAY IT AND IF HE DOESN'T SAY IT, THAT'S NOT DATA THAT'S LORE, RUN.]

Pro-writing tip: if your story doesn't need a number, don't put a fucking number in it.

Nothing, I mean nothing, activates reader pedantry like a number.

I have seen it a thousand times in writing workshops. People just can't resist nitpicking a number. For example, "This scifi story takes place 200 years in the future and they have faster than light travel because it's plot convenient," will immediately drag every armchair scientist out of the woodwork to say why there's no way that technology would exist in only 200 years.

Dates, ages, math, spans of time, I don't know what it is but the second a specific number shows up, your reader is thinking, and they're thinking critically but it's about whether that information is correct. They are now doing the math and have gone off drawing conclusions and getting distracted from your story or worse, putting it down entirely because umm, that sword could not have existed in that Medieval year, or this character couldn't be this old because it means they were an infant when this other story event happened that they're supposed to know about, or these two events now overlap in the timeline, or... etc etc etc.

Unless you are 1000% certain that a specific number is adding to your narrative, and you know rock-solid, backwards and forwards that the information attached to that number is correct and consistent throughout the entire story, do yourself a favor, and don't bring that evil down upon your head.