Just a quick thought

[cacian]

How would you refer to the next day meaning under this date 12/07?


I often when writing I am kind of not sure whether to use names allocated to the days of the week and months or just use words such next month instead of refering to is August.

[Maximilianus]

It would be unclear to say the next day or next month, unless the reader is positively sure about the day or month being taken as a reference. If you say the next day, it means you have mentioned the current day immediately before the phrase the next day, so that the reader will know what day you are speaking about. Similarly, if you say next month instead of saying August it means that you mentioned July as the current month somewhere immediately before saying next month. Otherwise the reader will not know what day is next day, or what month is next month.
All this is for the purpose of clarity in informative texts. Now, dates can be left to open interpretations if the text being written isn't informative but rather, for example, a mystery tale.

[Revolte]

It would be unclear to say the next day or next month, unless the reader is positively sure about the day or month being taken as a reference. If you say the next day, it means you have mentioned the current day immediately before the phrase the next day, so that the reader will know what day you are speaking about. Similarly, if you say next month instead of saying August it means that you mentioned July as the current month somewhere immediately before saying next month. Otherwise the reader will not know what day is next day, or what month is next month.
All this is for the purpose of clarity in informative texts. Now, dates can be left to open interpretations if the text being written isn't informative but rather, for example, a mystery tale.


What if putting an actual date to go with the next day is needless and serves as a bump? Unless you are keeping up with the dates throughout the story then adding the specific date is kind of silly unless the specific date itself is important.

I'd say if the date and or month is important then mention it. If not then there might be funner ways to describe the atmosphere then generalizing through a single word. It would serve better to use the details of the atmosphere to coincide with the events anyhow, rather then saying it's July.

If you read July you probably think about heat and nationalistic celebrations. Which could change the feel of the happenings to something you aren't aiming for.

The next day works fine on it's own if you don't want to draw too much focus on the fact it's another day, while still letting the reader know. However, you could skip being blunt about it all together and do it with visualization, which would be better if you wanted to play with the changes.

I tend to write things that either take place in a specific time (usually through a first person perspective), over a longer period of time where the events in between are no more important then blinking, or stuff where trying to keep up with the day would be tiring if not impossible. So date placement isn't my forte, keep that in mind.

[Maximilianus]

Yep, that makes sense to me too.