Back to Basics, Writing Numbers

I sit here today on the corner of What Was I Thinking Street and How Do I Get Out Of It Avenue. I"m spiraling through the back story vertex and according to experts, back story bogs things down. Personally, I like it. I like knowing what makes the characters who they are.

While designing my fantasy world and getting to know my characters I had a ton of fun creating the back story. Then during one of my NaNoWriMo frenzies I actually gave my back story a back story. Where does it stop. I need the back story police....."Kriston Johnson" said deep voice man, "put the back story down, step away slowly." Since then I've been trying to narrow it down enough to move the plot along and keep only the essentials. I'm hoping to work in my favorite part about a fire tending Minotaurs fighting along side a one winged angel in a battle between good and evil, it's really cool. But it may not happen.

So back to things at hand, while weaving in the past events I started throwing around a lot of dates. I decided before I get to far into it I better make sure that I am using the proper technique for writing numbers. When do you use actual numbers and when do you spell things out. Different sources disagree on some rules but I found a source that I decided to base my technique on. I thought I would share it with all of you.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-rules-for-writing-numbers-and-numerals/

I suppose when it comes to publishing your editor will make the final decision on which rules you will follow but we all need a consistent guide line to get us started.