Date: 2010-09-17 07:45 pm (UTC)
marcmagus: Me playing cribbage in regency attire (Default)
From: [personal profile] marcmagus
This got me wondering about character birthdays. Do they follow the same pattern (whatever that is) as recorded birthdays, or do they have their own separate peaks around "interesting dates"? Are there genre, time-of-writing, or other lines which affect this in interesting ways?

Date: 2010-09-17 07:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
I bet they map differently. No idea if anyone's studied it, though.

Date: 2010-09-17 08:27 pm (UTC)
marcmagus: Me playing cribbage in regency attire (Default)
From: [personal profile] marcmagus
That would be my guess too. I think people's birthdays have a weird pattern (between seasonal stuff that's "natural", seasonal stuff from people trying to conceive to a target birthday, and interesting cultural effects like the Baby Boom and, IIRC, an observable uptick a gestation period after major blackouts and the like, and the weird New Year taxes effect), but I'd bet dates chosen for characters have a wholly different set of stuff affecting them, with choosing for astrological significance or to match the birthdays of famous people. I'd also guess character birthdays have a lot less background noise of actually being mostly random.

Date: 2010-09-17 08:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rm.livejournal.com
I also bet you'd see more odd-numbered days than even for characters. I think odd numbers look more "random" to writers.

Date: 2010-09-17 08:39 pm (UTC)
marcmagus: Me playing cribbage in regency attire (Default)
From: [personal profile] marcmagus
Wow, yeah, I hadn't even thought about people trying to pick "random" dates. People are terrible at generating anything even remotely random.

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