Words/Time: 20 minutes finishing the grammar check of “Pursuit of Power.”
My next step is to finish the timeline of this story that I started back when I outlined it, but only got as far as the last point that this story connected to “Pithea.” That was all that mattered at the time, because I needed to make sure both stories lined up accurately. “Pursuit of Power” goes past the time that “Pithea” ends, so I need to finish the timeline.
Years ago, when I was writing fanfiction, I struggled to create a timeline for my large group of stories that stretched across many years and contained a lot of the same characters. I started on paper, and eventually tried to make something with Excel. I did end up with a format that I have since used for other writing, but it was still a pain to use and especially to make edits.
It gets really messy when the events of the story pick up.
A few years ago, at the end of NaNoWriMo, I noticed amongst the winner goodies a discount for a program called Aeon Timeline. I downloaded the free trial and spent a few days putting several stories worth of information into it. I discovered very quickly that it was exactly what I needed.
There are many settings you can play with, including having the timeline stretch out over thousands of years, or one single day. If you choose the latter, the timeline will show much more detail than with the former. I’ve read that a user can create their own calendar system in the program too, which would be useful for fantasy writers, though I haven’t used the feature myself.
You can have individual sections for different stories, different story arcs, or whatever else you may need. You can also toggle those individual arcs on or off to your liking.
“Arcs” are shown along the left.
And one of my favorite things about the program is that you can add in all of your characters and attach them to the entries. If you set up a birth date, it will even tell you how old the character is at the time of that entry. The feature is called “Entities,” because it pertains to more than just characters too. I used it to remind myself of when a particular device (listed in the picture below as “com-disc”) was introduced into my story world, because I was having a hard time remembering when it was available to be used by characters.
The lines go up to entries. The dots indicate that the character was a participant in that event (the one that’s not colored in indicates “observer” rather than “participant”).
Not every story needs a timeline. Sometimes events only happen over the course of a few days. The story I’m planning for NaNo this year will cover 9 days. I still plan to make a timeline for it as I plan this month. Even if in the end it turns out to be unnecessary, I know I’d rather have it anyway.
Though I’ve been mocked (all in fun, I assure you) for how meticulous I am with my timeline, it is crucial for keeping track of things for my group of stories that include “Pithea,” “Pursuit of Power,” “Outcast,” and other plans that will take place before, after, and during the others. There is so much to keep straight–character’s ages, how long ago a certain event happened, how long a certain event lasted, etc. So whether your writing is as complicated as mine or not, if you’ve ever felt the need for a timeline for your stories, Aeon Timeline is worth checking out.
How about you? Have you ever used Aeon Timeline before? Do you have a program you use for keeping track of a timeline?
Words: using my normal format, 2000+ (in the form of 60 minutes tracked and several hours past that untracked). The hour I kept track of was spent listening to an audio recording I made last fall and realized today I hadn’t listened to and taken notes on yet. (Sometimes when I have something to work through, plot issues, or big overhauls to plan, or even a new story idea to plot out, I’ll talk through it while washing dishes or making supper, while recording myself with Audacity.) The storyline was the one that I wrote for a couple days ago. There’s no title or anything, because it’s not really part of any planned books. It’s more of an in-between, off-time storyline that gets some characters from point A to a huge, almost out of nowhere point B five years later. I always just figured it works because I say it works. But more recently I started to consider why and how it works, and had some ideas. So I’ve been writing that out, little bits at a time, and plotting ahead before I forget it all. So for an hour, I listened to myself ramble on and took notes so it’d be more easily accessible later.
That led to hours of listening to older audio recordings, which I’ve already listened to, but some of which contained ideas or points that were kind of important but didn’t make it into my notes, so they’re good to remember again. And then I was looking at my timeline, where I’ve inserted events from four different stories so far, and noticed that there was a glaring mistake that ruins several key events. And the fix took some work, but I think I figured it out. All in all, a good day of work, even if it didn’t contain any revision of the novel I’m actually working on.
Time worked: 1:14
Work done: Finished the timeline for both Pursuit of Power and the unnamed novel I’m actually working on. I had to fudge some events around a month here or there, and may still change them later, but for now, it’s good enough. Time to dive back into the actual proofreading.
Time worked: :35
Work done: Timeline for Pursuit of Power. I’ve decided that seven months is far too long to wander a moderate-sized desert in search of something, which means my timelines aren’t meshing like I’d hoped. I haven’t decided which storyline needs altered though.
Time worked: :25
Work done: Timeline for Pursuit of Power. The second half has proven quite difficult, since there is an entire year’s worth of things happening for which the timing is nebulous. I’m trying to narrow things down, but there’s a lot of, “I don’t know how long that should take…three months? Seven months?” So it’s slow going. Hopefully I’ll get some extra work in this weekend.
I didn’t get much work done today, because I was too busy making the following image. Why? No real reason…I got inspired when I made a notebook for myself on Zazzle the other day, because I loved the motto I came up with to put on it. So I decided to come up with a picture to go along with it and make it a thing. I would have made it my banner on this page, but I couldn’t get it to look right. It’s on my Facebook page, though, and on this notebook: Write Every Day Notebook (To be clear, I designed that notebook, I did not steal the picture or saying. Also, that’s not the original notebook I made; that one isn’t public, because it’s more specific to me.)
Time worked: 1:08
Work done: Timeline for Pursuit of Power, about halfway done.
Time worked: 1:00
Work done: Finished the timeline for my current work in progress. Tried to bust through my problem with the plot outline of Pursuit of Power, but it still needs work.
Time worked: :39, plus unknown time spent trying to figure out how to progress in the currently stalled plot outline of Pursuit of Power. I forgot my iPod at work, so I passed the time trying to figure out what Alexander and Leahna should be up to when they show up in part four of the first novel.
Work done: All timeline. I’ve only got a few entries to make at the very end of the story, and then it’s completely mapped out on the timeline. Then I’ll have nothing left to do but figure out that blasted Pursuit of Power issue. Crap.
Time worked: :53
Work done: Timeline for the Series, finally into part 4 (the final part). If all goes well, I should be able to finish it tomorrow. Then I only have a bit more outline for Pursuit of Power left to plan before I should be able to go on to the second read-through of the novel.
A Journey of Words 