posted
I'm trying to write an outline for a novel, and my current issue is making sure that everyone's story matches up on a timeline. Does anyone know a trick for this? My current way is pencil and paper, but the problem I'm encountering is that it's hard to get too detailed before I'm making arrows and sub-timelines, etc.
Melanie
[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited September 25, 2008).]
posted
Any project management or calendar software should give you the ability to do what you need. No idea what you have access to or what's useful and free on the web...
posted
If you have a Mac you can use Omni Outliner or something. Then you can make outlines with collapsible children, so the sub timelines are neatly tucked in where they belong.
Personally, I've found pen and paper to be the best way. My current WIP has people marching everywhere, and I had to get them to a certain point by a certain time, so a time line was particularly important. I got a huge piece of paper and just had at it. I ended up doing a time line for each character, but the paper let me vizualize it in a way a computer program couldn't (Hm... I guess with Excel you could print out a graph).
posted
Paper and pencil (with plenty of erasers!) has sufficed so far. In fact, with "Metzgerhund Empire," I did the very dangerous thing of keeping track of everything in my head. However, in the works is a story with multiple relativistic timelines, and I know already that the paper method will not cut it.
Ergo, I'm working on a program that will allow me to create a separate order of events time line for as many characters as I wish, then display any or all of them simultaneously to see if everyone is where they're supposed to be at the right time. I'm also programming it to store dates and times of events important to the story, so that one look at the time line will remind me about the festival or the momentum-turning battle or the supernova for which attendance by all my primary characters is mandatory.
Ya know...if I didn't have so many story ideas, this application would have been written already.
posted
A wall and butcher block paper is also an excellent way to do this. The nice thing about it is you have LOTS of space to add in or revise. With paper, I kept having to start over so it would be understandable.
posted
Color code the characters (whether with pen, magic marker, colored pencil or whatever) and write as you go. You can organize it by colors later.
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posted
I found a spreadsheet (Excel) very useful for this. The rows are for the overall story and each character. The columns are blocks of time; its very easy to insert a new column to split up a time window into 2. And a significant event can go in a cell (square for a row-column position).
No erasing, very easy to change, can copy/paste and try another version on another worksheet.
[This message has been edited by MrsBrown (edited September 25, 2008).]
posted
I'm a big fan of excel, though I haven't used it for what you're describing.
I have also used a freeware program called Treeline before, though not heavily. I believe it helps in creating tree-structures, which a timeline can look like. Think of the way microsoft does foldering where you click the plus sign to expand a particular folder. Same concept.
I personally use the wall concept for this kind of thing (not in writing but I've done it in scenario-based software design with a lot of moving parts) but I do it with sticky notes. Butcher paper + sticky notes is the best way to go, that way you can roll it up if you need to move it or store it away. Sticky notes are good because you can rearrange, or replace one when you find you've changed it so much as to be obsolete, etc.
Once it's mostly complete or mostly figured out, then you go back through and number them so you can type them into some kind of list (word processing outline format, excel, whatever) so you have it saved for all eternity. In the meantime you can photograph it to help remind yourself and prevent data loss, since paper isn't permanent.
posted
I'd be inclined to go with a spreadsheet, though I've gotta say I haven't done much matching up of characters since I got my computer and made spreadsheeting easy. Sounds good, and, hopefully, I'll remember when I try my next try. (Usually I just "wing it.")
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