![]() ![]() Marg Gilks is an advocate of using style sheets, which she explains in Keeping Your Story on Track with Style Sheets. Weiland’s #1 step is to control your story’s timeline – or timelines, if you have more than one. (More than one timeline? Read her post 6 Ways to Pull Off Dual Timelines in Your Novel.) Weiland suggests, among other ideas, using an old-fashioned calendar to block out events.īut her #1 step is to control your story’s timeline. In 25 Ways To Plot, Plan And Prep Your Story, Chuck Wendig has a host of non-techy plotting techniques, while K.M. (This can also be used for short stories.) If you don’t want to add yet another piece of software to your “I have to learn something else before I can keep writing my story” list, here are some other ways you can organize your novel’s timelines. His article also has some non-software ideas including corkboards and whiteboards. In How to Keep Track of All Your Novel’s Details, Jim Dempsey mentions other programs in addition to Aeon: Scrivener, StoryMill, Storyist and The Novel Factory. (If you need some help figuring out the story arc, these articles will help: Editor’s Corner: What Is Story Arc?, What is a Story Arc? – Definition & Examples and How To Create A Satisfying Story Arc: 5 Steps.) For example, I have yet to put anything in the arc field. So far I like the program, although I probably need to read the whole manual since I am sure I am not using it to its full extent. I did, however, identify the date of the flashback event-for example: “Flashback 1: 6/17/17-Mike and Maggie decide what to do with the condo.” (If I decide to shift the flashback to take place during another current event, I will have to read the manual to figure out how to do it, though.) I might at some point also put the flashbacks as separate events on the timeline, but right now it was more important to me to know when she was remembering something rather than track when the flashback event occurred. My solution (which may not be the right one but right now works for me) is to make those flashbacks “children” under the “parent” event when the character recalls events. ![]() ![]() I also wanted some way to show flashbacks but relate them to the chapter in which they were occurring. All I had to do was change the dates and anything else related to it automatically updated as well. ![]() How useful the software could be was demonstrated when, this Monday, I realized there was too much time between the inciting event (the character finds out her husband wants a divorce) and the opening of the story (she is now looking for a place to live). So I downloaded the software and entered information-events, characters, places-into the file. (Not the best way to do it, I’d like to point out, since I found myself redoing entries more often than not.) I wanted something that could global changes and keep track not only of events for the participants.īut I didn’t want something too techy, since I am one of those people who won’t read the user manual front to back but rather dip into it when I wanted to do something and had to figure out how. Previously, I had used Excel spreadsheets to organize events in my novel, but I found the results less than satisfactory, although definitely a cut above relying on a Word document or sticky notes. Why create timelines? They can help you organize key events and track story arcs. (We’ll see how well that works out!)īut back to Novel #4: when I participated in Appletree Books’ Writer in the Window event last November, I met another writer who introduced me to Aeon Timeline, software designed for creative writing, project and case management. What I am supposed to be doing is hiring a developmental editor for Novel #2, since that’s the one that a publisher was interested in seeing, after I revise it. But I had the beginnings of yet another novel poking and prodding me so I made a deal with the muse: I’d do the draft of Novel #4, and then go back to Novel #2 and get it revised. Now I would like to point out that, at last count, I already have two novels completed (I use the term loosely since they need editing) and a third that is halfway done. One of my goals for 2018 was to finish the first draft of my new novel by the end of March. ![]()
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