Use of Timelines and Backstory Notes

[Milo_Grigsby]

I have occasionally cringed at some my older stories where I have gotten timelines horribly wrong. I typically establish ages for my MCs and the supporting characters and in the story refer to time spans or pre-story events. More than a few times the timelines made no sense (i.e. the characters were too young for the past events to make sense). I recently started doing timelines, starting with the present day of the story, the age of the characters and then stepping back in years to make sure I don't trip on that issue. I also include brief backstory notes in those referenced previous years.

Do other authors do this or something similar?

 

[Euphony]

Yes. Scriviner has tools to make it easier. Even cross references.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Absolutely. Without my notes and character sheets, I'd be royally screwed. Hell, even WITH cheat sheets I am more than capable to get shit horribly wrong.

 

[Djmac1031]

I had to do a timeline for my Jenna series for several reasons, mainly to keep track of time passing as Jenna is a college student and the story spans several months then into summer break then back to school.

I've never actually put those dates in story, but it's helpful keeping track of how much time passes in story and between chapters.

 

[Bamagan]

I have occasionally cringed at some my older stories where I have gotten timelines horribly wrong. I typically establish ages for my MCs and the supporting characters and in the story refer to time spans or pre-story events. More than a few times the timelines made no sense (i.e. the characters were too young for the past events to make sense). I recently started doing timelines, starting with the present day of the story, the age of the characters and then stepping back in years to make sure I don't trip on that issue. I also include brief backstory notes in those referenced previous years.

Do other authors do this or something similar?

I find them very helpful for long stories/series. I sometimes sink a bookmark in chapters with important details, or else copy them to an appendix. I also tend to keep a spreadsheet with such details handy, as it can be helpful to sort traits sometimes.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Oh yeah. I wrote a 36 chapter series, Mary and Alvin, that spans about sixty years in the characters lives. Not only did I have to keep a detailed timeline, I also used a free family tree site to keep all the relationships straight.

 

[Djmac1031]

Oh, I also needed a timeline when I started The Seduction Of Darkness, because it was a prequel to another story I'd published, The Devil And Angel Em.

I had to work out how many years before, the passage of time between certain events in the story as it progressed etc.

I even went to my calander app to determine the proper dates; especially making sure that, say, if the story said it was a Friday that the date I chose was actually a Friday.

 

[RejectReality]

I need to do more of it.

I had a solid database building on my website, but then I had to update my core codebase, and all my old tools no longer function. Haven't been able to summon up the energy to rewrite it all. I'm certainly not going to do manual updates of the database.

Part of what slows me down on my fantasy work nowadays is not having easy access to all that. I have to go back and try to remember where the information I need is in the published work. As often as not, I get caught up in reading the story again and lose hours.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Once, on a story that started before a key character's birth. I had to keep track of a bunch of character ages from a decade prior to sixty or so years after. My time-keeping was probably a bit fluid, but the story was set before clocks were invented, so I wasn't pedantic.

 

[RejectReality]

A couple of ( Old. Easier to use already uploaded screenshots than make new ones ) examples of my tracking for Magic of the Wood. Tracking the various members of the family and where their ages are during the stories, and the map of the region where most of the stories take place.

 

[Milo_Grigsby]

Sweet Fancy Moses. My head just exploded with this.

 

[gunhilltrain]

A couple of ( Old. Easier to use already uploaded screenshots than make new ones ) examples of my tracking for Magic of the Wood. Tracking the various members of the family and where their ages are during the stories, and the map of the region where most of the stories take place.

That is truly an impressive amount of work.

 

[ronde]

If the story is going to encompass more than a few months, I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep dates and ages so they make sense. It includes a column for significant events in the story as well as a calculator to determine how much time would be used in traveling from place to place by various means of transportation. That's so I don't have somebody driving from NYC to LA in two days, or traveling from Tennessee to Texas on a horse in only a week.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I have occasionally cringed at some my older stories where I have gotten timelines horribly wrong. I typically establish ages for my MCs and the supporting characters and in the story refer to time spans or pre-story events. More than a few times the timelines made no sense (i.e. the characters were too young for the past events to make sense). I recently started doing timelines, starting with the present day of the story, the age of the characters and then stepping back in years to make sure I don't trip on that issue. I also include brief backstory notes in those referenced previous years.

Do other authors do this or something similar?

I did a timeline for Determination as a major plot point is the gap between the FMC getting pregnant and finding out that she is pregnant.

Em

 

[RejectReality]

That is truly an impressive amount of work.

The mapping program makes the maps easy. One of the first things I purchased once I was financially stable. Drag and drop. Fill options for larger areas. It's really sweet. You can't see it in that screenshot, but not everything is labeled. Some things like the apple orchard in the SW are visually depicted with apple trees.

As to the spreadsheet, all I have to do is drop in the birth year. The formulas fill in everything else.

The years are bogus, obviously. I just picked 1900 as an easy start number. The important thing is knowing when every kid turns 18 and how old the supporting cast are at that time their story takes place.

 

[Stimtheone]

I had to use notes only recently to keep track of what funny names this dude gave to factions, the people in the colony and how they contribute, their bots, their psy powers, and soon I might need to keep also their superpowers. At one point I wanted to track what rooms were built but that would just start stretching.

But, most of the time I kept my story straight. Maybe because by the time of the other things, small details don't matter but the big picture does.

 

[PandemicReader8]

Yes. Scriviner has tools to make it easier. Even cross references.

Love Scriviner.

 

[Bramblethorn]

For long/complex stories, I keep a short "character sheet" for each of the major characters, with things like key dates, and then each scene is tagged with when it happens.

 

[oneagainst]

I just kinda winged it. Managed to get all the storylines to intersect okay, even the unwritten ones.

On a micro-scale, just did the final proofread for OCA ch 17, which is one night in the same kink club, reconciling the action minute by minute across five stories for the story event based on what other contributing authors have shared with me. Now, just hope it all goes live on schedule on Friday.